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Oct. 19, 2015
Volume IX, Edition CLXXXVII
Joey Logano Goes Back-to-Back in Contender Round with Kansas Victory
Though it took some questionable aggression, Joey Logano drove to victory in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway for his fifth win of 2015. It's his second in a row in the Contender Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, leaving him the lone driver "locked in" to the round of eight following next week's race at Talladega Superspeedway.
"Couldn't be more proud of what we're doing right now," he said. "This is a big motor racetrack and I was running the gas a lot, they [Roush Yates motors] brought the big steam. The fact that we are the only team that can relax right now is going to pay big dividends when we get to Martinsville."
Logano, who started 14th moved into the top 5 by lap 6 spent much of the day trailing a dominant Matt Kenseth. With 13 laps to go, Logano was fighting race leader Kenseth before the two made contact on the backstretch. With lapped cars ahead, Kenseth blocked Logano into turn 1 with five to go before contact was made and Kenseth spun.
Race winner Logano claimed the crash was unintentional.
"Just good, hard racing," he said. "We were racing each other really hard and I felt like I got fenced twice down the straightaways. [Kenseth] raced me hard so I raced him hard back. That's hard racing, that's the way I race, if I get raced like that, I'll race the same way."
Kenseth suffered no damage and came home 14th despite leading a race-high 153 laps. The 43-year-old had a different perspective, especially after a much-needed victory slipped away.
"It's hard to drive a car with the rear tires off the ground," Kenseth said after the race on pit road. "I was moving around the best I could. Joey was a lot tighter, a lot faster on short runs, but we were so much better on a long run.
"[Spotter] told me I was clear, I was, I pulled up in front of him and he just lifted my tires off the ground and wrecked me."
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver now exits Kansas in a worse spot in points than he did entering, 35 points back of the cutoff spot of eighth.
"I won't talk to Joey," Kenseth said. "I don't have anything to talk to him about, really. To me, strategically that doesn't seem like such a great decision for him, but it's the one he made and that's how he wanted to win. I've always raced him with a ton of respect. I've actually been one of his biggest fans. Certainly not anymore but I always was."
The incident between Kenseth and Logano caused a late caution that gave others a chance at victory. With a green-white-checkered restart Denny Hamlin found himself sitting on the front row. Though he was unable to capitalize, letting Logano scoot away second place was a "hard-fought" finish.
"The [No.] 22 went early, right at the beginning of the zone," Hamlin said of the last restart. "I had a hunch that he was going to go a little early. The gearing wasn't quite good enough to get me a good launch there and the [No.] 22 was able to clear us. We definitely fought our car early in the day. We made it better, we had some good restarts, the pit crew picked us up a few spots and next thing you know, we're trying to battle for a race win."
Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne, two non-Chasers out of the Hendrick Motorsports stable, wound up third and fourth on the day. Kyle Busch bounced back from a dreadful Charlotte outing for fifth place.
"I was hoping it would just go green," Busch said, "And we could salvage a seventh but with those restarts there, we were able to get a fifth out of it."
The 400-mile event saw polesitter Brad Keselowski lead the opening 28 laps. The Blue Deuce lost the lead during the first pit stops on a lap 31 caution as two-tire pit stop strategy began with Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex, Jr. sneaking out first. The duo soon lost the top two positions as Logano emerged with the lead first on lap 50.
Harvick ran into issues throughout the day, complaining of a "crazy" vibration in the early going as well as receiving a penalty on pit road on lap 215. The reigning champion rebounded for 14th, sitting a mere seven points above the cutoff.
"We're lucky to come out of it as good as we did," Harvick admitted. "All-in-all, it could have been a lot worse."
Additionally, The No. 4 team suffered a broken shifter handle for the final restart.
"It was just really hard to shift from second to third [gear]," the reigning champ continued. "Just because there was nothing to grab on to for leverage. The car vibrated all day, we're lucky something else didn't break."
Turn 2 proved to be disloyal as multiple drivers like Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson either spun or hit the wall throughout the day. The most heartbreaking turn 2 moment was when Austin Dillon popped a tire on lap 156 while running fifth. The sophomore driver's day was done, winding up in the 41st position.
"Man, what a bummer," Dillon said. "I guess I just blew a right front."
