From Martinsville, the series shifts to Texas Motor Speedway, and then Phoenix worldwide Raceway, where the field will be whittled to four drivers for the championship finale.
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John Hunter Nemechek was second, followed by Cameron Hayley, Cole Custer and Reddick.
You’re going to see drivers going doorâtoâdoor, and in the history of NASCAR we’ve seen that. The fans went insane, because they knew that the guy who they used to hate only had three more races left in his career.
It was, in his mind, “one of my finest moments I’ve ever had”.
“We’re going to Homestead”, beamed Gordon, whose Victory Lane celebrations were completed in near darkness after the start was delayed by rain.
Matt Kenseth had his take, too.
On lap 554, Logano was leading his 207th lap of the afternoon passed Kenseth, who had fallen several laps down after an accident with Logano’s teammate Brad Keslowski. Logano retook the lead on Lap 82, and held the lead until Lap 102 when Michael Annett spun in Turn 2, which brought out the caution.
“Matt felt like he was justified with how Joey wrecked him at Kansas and then was arrogant about it afterward”, said Dale Earnhardt Jr. A win today would be a great way to move Busch one step closer to claiming his first Sprint Cup championship. There was nowhere for the No. 41 of Kurt Busch to go and he plowed into Kenseth, causing major damage to be done to both vehicles.
But if NASCAR has in fact become a circus or devolved into the “wild, wild west”, then Kenseth acted as a clown on Sunday.
“The structure in which we have around us is not very strong as far as an authority figure saying, ‘No, you can not do that anymore, ‘” Hamlin said. Gordon said over his team radio after the win. “That’s tough to crown a true champion when things go like this”.
After Kenseth went to the garage for repairs on his auto, he returned to the track to rataliate against Logano for an incident two races earlier at Kansas Speedway.
None of the Kenseth-Logano drama, however, could mute the elation of Gordon, the first driver to clinch a spot in the Championship Round at Homestead.
Over the last dozen years NASCAR has enacted various procedural changes including double-file restarts, green-white-checkered overtime finishes and the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship format created to provide additional elements of excitement.
It’s been made perfectly clear that this is his final season at the wheel, and through 32 races he stayed competitive, but winless. Kenseth has been furious since. On a restart on lap 435, Kenseth and Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski got together.
“I thought what happened in Kansas was a completely different deal”, Logano said during the NBC Sports broadcast, alluding to what happened when he spun out Kenseth. Just a complete coward.
Alright, I can honestly say this week’s piece is going to have a lot of emotion, because quite frankly, there was a lot of it on Sunday. The leaders took the time to come down pit road, and Joey Logano won the race off pit road. On Sunday, Kenseth got his revenge by sending Logano hard into the wall on Turn 1 with 47 laps remaining. His father, Tom, had to be pushed into the team hauler by the crew chief as the crowd cheered wildly in support of Kenseth.
The race Sunday was much like eating the famous Martinsville hot dog. He also indicated that payback had to be done. You never like to be in these situations. Kenseth was denied the win that day and subsequently knocked out of champion contention.
It’s Gordon’s first win of the season and the 93rd of his career. His last title was in 2001.
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“That was clutch. That was huge. I hope it’s because we’re doing something even more special than what we did here today”. We had a disappointing end to our Chase and he’s (Joey Logano) got a couple races left.
