SPARTA, Ky. - Adapting adroitly to a new competition package for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars, Kyle Busch sped to victory in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, taking a giant step toward the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with his second victory since returning from an 11-race injury absence.
Busch won for the 31st time in his career and the second time at the 1.5-mile track. Race runner-up Joey Logano was the only interloper in a top five that also included all four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers—Busch, Denny Hamlin in third, Carl Edwards in fourth and Matt Kenseth in fifth.
Busch grabbed the lead from Logano after several laps of intense racing, taking the point at the stripe on lap 248 and clearing Logano’s Ford through turn 2 on lap 249 of 267. From that point, Busch pulled away to win by 1.594 seconds.
The new aero package, in Busch’s view was a benefit as he closed on Logano in a race that saw a track-record 22 green-flag passes for the lead.
“All the drivers were kind of striving for this,” Busch said. “I felt like it was a positive thing when I was chasing Joey down. Right when I got to him, he moved up and tried to block my lane. With the old package, you’d get stalled out, and get stuck behind the guy. I just moved down and went a little bit lower and got my Camry to stick and was able to power through and get back by him.
“We swapped the lead back and forth a couple times. I thought it was pretty good racing. You don’t want to spend too much time racing around and putting on too good of a show for the fans to take yourself out of a win. I thought that was a really good race, at least it wasn’t a guy who checked out on the last run and you didn’t see a pass for the lead coming down the final stretch.”
Long a proponent of lower downforce, Edwards was even more effusive in his praise of the new package.
“This package, we need to keep going in this direction,” Edwards said. “We could race closer together—I was steering right. We were using the whole car. We just need to keep taking downforce away. It was an awesome show. Just an awesome, fun day and I’m glad Kyle got the win.”
Busch led a race-high 163 laps, scoring a maximum 48 points and moving to 35th in the standings, 87 points behind Cole Whitt in 30th. Busch must finish the first 26 races in the top 30 in order to be eligible for the Chase.
It didn’t take long for NASCAR’s new lower-downforce aero package to have a visible effect on the racing. On lap 95, after he had trimmed Kyle Busch’s four-second lead to a car-length, Keselowski tucked behind Busch’s Camry, took the air off the shorter 3.5-inch spoiler and shot into the lead.
Three laps later, Kurt Busch spun off turn 4 when the rear of the No. 41 Chevrolet stepped out.
The new package also had an ostensible effect on brakes, putting more stress on the smaller rotors and calipers that have been in vogue with higher-downforce configurations. On lap 136, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. slapped the wall, unable to slow his car adequately in the corner.
Beyond that, the absolute dominance of the Hendrick Motorsports armada—including the Stewart-Haas Racing affiliates—was nowhere in evidence on Saturday night. Jimmie Johnson struggled and salvaged a ninth-place finish. Jeff Gordon fell short in an ill-fated attempt to complete a career sweep of active Sprint Cup tracks, ending his night in seventh position.
Kevin Harvick was good, but the reigning series champion was not up to his usual untouchable standard, finishing eighth. Kurt Busch was fast, but not fast enough, as he finished 10th.
Overall, based on a sample size of one race, the new package seemed to shift the balance of power in the series, at least marginally, from the Chevys of Hendrick and Stewart-Haas to the Fords of Team Penske and the Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing.
Emblematic was a late-race restart on lap 192. Logano got past Harvick immediately. Edwards followed in the No. 19 JGR Toyota 12 laps later, right before the race-record-tying 10th caution for Danica Patrick’s crash in turn 4 (after a tap from Earnhardt, whose brakes were still malfunctioning) brought the field to pit road with 58 laps left.
Hamlin won the race off pit road and led JGR teammates Kyle Busch and Edwards to green on lap 213. By the time the teammates got back to the stripe, they were three-wide barreling toward turn 1. Hamlin shot ahead into the lead, Logano surged past Busch and Edwards into second, and Keselowski grabbed fifth place from Kenseth before Kyle Larson’s cut tire caused the 11th caution on lap 219.
Logano and Kyle Busch roared to the front moments after the restart on lap 225, and, 23 laps later, Busch had the lead for good.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Kentucky Speedway – Sparta, KY
Quaker State 400 – July 11, 2015
1. (9) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 267, $209316.
2. (4) Joey Logano, Ford, 267, $161118.
3. (8) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 267, $125335.
4. (20) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 267, $124295.
5. (16) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 267, $136511.
6. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267, $135256.
7. (3) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 267, $135176.
8. (15) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 267, $137640.
9. (6) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 267, $132151.
10. (13) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 267, $102715.
11. (17) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 267, $95890.
12. (12) Aric Almirola, Ford, 267, $123951.
13. (28) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 267, $126790.
14. (7) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 267, $116156.
15. (14) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 267, $93915.
16. (27) Greg Biffle, Ford, 267, $116523.
17. (5) Martin Truex, Jr., Chevrolet, 267, $111035.
18. (25) David Ragan, Toyota, 267, $111479.
19. (30) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 267, $118123.
20. (26) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 267, $121290.
21. (10) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 267, $99365.
22. (18) Sam Hornish, Jr., Ford, 267, $109660.
23. (21) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 267, $109248.
24. (32) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 267, $106998.
25. (11) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 267, $119526.
26. (24) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 267, $111423.
27. (19) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 266, $97090.
28. (36) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 266, $82065.
29. (34) David Gilliland, Ford, 266, $101523.
30. (29) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 266, $83290.
31. (31) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 266, $90772.
32. (38) Brett Moffitt #, Ford, 266, $80115.
33. (22) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 265, $105779.
34. (23) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 265, $86515.
35. (1) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 265, $112373.
36. (42) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 264, $78410.
37. (33) Cole Whitt, Ford, 264, $78352.
38. (40) Will Kimmel III, Ford, 263, $73752.
39. (41) J.J. Yeley(i), Toyota, 260, $69680.
40. (43) Alex Kennedy #, Chevrolet, 247, $65680.
41. (35) Jeb Burton #, Toyota, Suspension, 175, $61680.
42. (39) Matt DiBenedetto #, Toyota, Accident, 145, $57680.
43. (37) Josh Wise, Ford, Accident, 17, $54180.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 129.402 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 05 Mins, 42 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.594 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 11 for 49 laps.
Lead Changes: 13 among 8 drivers.
Lap Leaders: 0; B. Keselowski 1-32; R. Sorenson 33; Kyle Busch 34-94; B. Keselowski 95-124; Kyle Busch 125-188; R. Newman 189-190; Kyle Busch 191-208; A. Bowman 209-210; D. Hamlin 211-212; C. Edwards 213; D. Hamlin 214-224; J. Logano 225-247; Kyle Busch 248-267.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Busch 4 times for 163 laps; B. Keselowski 2 times for 62 laps; J. Logano 1 time for 23 laps; D. Hamlin 2 times for 13 laps; A. Bowman 1 time for 2 laps; R. Newman 1 time for 2 laps; R. Sorenson 1 time for 1 lap; C. Edwards 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 16 in Points: K. Harvick – 692; J. Johnson – 624; J. Logano – 624; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 616; M. Truex Jr. – 596; B. Keselowski – 559; J. Mcmurray – 556; Kurt Busch – 542; M. Kenseth – 540; J. Gordon – 537; D. Hamlin – 522; K. Kahne – 513; P. Menard – 509; R. Newman – 497; C. Bowyer – 490; A. Almirola – 473.
