Sunday, April 19, 2015

Kenseth Wins Rain-Soaked Food City 500

Originally written for CLNS Radio.
  
Matt Kenseth won a rain-delayed Food City 500 on Sunday from the Bristol Motor Speedway.

Kenseth picked up his first victory of the season, ending a 51-race winless drought.  

Photo courtesy Sarah Glenn/Getty Images
“Last year was tough, and not winning again this year so far has been tough,” Kenseth said.  “It means a lot, I’ve got a great race team.”

Kenseth not only outlasted his competition, but also had to contend with Mother Nature throughout the day.  The race took over nine hours to complete, with a red flag on lap 22 halting the race for nearly four hours.

After a caution on lap 493 collected some of the race’s stronger cars, the rain returned to place the race under an extended caution period.  NASCAR eventually red-flagged the event for a few minutes while the track dried, and that set up a wild green-white-checkered finish.

Jeff Gordon was one of three drivers under that extended caution who were in danger of running out of gas.  Austin Dillon ran out of gas under the caution, but Kenseth and Gordon were able to save enough to get to the finish.

“That was just chaos,” Gordon said.  “I certainly didn’t like NASCAR running us around…under caution for so long, I thought were going to run out of gas.  I hate it for the 3 [of Dillon], but happy for Matt.  I think he deserved it…it would have been a shame if he had run out of gas.”

Unofficial results:

1. Matt Kenseth
2. Jimmie Johnson
3. Jeff Gordon
4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
5. Ryan Newman
6. Tony Stewart
7. Kyle Larson
8. Justin Allgaier
9. Danica Patrick
10. Austin Dillon
11. Paul Menard
12. Clint Bowyer
13. Aric Almirola
14. Jamie McMurray
15. Kurt Busch
16. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
17. Brett Moffitt
18. David Gilliland
19. Sam Hornish Jr.
20. Alex Bowman
21. Matt DiBenedetto
22. Michael McDowell
23. Michael Annett
24. Carl Edwards
25. Chris Buescher
26. Denny Hamlin
27. Cole Whitt
28. Trevor Bayne
29. Martin Truex Jr.
30. Greg Biffle
31. Mike Bliss
32. J.J. Yeley
33. Alex Kennedy
34. AJ Allmendinger
35. Brad Keselowski
36. Casey Mears
37. Kasey Kahne
38. Kevin Harvick
39. Josh Wise
40. Joey Logano
41. David Ragan
42. Jeb Burton
43. Landon Cassill

Photo courtesy Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

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