Toyota has won six of the season’s first 11 races, with drivers having led 2,148 laps.
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A mechanical issue late in the race crippled a commanding performance by Truex Jr., who led a race high of 172 laps in Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway. Truex finished in 14th position, while Kevin harvick took home second. Charlotte Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway are the only venues where Busch remains winless. “That’s the bright side”, said Kenseth, who was alongside Busch on the final restart with 19 laps to go. “We’re just all racing for wins and that was everybody’s shot to win the race”. (Crew chief) Adam Stevens and the guys just keep working on it. The 78 (Truex) was probably the fastest vehicle, but we kept ourselves in the game.
The reigning Sprint Cup Series champion is now the unquestioned top driver of four very good drivers at Joe Gibbs Racing, and as 2016 has proven to be an unbelievable season for JGR already, it seems one of the best drivers in the series has finally overcome his previous temper and consistency issues to become easily the best driver in the best auto in the series. “I had trouble in traffic all night long”.
If he’s not the favorite, there’s a good chance one of his teammates will be. “Then I remembered I had tomorrow off”. Harvick. “Thought we had a good run today”.
“Hit a big piece of debris and knocked a big hunk out of the nose and knocked the splitter down”, Harvick said.
NASCAR icon Tony Stewart also led late in the race, but a caution brought the field back together and Busch was able to get out front for the victory.
Clearly, he and his Furniture Row Racing are running well this year – and challenging the frontrunners on a regular basis – though he only has one top-five finish to show for it.
On the outside of victory lane are Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman. “I went around (turns) one and two, and I was like, ‘The wheel’s loose.’ I kept telling myself that maybe it’s not, maybe it’s just shaking because it has tape on it or something stupid”. “I knew we had some laps on our tires but I knew we could hold them off”. “Frustrating, but that’s how it goes”. “We win as a team and lose as a team”. It’s frustrating when you’ve had it happen so many times in your career.
“I swear, you watch guys win races that don’t have the best vehicle and on fuel mileage and all this stuff and it’s like, ‘Damn.’ Well someday I’m going to get on that side of one of them”.
“There’s certainly been some tough roads along the way at Kansas, but it’s nice to win this one”, Busch said. “It’s part of racing”.
That was just about the only lament Gibbs had Saturday night.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 141.909 miles per hour. Margin of Victory: 1.112 Seconds. On the restart following the lap 56 caution, he moved into the top five.
Lead Changes: 16 among 10 drivers.
Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin got sideways going through a corner, and that forced Kyle Larson into the wall.
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Kenseth started second and led for three of the 267 laps.
