Birthday Boy Kenseth wins at Vegas

Matt Kenseth won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor speedway for his first win of the season and first win with his new team at Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR).

This was Kenseth’s 25th victory career Sprint Cup victory and it was on his 41st birthday.  He joins Cale Yarborough and Kyle Busch who have also won a race on their birthday.

This was Kenseth’s third victory and seventh top-10 finish in 14 races at Las Vegas.

“This is awesome,” Kenseth said in victory lane. “I just want to start by thanking the Lord for giving us this opportunity. I just knew it. I knew with working with Jason Ratcliff that we could do this.”

Kasey Kahne finished second, Brad Keselowski third, Kyle Busch fourth and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five.

“Never ever give up. Never give up. This team doesn’t and we didn’t today. You get a good run like we did and that is a product of that effort. I thought we had some really good speed there at the end. I almost want another yellow to race the 5 and the 20. Matt (Kenseth) did a great job executing the restarts really well. We were so close.” Keselowski said.

Keselowski started on the pole due to the cancellation of qualifying because for rain. Keselowski led the first lap with Bowyer right behind the blue deuce. Bowyer tried to get the lead but he got loose in turn 4 and fell back to fourth place and continued to fall lap after lap.  Bowyer dropped 24 spots before coming to pit road because of severe loose conditions.

Kahne, who had the dominate car of the day, took over the race lead on lap 11 from Keselowski in turns 1 and 2.

Biffle also came in on lap 40 because he told his team his car was too loose.

Green flag pit stops occurred on lap 45 with Kahne and Martin Truex Jr. coming in. Kahne came in for some four tires and fuel and some adjustments and was on his way. Keselowski got an air pressure adjustment while Jeff Gordon got a chassis adjustment. Busch came in and got his pit stop but was too fast entering and has to come in for a pass through penalty

The first caution waved on lap 66 for debris on the backstretch. Ryan Newman got the free pas and there will be 19 cars on the lead lap. Everybody came in and got two tires and fuel except for the No.1 of Jamie McMurray who got fuel only and came out 6th.

Green flag waved on lap 70 with Kahne leading them into turn 1. Kahne easily cared the No.2 and Johnson over took the blue deuce and got 2nd. Johnson then took the lead on lap 75 in turn 4.

The second round of green flag stops began with Keselowski coming in saying he thought a tire was flat.  Earnhardt Jr, Trevor Bayne and other came in and got there stops completed and were on their way. Hamlin got a speeding penalty for too fast entering. Johnson kept the lead until lap 137 when Kahne took the top spot over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.

The second caution waved for the second time with 108 laps to go when the No.9 of Marcos Ambrose was trying to get on pit road but spun it out instead. All of the leaders came into pit and 5-time Johnson came out first with four tires as everybody took four good years. Hamlin got the free pass to put 15 cars on the lead lap.

They went back to green with 102 laps to go and Rowdy Busch went three wide to take the lead into turn 1. He passed Kahne and Johnson and took the lead in his hometown track.

Caution is out for a spin by Bobby Labonte on lap 195. The leaders came in and everybody got two tires and fuel. Kahne came in first and went out first.

The green flag was waved with 68 laps to go and Kahne and Busch were battling for the lead in turns 1 and 2 and Busch over took him on the backstretch. Kahne then took the lead back from Busch and pulled away.

Fourth Caution waved with 43 laps to go when the No.93 of Travis Kvapil blew up on the exit of turn 4 and spewed fluid everywhere around the track. the No.10 of Danica Patrick was right behind him and she got tons of oil on her windshield as she came in and got a tear off and four tires with fuel. Leaders also came in for, what could be there final stop, and most of them got 2 tires and fuel. Truex Jr. could not get his car started and stalled it and lost multiple spots. Kahne was trying to get out but got boxed in by Stewart and also lost some spots. Keselowski and Kenseth did not take tires and they will restart in the lead.

They restarted with 35 laps to go and the restart was a train wreck. It looked like Edwards did not go and bottled up Kahne, Paul Menard and others. Kenseth took the lead with Keselowski right behind him. Caution waved just a few laps later when the No.39 of Ryan Newman missed a shift and blew his engine.

They restarted the race with 26 laps to go and Kenseth shot up like a rocket and took the top spot over Keselowski. Kahne passed Johnson and Keselowski for the second position and was in search for the No.20. Kahne gained a tenth every couple laps and with 14 to go, he caught Kenseth. He finally got to the bumper of Kenseth with eight to go but just could not make the pass.

The race had 22 lead changes among eight drivers and five caution flags for 25 laps.

Johnson leads the series point standings by five points over Keselowski.