He’s managed only two top-five finishes all season, the last of which coming in the April 26 race at Richmond. As was said with his teammate Harvick, Busch is given dominant equipment week in and week out.
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As 16 teams begin playoff plans, let’s look at victor and losers from the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond worldwide Raceway.
In the latter case, however, a catastrophic mechanical failure or an early wreck could knock the four-time champion out of the Chase in his final season as a full-time driver. Jamie McMurray clinched his berth as soon as he took the green flag, but Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer all had to protect their positions.
Busch held on the finish second, followed by Brian Scott, Joey Logano and Erik Jones. Sorry, Junior Nation. Dale Earnhardt Jr.is a pretender. He has done so 11 of the 12 times since the Chase format was introduced, and for a driver with 92 Cup wins and four Cup titles, he knows what it would have been like to be on the outside looking in. He was the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year in 2003.
“Certainly, right now as a company we’re on a roll”, said Kenseth. “Thanks Jason (crew chief Ratcliff) and all these guys standing behind me”. The pit stops were really good. We weren’t clicking, didn’t really have a person in the other vehicle that was keeping things consistent. “But nobody’s going to work harder than this 24 team”. I’ll go with Tony Stewart because I would like to see him in the Chase. “We have run three different packages, and JGR has been able run pretty good with any of them”. Kenseth battled Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and the rest for the win at Richmond. He quickly dropped back into fourth, however, and did not challenge at the front.
Kenseth has won three of the last six races, and JGR has won eight of the last 11.
Busch and Edwards started in the top 10 along with Kenseth, but Hamlin – racing with an injured right knee – started 25th.
The team owner could barely stand to watch.
“The most nervous I got tonight was in seeing my four cars running together”. “I saw them up there”. I saw some beating and banging there. We’ve obviously won some big races, but we need to do a little better job of that. But McMurray, who was 28th in Friday’s final practice, had the No. 1 Chevrolet as high as fifth place just after the midway point of the race. “She’s been good to me”, Bowyer said.
Almirola posted his best finish of the year, but it wasn’t enough.
“I’m very proud of having a shot at being a part of (the Chase) and looking forward to the races after that”, he said. “We were really superb in the long run”. At the end of the day, weve done all we can do..
The organization returned to the track with a vengeance on Saturday night. “It means a lot to do it in my final year and know 11 out of 12 Chases, we’ve made it”.
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As Matt Kenseth crossed the start/finish line at Richmond under the lights on Saturday night, the grid of 16 drivers who’ll compete for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship was set.
