For his win, it was noted that Gordon should be thankful to fellow racer Matt Kenseth, who “intentionally wrecked” Joey Logano’s vehicle as a means of revenge for a previous matchup. We can expect to see more than the usual fireworks Sunday, as the remaining eight Chase drivers try to secure a place in the season finale at Homestead by posting a win. Gordon exclaimed in Victory Lane before jokingly adding “It was a joke, I’m coming back next year”.
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“This has turned into a fairy tale year”. Which is fine. He spun Kenseth, and that spin conceivably cost Kenseth a berth in the NASCAR Chase, assuming Kenseth could have successfully blocked Logano and everyone else and taken the victory.
A. I think what we’ve said is the Chase promotes great racing. Here, he was a complete coward…. I was just super emotional about it. Then we went to work. It’s a chicken-you-know-what move to completely take out the leader when your race is over….
“I screwed us up early in the race and touched that water down there in Turn 1 and spun out with the 3 auto (Austin Dillon), so that was my bad”, Busch said.
But there’s no better track for him to spark a run toward a fifth championship.
Certainly, no Christmas cards will be exchanged between the Penske and Gibbs teams this year. But whereas the Kansas incident was the result of both drivers’ racing hard, the wreck at Martinsville was clearly retribution. Gordon previously announced the 2015 racing season will be his last as a full-time driver and that he will become a broadcaster for Fox next season. Rosberg is now second in the driver standings ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
I don’t care that this was a Chase race or that whatever happens at Martinsville may have dire consequences down the road. The ending came down to a green-white-checkered finish and Gordon was able to hold off Jamie McMurray and Denny Hamlin for the victory.
Still a good finish for Hayley. You can’t just roll over and be done with it and say, ‘Well, we tried our best.’ Because you didn’t. “I bent up the front end of the vehicle and it was just never right from there on out, but we persevered and we just made the changes that we needed to make for this auto for our conditions that we had”.
“They had this truck good from the beginning”. Where do you think Brain France got the idea to prohibit racing back to the flag when caution flies or that races should not end under yellow? “We stuck with it, the guys did a good job making adjustments and we got quicker each round”.
Formula One: Nico Rosberg won the first Mexican Grand Prix since 1992 for his fourth victory this season, denying Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in his bid to tie the Formula One record of 13 victories in a season.
“It’s practice and not racing, and it’s a big difference”, he said. This after Honda boss Yasuhisa Arai said he is still in talks to get such a deal done with Red Bull.
“I really thought we were going to have a shot for the win before they got me the first time”, said Kenseth, who was knocked out of the Chase in the second round while leading the race in Kansas City when Logano hit him in the rear bumper, the second victory in Logano’s streak.
They were followed by Paul Menard and Dale Earnhardt Jr., both already been eliminated from the Chase.
Lewis Hamilton finished second behind his Mercedes teammate with Valtteri Bottas third for Williams/Mercedes.
With around forty laps to go, the race for the win was now among the survivalists, one of those being 8-time Martinsville victor Jeff Gordon.
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Hayley was third with Cole Custer fourth in the No. 00 Chevrolet and Tyler Reddick fifth in the No. 19 Ford.