The most severe moment of the day was a vicious lick by Clint Bowyer on lap 172 where the Michael Waltrip Racing driver over-corrected and pounded the turn 2 wall almost head-on. Bowyer, whose car was destroyed thankfully emerged unhurt from one of the hardest hits any Cup driver has taken all year.
"I was following [Jeff] Gordon there and I started to catch him back," Bowyer recalled. "I went in and he kind of took my line away and I tried to pull down and as soon as my headlight got some air into it, man it bit and turned me. I probably should've just spun to the inside but I thought I could save it. Guess what? I did not save it. It was a hard hit. Gives you a wake-up call."
Though Chasers populated eight of the top 11 finishing spots, Sunday saw its share of possible spoilers and underdogs. Ryan Blaney qualified eighth in the Wood Brothers No. 21. The part-time young gun settled in the top 10 all day, led his first laps in nearly a year under pit cycle and drove to a seventh-place finish, his second top 10 of 2015. Further back, XFINITY Series veteran Brian Scott came home a career-best 12th in his No. 33 Chevrolet, a joint effort between Circle Sport and Richard Childress Racing. Finally, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. not only grabbed a fourth consecutive top-15 finish but led a solid day for Roush Fenway Racing with teammates Greg Biffle and Trevor Bayne coming home 17th and 18th, respectively.
Austin Dillon's Top-5 Run Cut Short By Tire Failure
Hometown Hero Clint Bowyer Crashes Hard at Kansas Speedway
Hometown Driver Jennifer Jo Cobb Sees Early End to Kansas Lottery 300
Kyle Busch Wins XFINITY Series Kansas Lottery 300
Regan Smith Will Not Return to JR Motorsports in 2016
by Phil Allaway
Chase Point Standings after Charlotte: 1) Joey Logano 3095, 2) Denny Hamlin -13, 3) Kurt Busch -18, 4) Carl Edwards -19, t-5) Kevin Harvick -24, t-5) Jeff Gordon -24, t-5) Brad Keselowski -24, 8) Martin Truex, Jr. -25, 9) Kyle Busch -31, 10) Ryan Newman -33, 11) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -56, 12) Matt Kenseth -60.
Best of the Rest: 13) Jamie McMurray 2154, 14) Jimmie Johnson -20, 15) Paul Menard -45, 16) Clint Bowyer -68, 17) Aric Almirola -1333, 18) Kasey Kahne -1343, 19) Kyle Larson -1397, 20) Greg Biffle -1401, 21) Austin Dillon -1466, 22) Casey Mears -1482.
Regular Point Standings (1-16): 1) Joey Logano 1157, 2) Kevin Harvick -32, 3) Brad Keselowski -116, 4) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -132, 5) Denny Hamlin -166, 6) Martin Truex, Jr. -168, 7) Matt Kenseth -173, 8) Jimmie Johnson -183, 9) Kurt Busch -205, 10) Carl Edwards -223, 11) Jamie McMurray -246, 12) Jeff Gordon -249, 13) Ryan Newman -258, 14) Aric Almirola -336, 15) Paul Menard -338, 16) Kasey Kahne -346.
Drivers Outside the top 16 in the Chase: 22) Kyle Busch -492.
