Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher had to battle it tight for them to both qualify for NASCAR’s 10-race playoff.
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Although six-time champion Johnson came into Darlington with back-to-back top-10 finishes, he hasn’t won since Fontana (the fifth race of the season) and had a hot-and-cold summer. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver started from pole and led 189 of the 400 laps while Truex led 193.
But Hamlin held onto the point when the race went green on Lap 405 – and held off Larson for his third win of 2016 and his 29th career cup win.
“I guess he thought he was in a sprint vehicle again and didn’t know how to control his anger”, Newman told NBC Sports, suggesting Stewart was upset about contact made between the two drivers earlier in the lap.
“I guess he thought he was in a sprint auto again”, Newman said. The contact piled up eight cars, including Dylan Lupton, who got wedged on top of Newman’s No. 31. The last driver now in a Chase-eligible position on points, McMurray enters Saturday’s race with a 22-point advantage over Ryan Newman, whose effort stalled in the second round. I was clearly inside of him getting into Turn 1, he cut across my nose, I was on the brakes, on the apron and I hit him coming off of Turn 2 but only because I got loose….
The wreckage caused a stoppage of just more than 20 minutes and sent Newman’s temperature soaring. Newman failed post-race inspection, however, and the 15 points he was penalized might have ended his hopes (unless he wins the race). Newman also said Stewart should be retired.
“Until you get to Chicago and see how the first race goes, to me, that’s the barometer of where we’re really at”, Hamlin added. Look it up on YouTube.
Stewart is also assessing his final Chase appearance before he retires at the end of the year. The rest of the night it was a mix of one vehicle incidents that brought out yellow flags, however, a big crash at lap 363 took out seven cars, including Chris Buescher and Ryan Newman. Fans can say the first 26 races don’t mean much, and that’s true to an extent, but these make up for it. “This night didn’t dictate it for him”. Chris Buescher won at Pocono, but still needs to clinch a top-30 points spot at Richmond to official lock himself into a playoff position.
The rest of the Chase field is made up of the other 12 race winners this season. Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson and Tony Stewart are all locked in. Hamlin pulled away on the restart for the final two laps of overtime that followed the last of a track-record 16 cautions. Kasey Kahne, needing a win to make the Chase, pitted for tires in a last-ditch effort for a miracle, but he didn’t have anything for Hamlin in the end. Truex led for long stretches by four to five seconds.
Lost among the crashes and war of words that permeated Saturday’s race was McDowell’s 12th-place finish.
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– KEVIN HARVICK: Although he has only two wins this year, Harvick should have been in victory lane a few more times. But Buescher regained the lead lap during a spate of late cautions and came home 24th, his path to the Chase made easier when David Ragan, his chief rival for 30th place in the Sprint Cup standings, was eliminated in a seven-car accident on Lap 363. The two made contact, sending Stewart’s No.14 spinning into the inside wall.
