Bristol NASCAR: Matt Kenseth wins after repeated rain delays

Organisers persisted in their attempts to get the complete race distance run on Sunday despite rain coming and going throughout the afternoon and evening.

The weather caused an initial interruption of four hours early in the race, another shorter one just after half-distance and a final stoppage just after the scheduled 500 laps had been run, as a shower arrived during the build-up to a green-white-chequered finish.

NASCAR kept cars out under caution trying to dry the track at first, then decided to red flag the race once again and squeeze in one last sprint to the chequered flag between showers.

Polesitter Kenseth had brought his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the front amid a series of late incidents, and stayed there ahead of Jimmie Johnson through the eventual green-white-chequered to record his first win of the year, as a race that was due to begin just after 1pm local time finally finished at 10.30pm.

Johnson battled through to second despite involved in a number of incidents including a tangle with the lapped Jeb Burton that collected Kevin Harvick and David Ragan.

Jeff Gordon made it two Hendrick cars in the top three, ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart. The latter had been involved in a five-car pile-up less than 30 laps from the eventual finish, summing up the incident-packed day.

Among the others in trouble were the Penske team-mates, who crashed into each other early on when Brad Keselowski got sideways while trying to lap Alex Kennedy and collected Joey Logano.

Carl Edwards was also in contention at the front until lap 494 of the planned 500, when a restart incident with Jeff Gordon sent him into the wall and then into the path of Kurt Busch, ending both their hopes and caused the yellow under which the rain reappeared to prompt the final delay.

Denny Hamlin withdrew from the race when he suffered a neck spasm, but his Joe Gibbs Toyota continued in the hands of Xfinity Series frontrunner Erik Jones, who was rapidly called up as a stand-in.

RESULTS - 511 LAPS:

LEADING CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Provisionally in the Chase: Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth