Matt Kenseth survives wild Cup race on new pavement at Kansas
Oct. 21, 2012
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Fans who came to Kansas Speedway on Sunday thought they were attending a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
Instead, they witnessed the latest episode of "Survivor.”
Matt
Kenseth won a wild war of attrition, otherwise known as the Hollywood
Casino 400, beating Martin Truex Jr. to the checkered flag
by .495 seconds to claim his third victory of the season, his first at
Kansas and the 24th of his career.
Paul Menard ran third, followed by polesitter Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart, who rallied from a 33rd-place starting position
and spin on the backstretch during the race.
The
slick, new racing surface at the 1.-5 mile track produced a
track-record 14 cautions for 66 caution laps, and no one was immune
from disaster -- not even a five-time champion.
Jimmie
Johnson's quest for a sixth Cup title appeared to have suffered a
severe setback on Lap 135, when the No. 48 Chevrolet spun in
heavy traffic and backed into the Turn 4 wall. After leading 44 laps,
Johnson had just taken a wave-around for a restart on Lap 128, having
been trapped a lap down when Aric Almirola smacked the Turn 2 wall, and
the resulting caution interrupted a cycle of
green-flag pit stops.
Johnson,
however, stayed on the lead lap through a succession of pit stops under
the yellow, and a liberal application of BearBond kept
the No. 48 competitive. Astoundingly, Johnson and his team salvaged a
ninth-place finish on a day that could have been much worse and remained
seven points behind eighth-place finisher and series leader Brad
Keselowski with four races left in the Chase for
the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
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