Brad Keselowski passes on the inside of Jamie McMurray during the NASCAR Sprint Cup auto race at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va., Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016.
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For most of the race Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were the class of the field doing battle for the lead.
Buescher, on the other hand, had to make a precautionary green-flag pit stop on Lap 308 of 407 because of a tire that was deflating and lost two laps in the process.
Hamlin closes out the Sprint Cup regular season with his third victory of the year.
Racing on his home track, Richmond International Raceway, Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Sprint Cup regular season finale. We all know he’s got issues. “I can’t believe how many cautions we had. Hopefully we can use it in the Chase”. “You have to do what’s best for your team, worry about the consequences when all the dust settles”, he said.
“It’s a great team effort for us”.
“Certainly telephone calls, but you can bet on the fact that, any incident like that, we’ll sit each driver down prior to going on the racetrack”, he said. The rest of the night it was a mix of one vehicle incidents that brought out yellow flags, however, a big crash at lap 363 took out seven cars, including Chris Buescher and Ryan Newman. This two rookies both secured a spot in the Chase field. He would have needed Buescher to fall out of the top-30 in points in order for him to him to make it on points, or somehow manage to pull off a win to get in.
Going into Richmond, Jamie McMurray had a sizable 22-point cushion on Ryan Newman for the last spot into the Chase on points. Elliott restarted 24th and despite multiple speeding penalties salvaged a 19th-place finish – to qualify for his first Chase. He landed just inside the top 20, finishing in 19th. That will leave 4 drivers to compete for the championship trophy at Miami.
McMurray’s night was a little more stressful. The #3 Dow Chevrolet will be in the running for NASCAR’s ultimate goal next week. He went on to say that maybe with Stewart retired next year, Newman will “get his spot in the Chase that way” before saying that he expects Newman to win a title before it’s “all said and done”.
McMurray was unable to make the second round previous year, his first time in the Chase.
“It’s unfortunate, ” Newman said of Stewart.
In an interview after the race, Newman, whose chances of making the chase were spoiled, went off on Stewart, calling him “bipolar” and saying Stewart has “anger issues”. I guess he thought he was in a sprint vehicle again and couldn’t control his anger.
“I think any one of these guys can get going”, Hamlin said.
And honestly, you should probably expect to see the same thing over the next three months. Also, Look it up on YouTube, everything else.
He had gotten into the top 10 though before tangling with Tony Stewart. Stewart had time to mellowed out before adding his two cents about the accident with 37 circuits to go.
“I remember when he has had a lot of stuff on the line and he gets the give and take, but he has never been really one to give back much”, Newman said.
A record 16 caution flags slowed the race for 89 laps, the last of which sent the race into overtime.
Kyle Larson will start on the outside of the front row.
Sophomore sensation Kyle Larson pushed hard in the final laps to earn second place.
FEDERATED AUTO PARTS 400Site: Richmond, Virginia.
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The odds are once again stacked for Joe Gibbs Racing, the team with all four of its drivers in NASCAR’s playoffs. Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson and Tony Stewart are all locked in.
