Queers4Gears.com

NASCAR and MotorSports – From a Queer Perspective

Kevin Harvick Wins Thrilling Richmond Race in Overtime

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

credit Streeter Lecks / Getty Images for NASCAR

Kevin Harvick sped away on fresh tires to win Sunday night’s Toyota Owners 400 in a green-white-checkered-flag finish at Richmond International Raceway, leaving a grup of drivers with widely divergent emotions in his wake.

Harvick beat Clint Bowyer to the finish line by .343 seconds to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season, his second at Richmond and the 20th of his career.

Joey Logano ran third, Juan Pablo Montoya came home fourth after leading until the final caution, and Jeff Burton finished fifth after staying out on old tires for the final two-lap run that took the event six laps beyond its posted distance.

Harvick came to pit road for tires on Lap 396, after Brian Vickers’ slapped the Turn 3 wall to cause the 11th caution of the race. Harvick’s No. 29 Richard Childress racing Chevrolet made short work of three drivers who had stayed out after the race restarted on lap 405.

Though he lost the chance to break a 94-race drought since his Cup victory at Watkins Glen in August 2010, Montoya was elated just to get a top-five finish after struggling mightily for more than a year.

Not so elated were Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart, who repeatedly swapped shots with their Chevys on the cool-down lap. Stewart was fifth on the final restart but dropped to 18th at the finish after Busch rubbed him out of the racing groove during a two-lap free-for-all that saw prolific contact throughout the field.

Harvick, however was all smiles when he climbed out of his car in Victory Lane.

“My car launched, and I was able to drive it in the first corner and hope for the best down there,” said Harvick, who surged into the lead through Turns 3 and 4 after establishing his position in the first corner on the final restart. “I figured four, eight, 12…how many ever tires that were on the outside of me would be better than none. It all worked out, and here we are.”

The decision to come to pit road for tires under the final caution was a no-brainer, as Harvick and crew chief Gil Martin saw it.

“When the tires fall off almost two seconds, you’ve got to come in and get tires,” he said. “There’s not very many guys that stayed out. It all worked out tonight. We’ve been on the other side of it this year, so to be in Victory Lane is great.”

Bowyer led 113 laps but didn’t have a car that could stay with Harvick at the end.

“We had a good car—we just didn’t have a great car,” Bowyer said. “It seemed like we were just too tight on the throttle. It would quite turn and come up off (the corner). It really got wild there at the end. I was just lucky enough to be on the bottom (for the final restart).

“They started making holes up there in front of me, and the seas parted, and I just followed suit behind Harvick. It was a good run.”

What remained a two-man battle for more than half the race evolved into an unpredictable nexus of varying strategy and unexpected attrition.

When Kyle Busch passed Matt Kenseth for the top spot on Lap 254, that was the first time all evening that a driver other than Kenseth or Bowyer had led a lap. Busch made it stick, leading 39 straight laps under green until Travis Kvapil smacked the wall on Lap 292 to cause the sixth caution of the night.

But brother Kurt Busch won the race off pit road under the yellow and led the field to a restart on Lap 299. Busch held the point during an intense battle against Carl Edwards until NASCAR called the seventh caution on Lap 308 when Kvapil’s car dropped fluid on the track.

Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kenseth and Ryan Newman stayed out under the yellow on 16-lap-old tires. Jimmie Johnson paced the rest of the lead-lap cars to pit road and took two tires. Six laps after a restart on Lap 321, the entire tenor of the race changed dramatically.

After contact with Martin Truex Jr.’s Toyota on the restart, Johnson faded on the restart. Running to the inside of Johnson on entering Turn 1 on Lap 327, Tony Stewart slid sideways into Johnson’s Chevrolet. As Johnson slid to the inside of the track in Turn 2, Kyle Busch’s Toyota nosed into him.

That was just the start of frenetic action at the .75-mile high-speed short track. Montoya led a pack of six cars who stayed out under the caution to a restart on Lap 334, but on Lap 338, a brutal wreck off Turn 2 involving Mark Martin, Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers slowed the field again.

