Matt Kenseth weathered the storm to win Sunday’s night’s wild Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, snapping a 51-race winless drought for his first victory of the season.
Kenseth took over the lead with 22 laps to go and held off a resurging Jimmie Johnson on a final green-white-checkered shootout to take the checkered flag more than nine hours after the race started.
Jeff Gordon was third, followed by Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Ryan Newman.
Kenseth started on the pole for Sunday’s race and led just 47 laps to collect his first victory since winning at New Hampshire in September of 2013, one of seven races he won that year.
Sunday’s win was the 32nd-career Sprint Cup victory for Kenseth and his fourth-career Bristol victory.
“It feels good to be back here,” said Kenseth following his win. “Last year was tough and not winning again this year so far has been tough. We had such a good 2013, we came a little short of the ultimate prize there, but we had such a great season, and last year there were some races we had some chances to win and just things wouldn’t line up for us. We just couldn’t get it to happen.
“Tonight was kind of the opposite. Everything worked out. Everything kind of fell into place today and it feels good.”
Sunday’s race started more than an hour late amid cloudy skies that got even darker for Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, who crashed on lap 20 after Keselowski got loose and collected Logano, who saw his chance at a Bristol sweep go up in smoke.
While under caution the skies finally opened up, bringing racing to a halt after 22 laps.
After a nearly four hour rain delay, racing finally got back underway around 6:30 pm, with Harvick out in front.
Once under green, Harvick and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch would trade the lead eight times over the next 200 laps before Busch got tangled up with Johnson on lap 279 to bring out the caution flag.
With Busch knocked back deep in the field, Carl Edwards moved up to challenge Harvick for the top spot before Harvick got collected in a wreck on lap 312 after Johnson and Jeb Burton got together.
Edwards, Kenseth and Kyle Larson would battle it out for the top spot for the next 150 laps before Kurt Busch managed to fight his way back to the front of the field with 56 laps to go.
Busch would lead for the next 34 laps before the caution flag waved with 26 laps to go. During the ensuing caution, Busch’s crew chief John Klausmeier – filling in for the ailing Tony Gibson – elected to have Busch to give up the lead to come in for fresh tires.
It would prove to be a costly pit stop.
With just eight laps to go, Edwards got loose fighting Gordon for second place and collected Busch along with four other drivers, bringing out the final yellow flag and setting up a three-lap overtime finish.
Under caution the rain began falling again, bringing out yet another red flag.
Through all the mess, Johnson managed to rally from a lap down to move back into the top five and restarted fourth for the final shootout.
Kenseth pulled away on the restart as Johnson powered past Gordon on the outside and into second place, but Kenseth held on to beat Johnson to the line by two car lengths.
“It was a wild night,” said Johnson. “I’m just really glad we got a second. I maybe had a shot at the win, but am just thrilled to get such a great finish here. This is one of the more tough tracks for me, as a driver. So, I’m very stoked to be here. Chevy was fast, and we go on to the next one.”
Five-time Bristol winner Jeff Gordon came home third in his final Food City 500 start, scoring his first top five Bristol finish since 2012. Gordon’s car was one of the few to escape the relatively unscathed amid Sunday’s chaos.
“Heck, that’s Bristol, isn’t it? I’m sure I’ve had wackier nights and days at Bristol than this,” said Gordon. “I can’t say that mine was too wild and crazy. Our car was solid, our team was solid. Everything else kind of was working our way the rest of the night.”
Harvick, who led a race-high 184 laps, spent nearly 50 laps behind the wall and limped to a 38th-place finish but still managed to hold onto the points lead by 30 points over Logano, who finished 40th after his crash early in the race. Martin Truex, Jr. held onto third in points while Johnson moves up to fourth ahead of Keselowski who finished 35th.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Bristol Motor Speedway – Bristol, TN
Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes – April 19, 2015
1. (1) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 511, $212961.
2. (28) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 511, $170011.
3. (23) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 511, $160861.
4. (25) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 511, $125475.
5. (18) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 511, $135275.
6. (21) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 511, $131129.
7. (14) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 511, $133423.
8. (15) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 511, $126723.
9. (26) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 511, $107365.
10. (12) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 511, $136351.
11. (9) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 511, $106340.
12. (37) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 511, $131773.
13. (30) Aric Almirola, Ford, 511, $134176.
14. (10) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 510, $126831.
15. (7) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 510, $112175.
16. (13) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 509, $112300.
17. (24) Brett Moffitt #, Toyota, 509, $124864.
18. (32) David Gilliland, Ford, 508, $120533.
19. (39) Sam Hornish, Jr., Ford, 508, $121995.
20. (40) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 508, $110033.
21. (22) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 508, $103708.
22. (19) Michael McDowell, Ford, 507, $91875.
23. (36) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 507, $91700.
24. (3) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 507, $91825.
25. (38) Chris Buescher(i), Ford, 505, $91325.
26. (5) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 505, $109200.
27. (42) Cole Whitt, Ford, 504, $103572.
28. (31) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 504, $135450.
29. (16) Martin Truex, Jr., Chevrolet, 504, $120120.
30. (33) Greg Biffle, Ford, 504, $124458.
31. (41) Mike Bliss(i), Ford, 502, $90625.
32. (29) J.J. Yeley(i), Toyota, 496, $89550.
33. (43) Alex Kennedy #, Chevrolet, 490, $89500.
34. (20) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, Accident, 489, $107450.
35. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 489, $138341.
36. (27) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, Accident, 487, $97350.
37. (8) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, Accident, 482, $107289.
38. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 468, $143112.
39. (35) Josh Wise, Ford, Accident, 466, $80415.
40. (6) Joey Logano, Ford, 452, $123623.
41. (11) David Ragan, Toyota, 435, $117406.
42. (34) Jeb Burton #, Toyota, Accident, 416, $68415.
43. (17) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 288, $64915.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 74.997 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 37 Mins, 54 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.287 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 11 for 117 laps.
Lead Changes: 21 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders: M. Kenseth 1-5; K. Harvick 6-62; K. Busch 63; G. Biffle 64-69; K. Busch 70-125; K. Harvick 126-160; K. Busch 161-165; K. Harvick 166-169; K. Busch 170; K. Harvick 171-256; C. Edwards 257-266; K. Busch 267; C. Edwards 268-276; K. Harvick 277; C. Edwards 278-290; K. Harvick 291; C. Edwards 292-345; M. Kenseth 346; K. Larson 347-436; M. Kenseth 437-443; K. Busch 444-477; M. Kenseth 478-511.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): K. Harvick 6 times for 184 laps; K. Busch 6 times for 98 laps; K. Larson 1 time for 90 laps; C. Edwards 4 times for 86 laps; M. Kenseth 4 times for 47 laps; G. Biffle 1 time for 6 laps.
Top 16 in Points: K. Harvick – 314; J. Logano – 284; M. Truex Jr. – 281; J. Johnson – 258; B. Keselowski – 255; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 241; K. Kahne – 237; M. Kenseth – 236; J. Gordon – 227; A. Almirola – 226; D. Hamlin – 223; J. Mcmurray – 223; D. Patrick – 211; P. Menard – 210; C. Edwards – 203; R. Newman – 201.
