Kenseth’s drought ends at Bristol
After four rain delays and 11 extra laps, Matt Kenseth finally drove to Victory Lane. It took him nine hours to get there Sunday at waterlogged Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kenseth snapped a 51race losing streak by holding off Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson on one final restart in NASCAR’s determined effort to stage a complete race at Bristol, Tenn.
Kenseth, who won seven races in his 2013 debut season with Joe Gibbs Racing, was winless all last year.
“It feels good to be back here. Not winning for as long as we did, it wears on you a little bit,” Kenseth said. “. . . We just couldn’t get it to happen. [Bristol] was kind of the opposite; everything worked out.”
The start was delayed nearly 90 minutes because of rain and the race was stopped three times, one delay lasting nearly four hours.
The final stoppage came when the race had already surpassed the scheduled 500 laps, but a quick rain shower had stalled NASCAR’s attempt to race to the checkered flag following an accident with eight laps remaining. So, NASCAR parked the cars on pit road and sent out its dryers to quickly try to give it one more shot.
Kenseth, the leader, was fine with NASCAR’s decision because he was confident in his Toyota.
“At least 90% of the time or more, I’d be all about, ‘Man, call that thing,’ because anything can go wrong,” he said. “But I felt like unless I really, really messed it up . . . our car was good enough to hold on for two laps.”
Hamilton wins
Lewis Hamilton won his second straight Bahrain Grand Prix to increase his overall lead in the Formula One standings with his third win in four races this season and 36th of his career.
The British driver started from the pole for the first time in the desert race under floodlights in Sakhir, Bahrain, and was largely untroubled, finishing ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, the only driver to beat Hamilton this year, needed a late front wing change and the four-time F1 champion placed fifth behind Valtteri Bottas.