One lap after a restart on Lap 344, Truex spun in Turn 3 while battling Kurt Busch in close quarters for the second position. Montoya retained the lead until Brian Vickers’ wreck on Lap 395 set up the overtime.

Notes: Despite Johnson’s troubles, the five-time champion gained ground on his closest pursuers in the standings with a 12th-place finish at RIR. He now leads second-place Carl Edwards (sixth Saturday) by 43 points and Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (10th at Richmond) by 46… Reigning Cup champion Brad Keselowski finished 33rd on the bottom end of a roller-coaster day that saw him recover from a scrape with the turn 2 wall only to drop a cylinder in the late going.

The Out of the Tunnel Podcast Show 46

This week I am flying solo – Adam is sick and Hannah is still on permanent assignment.

Kenseth and Kahne battle for an almost identical finish to what we saw in Vegas, Kyle and Joey wreck, Happy Harvick isn’t happy and Brad makes a comeback.

All that, plus, the pathetic turnout by The Worstboro Baptist Church, Rutledge Wood wins at Long Beach and Scott Speed wins gold.

You can listen to the show three ways:

Click to subscribe and listen on iTunes

or

Click Play:  

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

or

download it directly by clicking here.

Matt Kenseth holds off charging Kasey Kahne for STP 400 win

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

credit John Harrelson / Getty Images for NASCAR

Matt Kenseth likened his victory in the STP 400 to a game of musical chairs—you had to be leading when the music stopped.

If you looked at statistics alone, you’d say that Kenseth dominated Sunday at Kansas Speedway in the eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season. After all, Kenseth won the event from the pole and led 163 of the 267 laps.

In reality, Kenseth prevailed in a race of extraordinary strategic complexity, with divergent approaches shuffling and reshuffling the running order until an opportune caution on Lap 218 put Kenseth back in the lead at just the right time.

Nonetheless, it took all of Kenseth’s consummate skill to hold off fast-closing Kasey Kahne, who narrowed what had been a lead of more than one second to .151 seconds at the finish. Jimmie Johnson ran third, followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer.

The victory was Kenseth’s second at Kansas, his second of the season and the 26th of his career. The driver of the No. 20 Toyota has won both races at Kansas since the track was repaved last year.

“It was kind of like musical chairs,” Kenseth said. “You had to be out front when the music stopped. Our car was very fast in clean air. It was reasonable in dirty air, but it wasn’t quite good enough to catch all them guys and pass ‘em (in traffic).

“Thankfully, I had a couple of really crazy-good restarts for some reason and made up some ground and got us back in position.”

Kahne started 27th, but the speed in his No. 5 Chevrolet SS belied the qualifying effort. Kahne’s crew tightened up the handling of his car for the final run, but not quite enough. There was a sense of déjà vu for Kahne, who chased Kenseth to the finish line Mar. 10 at Las Vegas.

“We were very close at the end, battling with Matt,” Kahne said. “Felt like Vegas all over again, just kind of felt like really similar to that in how I could catch him but couldn’t really do anything once I got close. It made my car a little bit looser. So I tried a few things there, and he kind of blocked those spots and went those directions and gained the speed that I (had), and then we were even again.

“It was tough, but we still had a great race.”

Defending Cup champion Brad Keselowski came home sixth, despite sustaining heavy damage to his rear bumper when the field checked up on the first lap.

That damage had far-reaching effects—so much so that it changed the complexion of the race on Lap 218. The rear bumper cover from Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford dislodged, causing the eighth caution—right after Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle had made green-flag pit stops.

But since all lead-lap cars came to pit road under the yellow, those four drivers were able to regain the lead lap through wave-arounds. Kenseth led the field to the restart on Lap 225, with Truex beside him and Hendrick teammates Johnson and Kahne on the second row.

Kenseth pulled away after the restart, and Kahne charged into the second spot. On Lap 236, Johnson passed Truex for the third position. That’s the order in which they ran to the finish.

With his third-place finish, Johnson opened a 37-point lead in the Cup standings over second-place Kahne, who gained five spots. Johnson is 38 points ahead of Keselowski in third.

