Pagenaud, the series points leader, qualified with a two-lap time of 185.886 miles per hour and gave Team Penske its 500th pole across all forms of motorsports.
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It was his third win at Kentucky in six races at the track, making him Kentucky’s winningest driver at the Cup level, and his fourth win of the season, moving him past Kyle Busch as the season’s winningest driver after 17 races. Throw in a lower downforce aerodynamic rules package and Sprint Cup Series drivers and crew chiefs no doubt had many sleepless nights the last few days. It was a race Erik Jones lost when he hit the wrong switch on his dashboard, killed the engine and slowed under caution late in the race. Jones came home a disappointing fourth after outdueling Busch for the lead on Lap 175, only to give it up when his vehicle wouldn’t refire under caution and failed to keep up with the pace auto, costing Jones two positions. Truex has one win this year as well. For a while the question was whether anybody would get close to Busch, who led six times.
Busch started first after qualifying with a fast lap of 187.318 miles per hour. So instead of restarting in second place, Jones dropped back to third while Busch inherited the lead.
“I fell back 20 feet from the pace vehicle, no different from than when they reset the field and they put me in third place”.
Jones’ No. 20 auto then appeared to stall during the caution, creating the penalty and a turn of events that handed the lead to Busch for good.
Brad Keselowski, in extreme fuel conservation mode, seemingly coasted to the win in the Quaker State 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night.
Severe weather moved over the track near midday and shortened practice to around 30 minutes. He needed to have his vehicle pushed by a tow truck in order to complete his victory lap around the track.
Kevin Harvick will start on the pole for the first time at Kentucky after rain cancelled Friday’s qualifying and set the field on owner points.
“Hopefully, being able to get some more practice will be beneficial”, Harvick said. “(Keselowski) did a really good job.
IndyCar: Simon Pagenaud will start on the pole for the fifth time this season at Sunday’s IndyCar series race at Iowa Speedway in Newton.
In all, there were 11 cautions – matching a track high – in the 267-lap race. This weekend could be another Joe Gibbs Racing/Team Penske showdown and you can expect Keselowski to be right in the middle of it. (Toyota); rookie Chase Elliott (Chevy); Jimmie Johnson (Chevy) and Denny Hamlin (Toyota).
Harvick thinks his steady results will translate into victories.
Said Busch: “That last restart, I heard three-wide for a second, and I was like, I don’t know how we’re all going to get through here”. We had a shot at it, we just weren’t able to do it.
AJ Allmendinger will require precautionary x-rays after hitting the wall on lap 172, the JTG Daugherty driver having rejoined the race following extensive repairs after being caught up in the night’s biggest crash – a seven-car pile-up – 83 laps earlier.
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Edwards finished second, followed by Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch.
