Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
http://www.racingone.com/article.aspx?artnum=30635
Complete Results
Ryan Newman was the best at the beginning, Kasey Kahne in the middle, and Kevin Harvick towards the end, but Matt Kenseth was ahead when it counted - leading the final 17 laps en route to winning the record matching Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kenseth captured his 19th career NASCAR Busch Series victory with a bold but clean pass that offered a stark contrast to the rest of the race – which had a record-matching 14 caution periods and one red flag displayed.
The build-up to the late race excitement by Kenseth was actually a result of a penalty he was accessed after being caught speeding off pit road on lap 95 of the 250 lap event. Nonetheless, he climbed through the field and was in position to battle Kevin Harvick for the lead during the last 25 laps of the race.
Harvick stayed ahead until Kenseth passed him using a daring move on the outside of Turn 4 to take over the lead with 17 laps remaining at the .533-mile speedway.
"Well, I was trying the high side a little bit on the restarts just to see what kind of grip was up there, but I dying to get high to get a run underneath (Harvick)," said Kenseth. "Kevin is so good here that he knew that was coming, so he did a really good job of holding down the middle and protecting the bottom. I just figured I'd give it a try. Nobody was behind me and I didn't have much to lose, so I figured I'd go for it."
Even Harvick was impressed by the gutsy move.
"It was just good, hard Bristol racing," said the driver of the No. 21 U.S. Coast Guard Chevrolet.
Following the pass, the driver of the No. 17 Ameriquest Ford remained out front to win his first Busch race this season in 13 starts – and first Busch win at BMS since the spring 2001 event.
"It's been a while. We've had some great cars here and just could never get it done for some reason, me being clumsy or whatever was going on. But, it was a great race tonight," said Kenseth, who picked up his third Busch Series victory at Bristol. "It was a really exciting race for the lead. I knew it was going to be exciting and I figured I'd get Kevin. We had way better tires and he wasn't going to make it easy, so I decided to try the outside and he didn't give me any room, but it was a heck of a battle."
Harvick finished second with Ron Hornaday Jr., Kasey Kahne and Jason Leffler rounding out the top five finishers.
Polesitter Ryan Newman was the class of the field in the first half of the event, leading the first 95 laps until a number of incidents dropped him down the finishing order.
First, his right front wheel broke on the No. 39 Alltel Dodge which led to a longer than expected stop on pit road. Once in the middle of the pack, Newman ran into the back of Denny Hamlin’s car. Despite all of these issues, Newman finished just shy of a top-five result.
Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, David Reutimann and Paul Menard completed the top 10.
Outside of the finishing order, the story of the night was the multiple caution periods. Drivers got loose on their own and hit the wall, got helped into the wall, and some were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
One of these incidents, caution number 11 on the night, led to a red flag being shown after a multi-car accident took place involving Tim Sauter, Aric Almirola, Burney Lamar, Jamie McMurray and Shane Huffman with just 37 laps remaining.
The stop in the event came about as emergency workers had to help Tim Sauter from his heavily damaged vehicle.
After receiving attention out of the race car, Sauter walked away from the vehicle under his own power, visited the infield care center and then was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.
In total, the red flag was on display for just over 10 minutes.
With tonight’s result, Harvick extended his lead in the Busch Series championship to 519 points over second place Carl Edwards. Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and J.J. Yeley round out the top five in the standings.
The Busch Series returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 2 at California Speedway for the Ameriquest 300.
Complete Results
Ryan Newman was the best at the beginning, Kasey Kahne in the middle, and Kevin Harvick towards the end, but Matt Kenseth was ahead when it counted - leading the final 17 laps en route to winning the record matching Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kenseth captured his 19th career NASCAR Busch Series victory with a bold but clean pass that offered a stark contrast to the rest of the race – which had a record-matching 14 caution periods and one red flag displayed.
The build-up to the late race excitement by Kenseth was actually a result of a penalty he was accessed after being caught speeding off pit road on lap 95 of the 250 lap event. Nonetheless, he climbed through the field and was in position to battle Kevin Harvick for the lead during the last 25 laps of the race.
Harvick stayed ahead until Kenseth passed him using a daring move on the outside of Turn 4 to take over the lead with 17 laps remaining at the .533-mile speedway.
"Well, I was trying the high side a little bit on the restarts just to see what kind of grip was up there, but I dying to get high to get a run underneath (Harvick)," said Kenseth. "Kevin is so good here that he knew that was coming, so he did a really good job of holding down the middle and protecting the bottom. I just figured I'd give it a try. Nobody was behind me and I didn't have much to lose, so I figured I'd go for it."
Even Harvick was impressed by the gutsy move.
"It was just good, hard Bristol racing," said the driver of the No. 21 U.S. Coast Guard Chevrolet.
Following the pass, the driver of the No. 17 Ameriquest Ford remained out front to win his first Busch race this season in 13 starts – and first Busch win at BMS since the spring 2001 event.
"It's been a while. We've had some great cars here and just could never get it done for some reason, me being clumsy or whatever was going on. But, it was a great race tonight," said Kenseth, who picked up his third Busch Series victory at Bristol. "It was a really exciting race for the lead. I knew it was going to be exciting and I figured I'd get Kevin. We had way better tires and he wasn't going to make it easy, so I decided to try the outside and he didn't give me any room, but it was a heck of a battle."
Harvick finished second with Ron Hornaday Jr., Kasey Kahne and Jason Leffler rounding out the top five finishers.
Polesitter Ryan Newman was the class of the field in the first half of the event, leading the first 95 laps until a number of incidents dropped him down the finishing order.
First, his right front wheel broke on the No. 39 Alltel Dodge which led to a longer than expected stop on pit road. Once in the middle of the pack, Newman ran into the back of Denny Hamlin’s car. Despite all of these issues, Newman finished just shy of a top-five result.
Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, David Reutimann and Paul Menard completed the top 10.
Outside of the finishing order, the story of the night was the multiple caution periods. Drivers got loose on their own and hit the wall, got helped into the wall, and some were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
One of these incidents, caution number 11 on the night, led to a red flag being shown after a multi-car accident took place involving Tim Sauter, Aric Almirola, Burney Lamar, Jamie McMurray and Shane Huffman with just 37 laps remaining.
The stop in the event came about as emergency workers had to help Tim Sauter from his heavily damaged vehicle.
After receiving attention out of the race car, Sauter walked away from the vehicle under his own power, visited the infield care center and then was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.
In total, the red flag was on display for just over 10 minutes.
With tonight’s result, Harvick extended his lead in the Busch Series championship to 519 points over second place Carl Edwards. Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and J.J. Yeley round out the top five in the standings.
The Busch Series returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 2 at California Speedway for the Ameriquest 300.