Keselowski position in the standings reflects a 25-point penalty levied after the Apr. 13 race at Texas, where NASCAR confiscated the rear axle housings of both Penske Racing cars and subsequently levied penalties on the organization. Penske has appealed, but Keselowski won’t regain the 25 points unless the appeal is upheld.

Note: For the third straight race, a driver won from the pole. The last time that happened was 1985 (Bill Elliott at Michigan, Dale Earnhardt at Bristol and Elliott at Darlington)

Out of the Tunnel Podcast – 45

This week special guest Toby Christie filled in for Adam who’s under the weather.  Toby writes for Sicknissified.com and he’s on a weekly NASCAR Radio show called The Final Lap.   You can follow Toby on Twitter – @Tobilical

Toby and I talked about all the action in Texas.  Oh, the drama from The pre-race inspection failured by Penske and the post-race comments by Mad-Brad.  Kyle’s dominance and Truex’s post-race failure.

Plus we talk about the amazing truck race in Rockingham and a scary moment in the Nationwide Race.

And of course, your favorite segment…. What’s Up Your Butt.

Lastly, I thanked ALL of the amazing people who donated to support me in the AIDS walk… we raised over $3,200 and were one of top fundraisers in this year’s walk….. I couldn’t have done it without YOU!

You can listen to the show three ways:

-  Listen on iTunes! Be sure to subscribe and rate us!

- Click Play: 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

- if the embedded player does not work, you can download the show directly by clicking here.

 

Busch caps perfect weekend with Cup win at Texas

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

credit Todd Warshaw / Getty Images for NASCAR

The record book will say that Kyle Busch won the NRA 500 on Saturday night.

If truth be known, Busch started the process on Friday afternoon and applied the coup de grace with 20 laps left on Saturday evening.

Yes, Busch capped a perfect weekend when he took the checkered flag .508 seconds ahead of runner-up Martin Truex Jr. But Busch’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at Texas, his second of the season and the 26th of his career started with a pole-winning run on Friday that afforded him the luxury of picking the No. 1 pit stall.

At the race’s crucial juncture, under the final caution for debris in Turn 4, Busch used a lightning-fast pit stop and the pit stall position closest to the exit from pit road to grab the top spot for the final restart. Truex restarted on the outside and struggled to maintain contact with the race winner.

Though he gained ground in the closing laps, Truex ran out of time.

During post-race inspection, Truex’s No. 56 Toyota failed the height-stick test and was deemed too low in the front. The car will be taken to NASCAR’s research-and-development center in Concord, N.C. for further examination.

Carl Edwards was third, followed by Greg Biffle and Joey Logano, who barely made the starting grid and rallied for an unexpected top five.

Busch, who won Friday night’s Nationwide Series race after claiming the pole, finished off the seventh Nationwide/Cup sweep of his career, a NASCAR record–and all because of the final pit stop.

“It feels good–oh, man,” Busch exulted after climbing from his car. “(Crew chief) Dave Rogers and these guys gave me a great piece today. We ran up front all day long. But if it wasn’t for my pit crew, the most awesome group ever–since 2008 we’ve been together, haven’t had any changeover–man, those guys are just awesome.

“They pulled out one heck of a stop right there at the end to put us up front, to give us that lead, and we were able to bring it home.”

Busch led a race-high 171 laps to 142 for Truex, who was beyond disappointed with the second-place result.

“We started near the front and had a decent car at the beginning, but not great,” Truex said. “We worked on it all night and got it to where it was the best car out there. The last caution came out, and we got beat out of the pits, and that was the race. It was pretty frustrating to run second again. I feel like we’ve been in this boat and this position a bunch of times.

“Nothing about it is much fun. At the same time, it was a good run for us. We had a great weekend. Had a good race car all weekend long, and we learned a lot about things we can use in the future. Just running second sucks, especially when you’re that fast. So (I’m) a little bit frustrated right now.”

Nor would Truex use Busch’s No. 1 pit stall as an excuse.

“We came in with the lead,” Truex said. “I still feel like we should have been able to beat him out. I don’t know what happened there, but it wasn’t even close. I was three (car-lengths) behind, so it wasn’t all pit position, it was other things on our end…

“It’s so hard to get in position to win these races. It is so hard to make your car good enough to beat Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch and all these guys; and we had that tonight. We’ve got to get better at taking advantage of that. That’s where we’re missing, and that’s what we need to work on. So that’s why I’m upset. Second is a great accomplishment, but it’s not what we’re here for.”

