Kenseth Wins Delayed Quaker State 400

Matt Kenseth’s crew chief, Jason Ratcliff gambled late in the Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway and took no tires and only fuel when the caution came out on lap 240 of 267. Jimmie Johnson, the dominant car of the day, had taken two tires and was lined up behind Kenseth. After the restart on lap 247 Johnson uncharacteristically spun out in front of the entire field bringing out the caution for the last time.

When the field went back to green Kenseth held off a hard charging Jamie McMurray who finished second. Clint Bowyer finished third, Joey Logano fourth and Kyle Busch fifth. Brother Kurt Busch finished sixth.

The fireworks started early when Kurt Busch made a dive bomb move under last year’s winner, Brad Keselowski, slid up the track and sent Keselowski up the track and in front of traffic. Keselowski’s car pin-balled across the track and into multiple cars bringing out the red flag for crews to clean up the mess. Greg Biffle was collected as was Dave Blaney and others. Keselowski said, “I know he didn’t intentionally wreck me, but it’s just one of those things. A chain of events with the way the cars drive, and the track has that really bad bump down there, and we all know it. There’s no reason to go down there, but he still did.”  With the wreck happening only 47 laps into the race he said, “We were trying to get patient, because it looks like we’ll get the whole race in before rain, and there’s no reason to drive like an animal. Apparently, I’m the only one that got that memo.”\

 

Kenseth said about the gamble and his part in that gamble, “I didn’t roll the dice, Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) did.  I thought he was slightly crazy when that happened.  First of all, I just have to thank the Lord for putting me here… this is such a great team and great opportunity for me.  It’s just been an unbelievable season and year of my life honestly.   Jason did a great job — I didn’t think there was any way that we were going to hold on for that win.  He made the right call at the right time and those guys got it done.”

Ratcliff said, “I kind of knew that if we could get Matt (Kenseth) position that he would make a good fight out of it and he obviously did.  We got a couple good restarts there.”

 

1

Matt Kenseth

2

Jamie McMurray

3

Clint Bowyer

4

Joey Logano

5

Kyle Busch

6

Kurt Busch

7

Martin Truex Jr

8

Jeff Gordon

9

Jimmie Johnson

10

Kevin Harvick

11

Kasey Kahne

12

Dale Earnhardt Jr

13

Marcos Ambrose

14

Ryan Newman

15

Aric Almirola

16

Juan Pablo Montoya

17

Ricky Stenhouse Jr

18

Casey Mears

19

Jeff Burton

20

Tony Stewart

21

Carl Edwards

22

AJ Allmendinger

23

Danica Patrick

24

Austin Dillon

25

David Stremme

26

David Ragan

27

David Reutimann

28

David Gilliland

29

Ken Schrader

30

Paul Menard

31

Brian Vickers

32

J.J. Yeley

33

Brad Keselowski

34

Greg Biffle

35

Denny Hamlin

36

Landon Cassill

37

Joe Nemechek

38

Michael McDowell

39

Josh Wise

40

Dave Blaney

41

Mike Bliss

42

Travis Kvapil

43

Scott Riggs

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

Ed Coombs
Ed Coombs
Ed began covering NASCAR for the former Gater Racing News regularly in 2000. He began working with Speedway Media in 2003 by supplying exclusive photos from the races covered. Currently he is the Editor and Assistant Publisher of Speedway Media. He also manages staff and credentialing. With the closing down of Gater News after nearly 50 years he hopes to become a more regular contributor at Speedway Media as a writer and photographer. My Twitter name is @coombsed feel free to follow me I am a member of the National Motorsports Press Association.

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