RICHMOND, Va. - Matt Kenseth picked up his fourth win of the season in a dominating performance in Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, leading 352 of the 400 laps distance.
Kenseth proved to be unstoppable over the final 103 circuits, taking the checkered flag by nearly a full second over his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch. Joey Logano, Aric Almirola and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. rounded out the top five.
With his fourth win, Kenseth earned the third seed in the 16-driver Chase field, following Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch.
It was Kenseth’s 35th-career Sprint Cup victory and his third in the last six races, and his first win at Richmond since 2002.
“These guys gave me a great car,” said Kenseth. “Thanks to Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and all these guys standing behind me, they had the pit stops we needed, held serve every time and kept us out in front. We were really superb in the long run. I had to work for it pretty hard in the short run. Great way to go into the Chase.”
Kenseth and his JGR teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin accounted for 375 laps lead, making statement that Kenseth and his teammates will be the cars to beat the 10-race playoff that begins next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.
“I feel like as a company right now, we’re stronger than we were in ’13 – all four cars are really strong” said Kenseth. “We had a lot of different things happen, where all four of us now have been able to win races and we’re all in the Chase. I feel like all four teams are really competitive. I think we were one through four at one point tonight. I feel like as a company, we’re stronger this year.
“You want to win every week. I’ll tell you, if you could do this every week, you would. So it’s not like you can do anything extra or anything necessarily better. I will say it feels really good. It’s good for all of our confidence, probably especially mine.”
Kenseth and Logano started on the front row for race and spent the first 125 laps trading the lead before Hamlin – torn ACL and all – came through the pack to join the party.
Kenseth never dropped any lower than fifth for the entire event, and fought his way back to the front and made the outside move on Busch on lap 228 to retake the top spot.
Kenseth would lead all but one of the remaining laps, including two more rounds of yellow-flag pit stops, holding off Busch on the final restart with 18 laps to go.
While the race for the lead was already out of reach, the race for the final spots in the Chase field were heating up in the final laps.
Coming into this weekend’s race, eight drivers were vying for one of five remaining slots in the 16-driver field, including past Chase contenders Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, Aric Almirola, Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle.
Almirola was among those on the outside looking in, and needed nothing less than a win to earn his second career Chase appearance,
Almirola steadily worked his way through traffic, climbing into the top 10 with 100 laps to go and then into the top five by lap 380.
Coming to the pits for the final round of stops on lap 377, Almirola managed to pick up one spot and restarted third, hoping to catch a break on the restart and challenge Kenseth of the lead.
Instead, Almirola fell back at the start, losing third to Logano and falling nearly three seconds back, winding up with a fourth-place finish and joining Biffle, Kahne, and A.J. Allmendinger as drivers who missed the Chase after making the field last year.
“It is tough. This is what we race for. We race to win races. We race to run for a championship. This race team, we got to do it last year and we had an engine failure at Chicago and feel like we had a lot more to show in the Chase last year. We wanted another shot at it really bad. We have a really, really good race team and am disappointed we didn’t get Smithfield and Ford into the Chase again.”
Bowyer managed to clinch the 16th and final seed in the field, a welcome turn of good luck in what has been an emotionally exhausting season.
“That’s it. The pressure’s off, man,” said Bowyer. “A big monumental thing for an organization to go through what we’re going through and to push through and get into the Chase, this is the best of the best, the elite of all of motorsports. MWR is once again part of it.
“It actually is easier coming into it the way we are right now because the pressure’s off. We go in there. We’re pushing ahead and go for broke every single weekend. All of a sudden if you can get yourself down to the last two or three rounds, it starts getting nerve-wracking again. “
Jamie McMurray ended the night with a 13th-place finish, but earned his first career Chase berth by clinching a spot after taking the green flag in Saturday night’s race.
“I’m super relieved,” said McMurray. “I’ve been the guy on the outside trying to fight my way in, and I’ve also been in this a couple times and been knocked out at Richmond.”
Hamlin finished sixth in the race, followed by Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and Bowyer.
Logano and defending series champion Kevin Harvick filled out the top five seeds in the Chase, followed by Earnhardt, Kyle Busch, Edwards, Keselowski and Martin Truex, Jr.
Hamlin, McMurray, Gordon, Newman, Menard and Bowyer rounded out the rest of the Chase for the Sprint Cup contenders.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Richmond International Raceway – Richmond, VA
Federated Auto Parts 400 – Sept. 12, 2015
1. (2) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 400, $262451.
2. (4) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 400, $203716.
3. (1) Joey Logano, Ford, 400, $179483.
4. (24) Aric Almirola, Ford, 400, $158236.
5. (29) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 400, $130950.
6. (25) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 400, $116915.
7. (23) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 400, $138801.
8. (3) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 400, $135331.
9. (9) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 400, $133601.
10. (26) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 400, $123523.
11. (7) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 400, $88840.
12. (11) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 400, $114898.
13. (31) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 399, $115806.
14. (6) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 399, $133315.
15. (8) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 399, $98465.
16. (19) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 399, $91215.
17. (5) David Ragan, Toyota, 398, $110129.
18. (20) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 398, $96765.
19. (14) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 397, $90440.
20. (13) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 397, $114790.
21. (15) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 397, $108123.
22. (17) Brian Scott(i), Chevrolet, 397, $102823.
23. (28) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 397, $122565.
24. (21) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 397, $109998.
25. (18) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 397, $100748.
26. (22) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 397, $88840.
27. (12) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 397, $117526.
28. (32) Sam Hornish, Jr., Ford, 397, $106698.
29. (10) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 396, $107104.
30. (35) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 396, $81265.
31. (38) Greg Biffle, Ford, 396, $110173.
32. (16) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 394, $102835.
33. (30) David Gilliland, Ford, 393, $93912.
34. (43) J.J. Yeley(i), Toyota, 392, $76240.
35. (37) Brett Moffitt #, Ford, 391, $77590.
36. (33) Matt DiBenedetto #, Toyota, 390, $75935.
37. (36) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 390, $75788.
38. (34) Cole Whitt, Ford, 389, $70777.
39. (41) Jeb Burton #, Toyota, 387, $66705.
40. (42) Jeffrey Earnhardt(i), Ford, 387, $62705.
41. (40) Reed Sorenson, Ford, 335, $58705.
42. (39) Michael McDowell, Ford, Accident, 287, $54705.
43. (27) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, Accident, 145, $51205.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 100.353 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 59 Mins, 22 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.951 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 47 laps.
Lead Changes: 13 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: J. Logano 1-14; M. Kenseth 15-46; J. Logano 47; M. Kenseth 48-103; J. Logano 104-108; M. Kenseth 109-121; J. Logano 122-125; D. Hamlin 126-138; M. Kenseth 139-216; D. Hamlin 217; Kyle Busch 218-226; M. Kenseth 227-296; J. Logano 297; M. Kenseth 298-400.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): M. Kenseth 6 times for 352 laps; J. Logano 5 times for 25 laps; D. Hamlin 2 times for 14 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 9 laps.
Top 16 in Points: K. Harvick – 978; J. Logano – 948; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 894; B. Keselowski – 873; J. Johnson – 852; M. Kenseth – 824; M. Truex Jr. – 818; D. Hamlin – 793; Kurt Busch – 781; J. Mcmurray – 757; C. Edwards – 746; R. Newman – 738; J. Gordon – 737; C. Bowyer – 716; P. Menard – 710; A. Almirola – 693.