Truex streaked away from the field after a restart on lap 229 and opened a lead of more than 2.5 seconds over Busch. That advantage grew to more than four seconds before a worn-out right front tire threatened Truex’s winning chances.

As Truex brought his No. 56 Toyota to pit road under green on Lap 280, however, David Gilliland turned Marcos Ambrose’s Ford on the backstretch to cause the sixth caution of the night. As the yellow flew, Jeff Burton ran into the back of Mark Martin’s Toyota and spun into the inside wall.

Since both Truex and Busch were already on pit road when NASCAR called the caution, they remained in the lead for a restart on Lap 291. Truex opened a lead once again before a Lap 314 caution for debris in Turn 4 slowed the field again and allowed the lead-lap cars to pit for four tires.

Busch won the race off pit road, and that proved decisive, as he sped away after a restart on Lap 319 and made a bridesmaid of Truex for the sixth time since his only Sprint Cup victory on June 4, 2007.

Trouble started early for the Penske Racing Fords of reigning series champion Brad Keselowski and Logano. NASCAR confiscated the rear-end housings of the cars, forcing the teams to make a change before the race.

Keselowski made it to the grid in time for the start, but Logano’s car was late presenting itself on pit road and had to start from the rear.

“It is just something that is not in the spirit of the rules,” NASCAR vice president of competition told the Sporting News in explaining the violation. If penalties are forthcoming, they will be announced next week.

Nevertheless, both drivers rallied from a lap to down to post top-10 finishes. Keselowski came home ninth and remained second in the Cup standings, nine points behind Jimmie Johnson, who ran sixth on Saturday.

Odd File: Joe Jonas in Ricky Bobby’s Firesuit

There has been no shortage of fans using social media to invite their celebrity crushes out on dates or to the prom.

When Shaina Kolie posted a video asking Joe Jonas to attend her Sorority’s Formal Dance, she didn’t expect any response from the pop-star…. she certainly didn’t expect him to make a video of his own inviting her to his concert in Chicago.

Jonas put on Ricky Bobby’s Fire Suit and posted this odd but funny video to YouTube.

 

 

 

Out of the Tunnel Show 44

Matinsville delivered short-track goodness….. some great racing and just enough drama to satisfy us drama-queens.

This week Adam and I talk about the race…. the wrecks, the retaliation…. all that plus some praise for Danica and a tribute to the late Roger Ebert.

You can hear the show 3 ways……

You can listen on ITUNES

OR – click play:  

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

OR, download it directly by clicking here.

Jimmie Johnson dominates Martinsville for his eighth win at the track

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

Credit: John Harrelson / Getty Images

Jimmie Johnson made eight the easy way.

Leading 346 of 500 laps in Sunday’s STP Gas Booster 500 at Martinsville Speedway, Johnson racked up his eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at the .526-mile short track and the 62nd win of his career. For the second straight event at Martinsville, Johnson won from the pole.

Clint Bowyer ran second, followed by Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch.

The first repeat winner through six 2013 Cup races, Johnson regained the series lead by six points over sixth-place finisher and defending champion Brad Keselowski.

If a victory at a short track can ever be called a walk in the park, Johnson enjoyed a Sunday stroll from start to finish. At no point in the race did he run below fifth.

“I think the fact that we had just such a calm weekend was the biggest part,” Johnson said. “It’s easy to start chasing things here and get yourself off track. We always race well, and fortunately here you pit a lot and you can make big changes to your race car to get you in the ballgame.

“We’ve won races where we were just terrible to start the race, having no fun. (Crew chief) Chad (Knaus) is throwing spring rubbers in the car and the track bar is coming up or down, wedge in and out, all those huge, huge changes, and we get ourselves in contention.

“I don’t know where we were – someone said the worst I was on the track today was fourth [actually, fifth]. We just executed from the first laps in practice to where we were at the end of the race, and that was fun. We weren’t chasing a setup or track conditions or a variety of things that we’ve done in the past.”

