Kenseth dominates Michigan
BROOKLYN, Mich. — Matt Kenseth had little to say about how NASCAR’s rules package affected his race at Michigan International Speedway.
“I didn’t see much of the race, which was totally fine with me,” he said. “We were up front the whole time.”
Kenseth started in the lead, stayed there for most of the race and finished with his third Sprint Cup victory of the season Sunday, beating Kevin Harvick by 1.7 seconds.
It was the second race under NASCAR’s high-drag aerodynamic package, which was also in place at Indianapolis last month in an effort to improve passing. At Michigan, Kenseth won while leading 146 of 200 laps — so whatever excitement there was occurred further back in the pack.
“Cars could really, at the end of the straightaway, gain on others, two or three car lengths,” said Jason Ratcliff, Kenseth’s crew chief. “But they just couldn’t do much once they got there, and they got down in the corner. They were kind of helpless. On the restarts, it got exciting. ... I’d say eighth place back, it was fun to watch.”
Kenseth led for 73 percent of the laps Sunday, the highest percentage by anyone in a Cup race this year. He’d led for only 147 laps all season before dominating this 400-mile race in his No. 20 Toyota.
It was his 34th career victory, and Joe Gibbs Racing has won five of the last six Cup races — two by Kenseth and three by Kyle Busch.
JGR came into the race with the top three qualifiers in Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. Hamlin finished fifth and Edwards sixth.
Martin Truex Jr. finished behind Harvick in third. Austin Dillon, who was sent to the back at the beginning of the race because of an engine change, managed a fourth- place showing, and Kyle Busch took another step toward wrapping up a spot in the Chase with an 11th-place run in his backup car.
Busch came into the race in 30th place, needing to avoid major mistakes because although he has four wins in 2015, a top-30 ranking is required for entry into the Chase. Busch wrecked his car in practice Saturday and had to start the race from the back, but he had a solid, uneventful day, even leading for a couple stretches.
He’s now 29th in the standings, 23 points ahead of 31stplace Cole Whitt.
“It was a success,” Busch said. “It wasn’t what we wanted. We had a really, really fast car yesterday, but I screwed up and wrecked that car. It was a winning car, maybe not the winning car. But congratulations to our teammate Matt Kenseth and the ‘20’ bunch. It’s really good times for Joe Gibbs Racing right now.”