The Chase for the Sprint Cup ends next Sunday at Homestead with the Ford EcoBoost 400.
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But that’s exactly what happened Sunday.
“There’s only one lap I want to lead, and that’s the last one”, he said.
The only question now is, who’s it going to be? “I guess it wasn’t in the cards tonight. I went back to the hotel and woke up the next morning and it was still raining”.
According to NASCAR rules, a second-place vehicle is not allowed to beat the first-place auto to the start-finish line at the start of the race.
The group with the most momentum is Hendrick Motorsports, which has won three consecutive races with three drivers – Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Earnhardt. He had not won since Daytona back in July. Instead of having 93 more miles to determine their title fates, they were left standing underneath umbrellas as NASCAR called the race 20 minutes before midnight on the east coast. Maybe the frustration is that it didn’t. “I think the reason why we won this race is because of the way we qualified to give ourselves a position to be up front all night”. Drivers again claimed Harvick wasn’t on the up-and-up, but NASCAR found no proof that Harvick deliberately caused a crash to protect his position.
Earnhardt’s victory – his third of the season – meant 2014 champion Harvick, Busch and Truex advanced on points. Brad Keselowski and Jones finished second and third, respectively.
“I don’t think it matters what’s fair”, said Brad Keselowski, who was one of four drivers eliminated after Sunday’s race wasn’t restarted.
“Hey, you win a few and you lose a few”, Harvick said. “It’s hard to play in the race with rain in the area”. He has three wins this year. But the green flag never waved and Logano will have to wait another year before he can repeat last season’s first appearance in the Final Four at Homestead.
Throughout the weekend, the two Chevys battled for the top of the speed chart – but only Busch had skin in the Chase game.
“That wasn’t a penalty”, Busch said. They’ve gotten three wins, 22 top-five and 27 top-10 finishes in the 35 races this season.
Carl Edwards is the odd man out after Sunday’s race here was a pain for him and a handful of other drivers scrambling for a berth in the Chase finale. “Run fifth – that would be just fine”.
Busch is also in the mix for the title.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the race when NASCAR pulled the plug after a frustrating day of trying to get a pivotal Chase for the Sprint Cup championship elimination round completed.
It would have been more stirring had he led more than one lap at speed.
Jones, meanwhile, also incurred damage to his Toyota when defending series champion Crafton’s truck got loose and slid up the track and forced the challenger into the outside wall. But he still climbed to seventh and might have been able to challenge teammate Harvick for the win.
His crew chief Darian Grubb was equally frustrated. There’s no doubt in my mind we’re still the strongest team on the race track.
Harvick led 143 laps.
In the final race of the second round, at Talladega, the engine in Harvick’s No. 4 Chevy was failing, but he protected himself during a late restart by basically getting in the way of the cars behind him and causing an accident.
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Jeff Gordon raised the question regarding the start of the race in the drivers meeting. A 15th-place finish for Jones in Florida will clinch his first Truck series championship.
