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22nd
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Despite Matt Kenseth's dominance at Kansas Speedway he had to deal with a determined Kasey Kahne to notch his second win of the year for his new team Joe Gibbs Racing.
The key was Kenseth's Toyota beat Kahne's Chevy off of pit road after the day's final caution.
"When it was in front, we knew it was really fast," said Kenseth, who also won in Kansas last fall for Roush Fenway Racing. “If we could get (off pit road) first, we'd be tough to beat."
Oddly enough he likened the 400 mile race to child game. “ It was kind of like musical chairs," Kenseth said. "You had to be out front when the music stopped. Our car was very fast in clean air. It was reasonable in dirty air, but it wasn't quite good enough to catch all them guys and pass 'em (in traffic).
"Thankfully, I had a couple of really crazy-good restarts for some reason and made up some ground and got us back in position."
"We were very close at the end, battling with Matt," Kahne said. Then he added that the finish reminded him of a race earlier this year. "Felt like Vegas all over again, just kind of felt like really similar to that in how I could catch him but couldn't really do anything once I got close. It made my car a little bit looser. So I tried a few things there, and he kind of blocked those spots and went those directions and gained the speed that I (had), and then we were even again.
"It was tough, but we still had a great race."
With a third-place finish, Johnson opened a 37-point lead in the Cup standings over second-place Kahne, who gained five spots. Johnson is 38 points ahead of Keselowski in third.
“Well, it's hard to believe we've got a huge gap like that in the points already,” said the five-time NASCAR champion. “We've been off to a great year and even had some trouble at Bristol and didn't finish as well as we did there and 37 points up on everybody is pretty awesome.”
Talking about the race in Kansas Johnson added “last two days we've had a comfortable race car, but just didn't have the speed in it for qualifying and for the fast lap time that you would see in practice sessions, the first lap out. But our car was comfortable over the long haul and we just kind of waited and hoped that the comfortable balance that I felt in the race car would be there come race time, and it was.”
Keselowski drove a car with something like battle damage to sixth place and that felt like a pretty good finish to the 2012 Sprint Cup Champion. “Yeah. Usually, you're not happy unless you win, but a day where you can fight through adversity like we did today and get a solid finish, that kind of is a win, yes,” he said. And, referring to the stiff penalty imposed on the team by NASCAR for a technical rules violation he added. “Yeah, it's been a long week, but we're not giving up.”
Penske Racing has appealed those penalties on both Keselowski's and Joey Logano's cars, crew and driver's points. No date has been set for that appeal.
The key was Kenseth's Toyota beat Kahne's Chevy off of pit road after the day's final caution.
"When it was in front, we knew it was really fast," said Kenseth, who also won in Kansas last fall for Roush Fenway Racing. “If we could get (off pit road) first, we'd be tough to beat."
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| Photo: NASCAR |
Oddly enough he likened the 400 mile race to child game. “ It was kind of like musical chairs," Kenseth said. "You had to be out front when the music stopped. Our car was very fast in clean air. It was reasonable in dirty air, but it wasn't quite good enough to catch all them guys and pass 'em (in traffic).
"Thankfully, I had a couple of really crazy-good restarts for some reason and made up some ground and got us back in position."
"We were very close at the end, battling with Matt," Kahne said. Then he added that the finish reminded him of a race earlier this year. "Felt like Vegas all over again, just kind of felt like really similar to that in how I could catch him but couldn't really do anything once I got close. It made my car a little bit looser. So I tried a few things there, and he kind of blocked those spots and went those directions and gained the speed that I (had), and then we were even again.
"It was tough, but we still had a great race."
With a third-place finish, Johnson opened a 37-point lead in the Cup standings over second-place Kahne, who gained five spots. Johnson is 38 points ahead of Keselowski in third.
“Well, it's hard to believe we've got a huge gap like that in the points already,” said the five-time NASCAR champion. “We've been off to a great year and even had some trouble at Bristol and didn't finish as well as we did there and 37 points up on everybody is pretty awesome.”
Talking about the race in Kansas Johnson added “last two days we've had a comfortable race car, but just didn't have the speed in it for qualifying and for the fast lap time that you would see in practice sessions, the first lap out. But our car was comfortable over the long haul and we just kind of waited and hoped that the comfortable balance that I felt in the race car would be there come race time, and it was.”
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| Crash Kyle Busch and Joey Logano. (Caption: NASCAR) |
Keselowski drove a car with something like battle damage to sixth place and that felt like a pretty good finish to the 2012 Sprint Cup Champion. “Yeah. Usually, you're not happy unless you win, but a day where you can fight through adversity like we did today and get a solid finish, that kind of is a win, yes,” he said. And, referring to the stiff penalty imposed on the team by NASCAR for a technical rules violation he added. “Yeah, it's been a long week, but we're not giving up.”
Penske Racing has appealed those penalties on both Keselowski's and Joey Logano's cars, crew and driver's points. No date has been set for that appeal.