Kenseth Takes Dominant Win
Former NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Matt Kenseth ended his 57-race losing streak after dominating the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway
The 2003 Champion last visited Victory Lane in March 2004 when he won at Las Vegas.
Kenseth, who started on pole position, led 415 of the race's 500 laps, and survived a late race challenge from Jeff Burton to take the win.
The result vaulted him from 15th to 11th in the points standings and back into contention to make the Chase for the Championship, with two races to go before NASCAR resets the points of the top ten drivers. He is now only 11 points outside the top ten.
Burton scored his best result of the season, and his first top three finish since the Subway Fresh 500 at Pheonix back in April.
Kenseth's Roush Racing teammate Greg Biffle finished third, ahead of Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace, who was competing in his last race at the half-mile oval - his favourite track.
The race featured 16 caution periods for a series of crashes, the biggest of which came on lap 318. Dale Jarrett appeared to deliberately spin Ryan Newman round, in revenge for an earlier incident where Newman had tipped Jarrett into a spin on lap 210.
Both Newman and Jarrett into the wall but Newman's Dodge spun back down to the inside of the track into the path of Kevin Harvick.
Jarrett was held for two laps by NASCAR officials for his part in the incident after his Ford was repaired. Harvick lost 148 laps while his car was repaired and Newman retired. The incident damaged all three's chances of making the Chase for the Championship.
"My contact was unintentional, his was intentional." Newman said. "But NASCAR saw that. I didn't expect Jarrett to retaliate like that."
Four times Champion Jeff Gordon finished sixth, elevating him two places in the points standing to 10th, which places him within the Chase for the Cup.
There are two more races left, before the Chase begins.
Pos Driver Make Laps 1. Matt Kenseth Ford 500 2. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 500 3. Greg Biffle Ford 500 4. Ricky Rudd Ford 500 5. Rusty Wallace Dodge 500 6. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 500 7. Mike Bliss Chevrolet 500 8. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 500 9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 500 10. Kurt Busch Ford 500 11. Ken Schrader Dodge 500 12. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 500 13. Elliott Sadler Ford 500 14. Scott Wimmer Dodge 500 15. Michael Waltrip Chevrolet 500 16. Mark Martin Ford 500 17. Mike Wallace Chevrolet 500 18. Jeremy Mayfield Dodge 500 19. Travis Kvapil Dodge 500 20. Brian Vickers Chevrolet 500 21. Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 500 22. Jeff Green Dodge 500 23. Dave Blaney Chevrolet 500 24. Carl Edwards Ford 499 25. Kyle Petty Dodge 499 26. Jamie McMurray Dodge 498 27. Terry Labonte Chevrolet 497 28. Jimmy Spencer Dodge 493 29. Sterling Marlin Dodge 491 30. Hermie Sadler Chevrolet 491 31. Dale Jarrett Ford 478 32. Carl Long Chevrolet 472 33. Kyle Busch Chevrolet 448 34. Casey Mears Dodge 427 35. Bobby Hamilton Jr. Chevrolet 411 36. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 410 37. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 352 38. Robby Gordon Chevrolet 332 39. Ryan Newman Dodge 317 40. Scott Riggs Chevrolet 309 41. Stanton Barrett Chevrolet 251 42. Kasey Kahne Dodge 212 43. Johnny Benson Chevrolet 78 The Chase for the Cup Pos Driver Change Points 1. Tony Stewart - 3410 2. Jimmie Johnson - 3197 3. Greg Biffle - 3186 4. Rusty Wallace - 3139 ↑↑ clinched positions ↑↑ 5. Mark Martin - 3014 6. Jeremy Mayfield - 2983 7. Kurt Busch - 2982 8. Carl Edwards +1 2849 9. Ryan Newman -1 2819 10. Jeff Gordon +2 2799 ↑↑ Current contenders ↑↑ 11. Matt Kenseth +4 2788 12. Jamie McMurray -2 2787 13. Elliott Sadler - 2765 14. Dale Jarrett -3 2721 15. Dale Earnhardt Jr .+1 2682 16. Kevin Harvick -2 2677 17. Joe Nemechek - 2660 18. Brian Vickers - 2590 19. Jeff Burton +2 2529 ↑↑ Still with possibility ↑↑
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments