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nascar.com photo
Matt Kenseth earned
his third victory of the 2012 on Sunday by capturing the Hollywood
Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Kenseth
survives wild one on Kansas
nascar.com
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Fans who came to Kansas Speedway on Sunday thought
they were attending a 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 a spin on
the backstretch during the race.
Kenseth won the race despite scraping the wall behind a spinning Aric
Almirola after a restart on Lap 173
"I thought it was over when I got in the fence when Aric wrecked under
Mark [Martin]," Kenseth said. "I was watching them and trying to make
sure I didn't hit them and I flat-sided it pretty bad. It ended up
working in our favor. They fixed the body as good as it was when we
started, and we had to take less gas in that last pit stop, and the pit
crew put me out front.
"I knew I hit it really hard but thought it was centered up in the door
real good, and we had a similar thing happen at Homestead last year. As
soon as we got the fender back where it was supposed to be, it was
fine. I was happy, as hard as I hit it, that my steering wheel was
still in the right place."
Throughout the day, however, other drivers found themselves in the
wrong place at the wrong time. The slick, new racing surface at the
1.5-mile speedway 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 Sprint Cup.
For this story and more, go to www.nascar.com
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