Danica Patrick ran 12th in her first visit to Martinsville, her career-best Cup finish at an open-motor race track. Patrick was the top finisher from Stewart-Haas Racing.

NASCAR red-flagged the race on Lap 487, after the brakes failed on Kurt Busch’s No. 78 Chevrolet SS and sent the car hard into the Turn 1 wall. The car rolled along the fence, spewing flames from beneath the hood.

Busch had the presence of mind to trigger his fire extinguisher before the exited the car and climbed from the driver’s-side window apparently none the worse for the flames.

After the stoppage, Johnson led the field to a restart on Lap 493 with Bowyer beside him in the outside lane. But Johnson pulled away over the final eight laps to beat Bowyer to the finish line by .628 seconds.

To say that Hendrick Motorsports in general and Johnson in particular have a handle on Martinsville is a massive understatement. Johnson gave owner Rick Hendrick his 20th Martinsville victory, breaking a tie with Petty Enterprises for most ever at the paper-clip shaped speedway.

“There’s just certain tracks where the drivers that Hendrick has had over the past, as well as now—and just our race cars—it just really suits that,” said Gordon, who had a strong car on long runs but couldn’t keep up with his teammate over the short haul. “Qualifying up front really can be huge here.

You get a driver like Jimmie and a team like the 48—or ours as well, or the 15 (Bowyer)—you put them on the pole in that No. 1 pit stall (closest to the exit from pit road), and it’s going to be really, really hard to beat them.”

Bowyer’s winning chances suffered a blow during an 11-car incident on Lap 180. As caution flew for a crash on the backstretch, Bowyer ran into Jamie McMurray’s Chevrolet, which had checked up suddenly off Turn 4, and was clobbered from behind by his Michael Waltrip Racing teammate, Martin Truex Jr.

Bowyer had been strong in practice but qualified 15th and felt the mediocre performance in time trials had hurt him.

“I qualified bad, got ourselves back there, got it wrecked—got it tore up on both ends,” Bowyer said. “You get up there, and you’re door-to-door with the 48 that’s been enjoying clean sailing all day long, you look at him, and it’s ready to go back to the next short track.

“Mine is all tore to hell and ready to go put a new body on it. You know what you’re up against. You want to say, ‘Bad luck,’ and everything else, but you make a lot of your own luck. We did a lot of things well this week but missed it in qualifying and ultimately paid the price.”

Patrick, who started the race at the rear of the field because of an engine change, restarted 20th from the outside lane on Lap 369 and promptly dropped five spots as cars in the inside lane freight-trained her.

But Patrick patiently and methodically drove back to the 17th position and was running there when Brian Vickers cut a tire and spun on Lap 448 to cause the 10th caution of the afternoon.

The yellow gave drivers a much-needed opportunity to pit for new tires. Out first after the stops, Johnson led the field to green on Lap 459 with Gordon beside him. Yellow flew again shortly when chain-reaction contact between Vickers, Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. sent Earnhardt spinning in Turn 4.

Johnson passed Earnhardt as the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet tried to re-fire and right his car, putting Earnhardt a lap down. Earnhardt finished 24th and fell from first to third in points, 12 behind Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.

Notes: The 346 laps led are the most for Johnson in a single race in his career. Johnson also became the seventh driver in Cup history to lead 2,000 or more career laps at Martinsville. His total now stands at 2,327. … Despite fighting the handling of his No. 11 Toyota for much of the afternoon — and despite a snafu on pit road when he left before his left-front tire was mounted – Mark Martin salvaged a 10th-place finish subbing for injured Denny Hamlin.

 

The Out of the Tunnel Podcast – Show 43

DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA.  This week Adam and I talk about all the drama out in Hollywood.  Tony vs. Joey – on and off the track,  Denny vs Joey…. with updates on Denny’s condition and comments from Joey.

This week we introduce a new segment “90 seconds with Ross” where INDY Car guru, Ross Bynum updates us on the Indy Car opener in Florida.

All that plus:  What’s up our butts, Kyle Busch and Charlie Sean and Blogger Please.

We are pleased to announce that we are now on iTunes….. you can subscribe to us on iTunes by clicking here.

