Dammit. Other than for Matt Kenseth, that was probably the most used term from Sunday’s action at New Hampshire. Kenseth led three times at Loudon, but it was those final three laps that really mattered as the former champ locked his way into the next round of the Chase.
There is hot, and there is hot. Hot could be winning the opening race of the Chase, securing a berth in the next round, and allowing two races to tinker and prepare for Charlotte. However, after a spin on just the second lap in Chicago, the result was as much a credit to the performance of crew chief Dave Rogers as it was to the driver, Denny Hamlin.
Hamlin roared back from last place to win the Chase opener at Chicagoland. Hamlin automatically advances to the second round of the Chase, which begins at Dover on October 4th.
Chicago. The opening race of the Chase. Sixteen drivers would continue the quest, one very likely locking his way into the next round, some setting themselves up with fine starts while others...not so much.
In a race where teammates raced like archrivals to the checkered flag, Kyle Busch surged ahead of Matt Kenseth with a crossover move on the next-to-last lap and won the Furious 7 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race by .791 seconds over his Joe Gibbs Racing stablemate at Chicagoland Speedway Saturday night.
Kyle Busch used a fast lap of 180.959 mph in the final round of group qualifying for the NASCAR XFINITY Series to take the Coors Light Pole Award atChicagoland Speedway for Saturday's Furious 7 300 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
So it begins. Sixteen drivers, each trying to avoid being one of the four eliminated from contention for the championship after each round of three races.
Kenseth led 352 of 400 laps and cruised to an easy win in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond. The win was Kenseth’s fourth of the season, and places him atop the points standings for the start of the Chase.
Richmond, where the final battle royal would take place to decide the final line-up for the Chase. Richmond, where we discovered that only six cars mattered at all the entire night, and all of them already had their tickets punched to the party.
In the last race of the regular season and the one to set the Chase contenders here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 48th annual Federated Auto Parts 500 at Richmond International Raceway.
