After the race, Sprint Cup Series director Richard Buck defended his safety crew, and believes the track surface was race-ready when they dropped the green flag.
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After the October 25 race at Talladega, the Chase field will be cut from 12 drivers to eight. Only a victory guarantees a driver will advance to the next round.
Harvick has trash-talked Logano at times and the two have clashed in the past, but the Team Penske driver isn’t engaging these days, nor is his vehicle owner.
With those two drivers in particular, they have tracks coming up where they should be favorites to win. That pressure showed at Charlotte, the home track for the bulk of the Sprint Cup participants.
Where: Kansas Speedway, a 1.5-mile asphalt oval in Kansas City, Kan. With cars impounded by NASCAR overnight, teams had to scramble to adapt their chassis to warmer, sunny weather during the afternoon event. He tried to continue on with damage to his Chevrolet, but a tire problem sent him into the wall again and to pit road for repairs on Lap 85.
Matt Kenseth started from the pole and led 72 laps, but couldn’t figure out how to avoid Ryan Newman and ended up 42nd. Busch has never won at Kansas. The series of mishaps concluded with Earnhardt Jr. But when he later slid through oil on the track in the high groove – undetected by NASCAR – he hit the wall harder than at any other point in the race. Same with Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was one of three Hendrick Motorsports drivers to have a rough day.
“I felt like he blocked me real hard the first time and so the second time I got up there when he came down I just held my ground and we got together”, said Edwards. It’s unbelievable I have a job. “I think we’ve got an excellent record of that”.
“It ain’t over”, Earnhardt said after his 28th-place finish at Charlotte.
Rules to enter the race are on the speedway’s website. “They don’t deserve to be put in these situations year in, year out, but we are for a few reason”, Busch said.
“We looked everywhere, including putting people on the ground and walking the area where they said the oil was and there was no oil”, Buck said.
Through it all, he’s improved his mental approach to races in addition to the on-track performance.
Following their Sunday misfortune, both Busch and Earnhardt are in danger of elimination in the Chase for the Championship.
Until, that is, he hit the wall while trying to save his race. After starting 31st, Larson got up racing for second before being involved in a pit road wreck. At the last second, Chris Heroy told Larson to pit even through the driver was almost past the commitment cone.
I wrote a long time ago, when NASCAR was playing with spoiler heights and air dam kick-outs, that passing took an act of God and two acts of Congress. It appears at Charlotte that God was watching football and Congress was, well, who knows what Congress was doing. However, I am really excited about going to Kansas next week. He didn’t lose ground due to his contact with Kenseth in Turn 1.
In the meantime, the race seemed to just belong to victor Joey Logano following a rain delay. But a third-place finish at Charlotte finished off a four-race stretch during which he also finished 11th, eighth and 13th.
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While other Chase teams are feeling pressure, Truex says that’s not the case for Furniture Row. I know what oil and Speedi Dri is. “That’s probably what it boils down to. There was just so much on the line”.
