The final race of NASCAR’s regular season ended with no changes among those chasing the final 16 berths in the Chase.
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Competing NASCAR Sprint Cup teams were allowed 10 sets of Goodyears before the race got underway.
Kyle Larson will start on the outside of the front row, with Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray in the second row, followed by Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr.in the third.
The race finalized the field for the Chase, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ 10-race playoff that begins at Chicagoland Sept. 18.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) It was yet another Denny Hamlin runaway for Joe Gibbs Racing on Saturday night in what turned out to be an anticlimactic end to NASCAR’s regular season.
The fireworks, though, came off the track at Richmond International Raceway, where Ryan Newman angrily chided former boss Tony Stewart after an accident between the two officially ended Newman’s chances to make the playoffs. Edwards might have scored a third victory in his JGR Toyota had he been more aggressive in Phoenix on the last lap, but then manned up by banging Busch out of the way to win at Richmond. In fact, he all but outright mentioned the 2014 incident in which Stewart fatally struck a sprint auto driver.
“I guess he thought he was in a sprint auto again, didn’t know how to control his anger”, Newman said.
“[We’re] very lucky our tire cut down when it did, was able to get up against the wall and kind of get slowed down before I had a big hit”, Elliott said. “That was the third time he’d driven into me during the night, and how many times does a guy get a free pass until you’ve had enough of it?”
The wreckage caused a stoppage of just more than 20 minutes and sent Newman’s temperature soaring.
Newman entered the race 22 points outside the final position on points after a 15-point penalty levied Wednesday for a failed post-race laser inspection at Darlington Raceway. When Newman was wrecked by Tony Stewart on Lap 364, that might have opened things up for McMurray, who ran near the front for much of the race. Just disappointing that you’ve got somebody old like that that retired (should be retired) the way he drives. “Hopefully now we’ll go on another Chase run”.
And honestly, you should probably expect to see the same thing over the next three months. Look it up on YouTube, everything else.
Stewart is also assessing his final Chase appearance before he retires at the end of the year.
Not surprisingly, Stewart and Newman had a different take on the incident.
“Absolutely, it’s going to continue”, 2012 champion Brad Keselowski said.
“This night didn’t dictate it for him”. Like Keselowski the year before, he too won six races, including three straight in the Chase.
He finished 12.8 seconds behind the race victor. 52-85; M. Kenseth 86; Kurt Busch 87; D. Hamlin 88-100; M. Truex Jr.
After no victories in the first three rounds a year ago, Busch dominated at Homestead to win the title. Hamlin, a native Virginian, won for the third time on what he considers his home track.
Hamlin led the first 50 laps, before Truex moved to the point and led 134 laps by the halfway (200-lap) mark. He has career highs in every category but laps led, and a top-10 finish Saturday would secure his berth without help from any other drivers. He was baffled because he thought he was clear of Bayne, but figured Bayne thought otherwise and neither driver would yield.
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“I’ve always liked Richmond”, said Kahne. “We didn’t even give ourselves a shot at it, that is something I will have regret about”. “All I care about now is getting ready for (the first Chase race in) Chicago and running through Sunday in Chicago”.
