At last, frustration ends for Kenseth
After 51 races without a victory, he breaks through in the rain
BRISTOL, TENN. — After four rain delays and 11 extra laps, Matt Kenseth finally drove to victory lane.
It took him nine hours to get there Sunday in the Food City 500 at a waterlogged Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kenseth ended a 51-race losing streak by holding off Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson on one final restart in NASCAR’s determined effort to stage a complete race.
The start was delayed nearly 90 minutes because of rain, and the race was stopped three more times, once for almost four hours.
The final stoppage came when the race already had surpassed the scheduled 500 laps. A quick rain shower stalled NASCAR’s attempt to race to the checkered flag after an accident with eight laps left, so NASCAR parked the cars on pit road and sent out its dryers to try to give it one more shot.
It was a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish, and Kenseth, the pole-sitter, got a terrific jump on the restart. Hewasn’tchallenged, in part because Gordon had a poor restart.
Johnson slid past Gordon to take second place, and Gordon finished third.
The race had a series of hiccups unrelated to the rain stoppages:
TV: Austin Dillon ran out of gas while running third because of the lengthy final caution, Denny Hamlin didn’t get back into his car after the first rain break because of a kink in his neck, and the two Team Penske drivers wrecked each other just 20 laps after the start.
Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch were in contention until they crashed after a restart eight laps from the scheduled finish, and Busch put together his strong run with an interim crew chief because Tony Gibson couldn’t leave his motor home because of pain from a kidney stone.
Kyle Larson, while leading, had a miscue with a pair of cars a lap down, and the chaos it created sent Landon Cassill hard into the wall.
Hamlin, meanwhile, said he felt something strain in his neck 12 laps into the race. The race was stopped for rain on Lap 22, and Hamlin went to his motor home to see whether he could get his neck to feel better. Instead, it stiffened, and he was hardly able to turn his head when NASCAR summoned drivers back to their cars.
“I can’t move my head or neck like I need to, and I’m not doing this team any justice if I go out there like this,” Hamlin told the Associated Press from the garage. “I have no idea what happened. I think it’s just a pull, something where you jerk your head around and you feel a pain.”
Because Hamlin won last month at Martinsville, he already has earned a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. He didn’t see the point in returning if he wasn’t going to be competitive.
Joe Gibbs Racing turned to 18-year-old Erik Jones to replace Hamlin.
“We’ve got a win, so go let this kid get some laps,” Jones said.
Jones had no Sprint Cup experience but was coming off his first Xfinity Series victory last week.
When the race resumed after a rain delay of 3 hours, 58 minutes, Jones got a few dozen laps before a competition caution gave him a chance to catch his breath.
Before the rain delay, Brad Keselowski wrecked teammate Joey Logano, and both Team Penske cars suffered significant damage.
Although it was damp and cold when the race began, there weren’t any problems until the 20th lap, when Keselowski spun trying to get around a lapped car. He spun directly into Logano, and both cars were heavily damaged.