Busch finished fourth in the opener of NASCAR’s three-week Southwest swing, falling a few laps shy of completing a weekend sweep.
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Brennan Poole had a strong showing at Las Vegas, finishing as the last vehicle on the lead lap in 11th for Chip Ganassi.
“I went into turn 1 and I wasn’t really hardly turning yet, and just spun out before I had any idea what happened”, said Kenseth” .
One such incident would lead to a restart that defined how the race would end: With a vehicle that had already proven to be quicker on short runs, Kyle Busch took advantage of his opportunity on a restart to dive three wide into a corner and take the race’s lead, something he would hold despite an incident further back in the pack forcing another restart immediately afterward. But then it started to take off with about 25 to go. This is such a good feeling to be back in victory lane. “We had the opportunity to win the race”. Ten laps later, the pitting cycled though and Johnson had maintained his lead over Logano and third place Kevin Harvick, whom he led by 2 and 3 seconds respectively.
The checkered flag waved, and Keselowski drove his No. 2 Ford Fusion across the finish line in first.
“I like the love, the camaraderie, just the overall family-and-friend aspect”, Kurt Busch said. And there at the end, I was trying to give it everything I had, but it would just not turn.
“Overall a good day”, said Blaney. Sure, a driver will enjoy seeing a teammate win on Sunday but then wonder the rest of the week why he continues to leave the track without a trophy, the confetti and the stench of alcohol from the celebration.
WILD AND WINDY: The race was delayed by 24 minutes due to some rain that blew through the area. The winds of up to 40 miles per hour knocked down pit signs, sent trash flying all over the track and caused static on the team radio communications.
“I’m not going to change the plan because I got hurt, ” Stewart said. “The pressure we put on ourselves because we know if Joey is winning races, we should be winning races”.
“It seemed like there were plenty of challenges, whether it was pit road or the weather or cautions”. While most of the competitors on the lead lap elected to take two tires, Keselowski and Logano opted for four.
It isn’t easy for anyone to so thoroughly destroy the competition as the hometown hero did, but the overwhelming strength of the No 18 team led to a forgettable race for everyone not named Kyle Busch. Not long after the restart where the Team Penske guys stayed out, Matt Kenseth got loose in front of a pack of cars. Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch also were involved in the wreck.
Logano said he wanted to win badly, as all good racers do. “The second impact was pretty good too, but I’m here, I’m talking to you, I’m all good”. I had so much going on this morning, but I did not want to miss this race for anything.
Kyle Busch also has great numbers at this track. Yet again, the race saw more passing during times when that wouldn’t have been the case in 2015.
Margin of Victory: 0.675 seconds.
The second caution of the race came out on Lap 98 for debris on the front stretch. He was passed for the lead by Brad Keselowski with six laps remaining and was nipped by Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson on the final lap.
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Wins: D.Hamlin, 1; J.Johnson, 1; B.Keselowski, 1. K.Harvick, 109; 4. J.Logano, 104; 5.