Race Winners: Joey Logano (Daytona-1, Watkins Glen, Bristol-2, Charlotte-2, Kansas-2), Jimmie Johnson (Atlanta, Texas, Kansas-1, Dover-1), Kevin Harvick (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dover-2), Brad Keselowski (Fontana), Denny Hamlin (Martinsville, Chicagoland), Matt Kenseth (Bristol-1, Pocono-2, Michigan-2, Richmond-2, Loudon-2), Kurt Busch (Richmond-1, Michigan-1), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (Talladega, Daytona-2), Carl Edwards (Charlotte-1, Darlington), Martin Truex, Jr. (Pocono-1), Kyle Busch (Sonoma, Kentucky, Loudon-1, Indianapolis)Letter of the Race: Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 was brought to you by the letter "C," for "Controversy." Take away the late contact and Sunday's race was more exciting than Charlotte but didn't really have a memorable moment. The contact between Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano in turn 1 kicked the Chase up a notch, though. We'll have to see what ultimately comes out of this incident in the next few weeks. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Hollywood Casino 400
"It was a lot of fun out there racing for a win like that. The cars were very fast, equally paired and I couldn't be more proud of what this Shell/Pennzoil team is doing right now. We're such a fast race car, such a great team. We've showed it two weeks in a row now and this is a lot of fun. We've just got to ride this wave and we've got to get to Homestead still. It was good, hard racing. We were racing each other really hard and I got in the fence twice on the straightaways. He raced me hard and I raced him hard back." - Joey Logano, race winner
"It was an interesting day for sure. We definitely fought our car early today, just couldn't do anything and battled back for our track position. It's so hard to pass, we just fought the car and made it better and had some good restarts. The pit crew picked us up a few spots and next thing you know, we are trying to battle for a win. It was a great day for our FedEx Express Camry. I've never been so disappointed to be second at Kansas; I would have taken second and ran with it before this weekend started." - Denny Hamlin, finished second
"We had a lot going on there. We had the exhaust crack and I got up in the wall in turn 2 – I was trying to run the high side like those guys were and make time up there and I just didn't cut my exit enough I guess and brushed the wall off of turn 2 and my guys had to repair it. Adam Stevens (crew chief) and my guys kept working and made really good adjustments all day. They put this M&M's Camry in position. I thought we could come home with a seventh-place finish with all those late restarts there and we'd be happy with that, but we got a fifth out of it. I can't say enough about everyone here." - Kyle Busch, finished fifth
"Not bad. We started off fairly decent. I lost some track position at one point in the race. We kind of got behind on the car a little bit. I thought we were going to struggle after that but (crew chief) Jeremy (Bullins) did a great job of getting us better and getting us where we needed to be at the end, to be able to run toward the front. The last restart didn't go very well. Overall, these guys put together a good race car and it's a great way to start the last four races of the season." - Ryan Blaney, finished seventh
"I don't think the slow pit stop was really the worse thing. We had a car that was struggling in the center-corner and really tight. The guys did a really good job and made up for whatever the problem was on pit road because they just killed it the last two stops. A decent finish. I can't thank SportClips enough, they came on board for us. I wish we would have ran a little better than that. Just the way it goes, my guys never gave up. Hopefully, we'll go to Talladega and put a Toyota in Victory Lane." - Carl Edwards, finished eighth
"It's hard to drive a car with the rear tires off the ground. I was moving around the best I could, Joey (Logano) was a lot tighter, a lot faster on the short run, but we were so much better on the long run. I could still kind of get up to the top and get a run and get around him. We caught those two lapped cars, 'Crazy' (spotter) told me I was clear and I was, I pulled up in front of him and he just lifted my tires off the ground and he wrecked us. I won't talk to Joey (Logano), I don't have anything to talk to him about really. You make decisions every day, you make decisions every minute behind the wheel. I'm glad the cars not wrecked, we'll just go onto Talladega and race them there." - Matt Kenseth, finished 14th
"We are lucky to come out of it as good as we did with our Budweiser/Jimmy John's team. We didn't have a great weekend – a lot of things falling on and off – and now we've got to go to Talladega and have a good week. All in all it could have been a lot worse, and everybody kept digging." - Kevin Harvick, finished 16th
~~~~~~~~~~
Thinkin' Out Loud - Joey Logano Two for Two in Round Two of the Chase
by Mike Neff
Logano Dumped Kenseth Out of Fear
by Jerry Jordan
The Big Six: Questions Answered After the 2015 Hollywood Casino 400
by Amy Henderson
Up To Speed: Matt Kenseth Wouldn't Have Spun Joey Logano
by Summer Bedgood
Pace Laps: Bad Blood and Close Battles
by the Frontstretch Staff
XFINITY Breakdown: Kansas Lottery 300
by Summer Bedgood
Friday's Answer:
Q: In 2012, current part-time XFINITY Series competitor Chad Boat did a one-off appearance at Kansas Speedway with Ken Schrader Racing in their No. 52. It didn't last long. What put Boat out?
A: Boat started seventh and was trying to make the outside line work in his former Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. However, on the second lap, Boat spun exiting turn 2 and was hit by Matt Lofton. The hit flipped Boat over one time before he came to rest. Chad Hackenbracht was also involved. The crash can be seen here.COMING TOMORROW
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