Chase field set after dominating Kenseth win at Richmond
RICHMOND, Va.— The lower end of the Chase standings was in some flux as the Federated Auto Parts 400 in Richmond began, but as Matt Kenseth demonstrated, there’s not much doubt who’s at the top.
Kenseth turned in another dominating performance, his fourth win of the season, to close out the regular season on the highest possible note for Joe Gibbs Racing. For a portion of the race, JGR cars were running 1-2-3-4, and Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Carl Edwards constitute the class of the field at the moment.
“I saw some beating and banging,” Gibbs said, referencing some paint-trading between Edwards and Kenseth. “I saw a hand come out the window [it was Edwards’] and I wasn’t sure what it was showing. I got a little nervous …. they handled it the right way. It was a thrill seeing ourselves up there.”
The Chase takes 16 drivers, and 11 have already won races this year. Five Chase spots were therefore technically open as the race began, though Jamie McMurray locked up one of those the moment the green flag flew. This was McMurray’s first time in the Chase and only the second Chase berth for a Ganassi driver, following Juan Pablo Montoya in 2009.
Ryan Newman, Paul Menard, Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer entered the race holding the four final spots. And while all four worked their way into the final Chase lineup, Menard made it interesting by dropping deep into the pack even as Aric Almirola put on one of his finest runs of the season. Had Almirola won the race, Menard would have fallen out, but no one was catching Kenseth.
A caution with 25 laps remaining threw the field into doubt, halting Kenseth’s phenomenal run and giving Almirola at least a sliver of hope. Kenseth came very, very, VERY close to jumping the restart, but honestly he could have started out in the parking lot and he would have come back to win this one. Kenseth led 352 of the 400 laps; no one else led more than 25. He now has four wins, tied with Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson for most heading into the Chase.
The Chase drivers spent the minutes after the race concluded posing onstage and answering brief questions about the Chase and their plans for it.
“We haven’t run like we should over the summer months, so that’s why we’re not in the conversation,” Johnson said. “But we’ve been here before. Final 10 races are good for us, good tracks. I think in some scenarios this championship battle is a bit more forgiving. If we were consistent through the first nine, be a chance to be in the final four, we have 10 more weeks to get our stuff straightened out and find the speed we need.”
Brad Keselowski agreed. “We learned last year that Top 10s all the way through [the Chase] can carry you all the way to Homestead,” he said. “So the rule is, don’t screw up. Be smooth.”
At the far end of the standings, there’s Clint Bowyer, winding down his run with Michael Waltrip Racing with one last Chase berth. His ragged summer done, Bowyer now heads into the Chase with, if not momentum, at least a place at the table: “A big monumental thing for an organization to go through what we’re going through [with MWR winding down] and to push through and get into the Chase, this is the best of the best, the elite of all of motorsports,” Bowyer said. “It actually is easier coming into it the way we are right now because the pressure’s off. We go in there. We’re pushing ahead and go for broke every single weekend.”
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION (Harper, February 2016). Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter.
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