If you don’t use iTunes and want to  listen to the podcast like you did in the past…. no worries…… click here to play:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Or you can download the show by clicking here.

Kyle Busch wins at Fontana as Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano wreck on last lap

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

Credit: Tom Pennington/NASCAR via Getty Images

Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano knocked each other off the race track on the final lap of Sunday’s Auto Club 400 — allowing Kyle Busch to steal the win — but it was Tony Stewart who left Auto Club Speedway fighting mad.

Yes, it was Busch’s 25th victory in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Yes, Busch broke a 31-race drought. Yes, Busch gave Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota their first victory at Auto Club Speedway.

Yes, race runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr. leaves California with the Cup series lead, 12 points ahead of 23rd-place finisher Brad Keselowski.

But it was the banging between polesitter Hamlin and Logano — the renewal of a feud that started last Sunday in Bristol — as well as an angry confrontation between Stewart and Logano on pit road that stole attention from Busch’s milestone win. Stewart took umbrage at a block by Logano on the final restart with 11 laps left in the 200-lap event.

“I did win the race today,” Busch quipped. “That might be a story… They (Hamlin and Logano) were so focused on each other that they left the door open.”

His momentum broken by the block, Stewart fell through the field and finished 22nd. Earnhardt was second when caution froze the field on the final lap. Logano was credited with third, followed by Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch, who overcame a brush with the wall and a pit road penalty to post his second straight top five.

Hamlin nosed hard into the inside wall and was credited with a 25th-place finish. The driver of the No. 11 Toyota was airlifted to a local hospital as a precautionary measure. A helicopter was used because of heavy post-race traffic outside the speedway.

As Logano put it later, the driver of the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford was simply trying to do whatever was necessary to win the race. That applied both to the block of Stewart and the battle with Hamlin.

“Racing for the lead — going for the win,” Logano said. “That’s what you’ve got to do… Tony was just upset about a restart, that I was racing him really hard on the bottom trying to make sure I protected my spot. What I was doing actually was I was racing the 18 (Kyle Busch) on the restart and he was spinning his tires.

“The rule is you can’t beat him to the start finish line, so I am pedaling it which gave Tony the run to go underneath me. I wanted to block that because I knew, if he put me three-wide, that would be the end of my race and I wouldn’t win. I was smart enough to realize that. Then I had to just do what I had to do to get to the front and try to win the race.”

Stewart had a substantially different view of the incident.

“For a guy that’s been complaining about how everyone else is driving here, and him to do that, it’s a double standard,” Stewart said. “He makes the choice. He makes the decision to run us down there (to the apron), and when you run a driver down there, you take responsibility for what happens after that.

“He’s a tough guy on pit road, as soon as one of his crew guys gets in the middle of it. Until then, he’s a scared little kid.”

A caution on lap 170 for Marcos Ambrose’s blown left-rear tire followed almost immediately a round of green-flag pit stops and wiped out Busch’s five-second lead over Harvick. That set up a restart on Lap 175 with Busch on the outside and Harvick beside him in the inside lane.

Harvick, however, failed to launch on the restart, allowing Kahne to move into second with Stewart behind him. One lap later, Mark Martin’s spin off Turn 2 brought out the seventh caution and bunched the field for a restart on Lap 181.

Kyle Busch pulled away once again, but the engine in Clint Bowyer’s Toyota exploded on Lap 185, giving cars running ninth on back a chance to pit for fresh tires in hopes of gaining ground on a final charge to the finish.

Kyle Busch paced the field to a restart on Lap 190 with Logano beside him, despite overheating issues that threatened his chances for a strong finish. Stewart was third and Kurt Busch fourth when the field took the green.

Stewart was the biggest loser on the restart, thanks to the block Logano threw on the No. 14 car as the field stormed through Turn 1. Logano got the better of Kyle Busch on lap 194, as Hamlin streaked through the field on fresh tires to move into second.

Just past the finish line on Lap 199, Hamlin moved to the outside of Logano, and the drivers banged doors repeatedly until the contact sent Hamlin spinning and Logano into the outside wall, allowing Kyle Busch to steal the win.