“We ere up front the whole time, and that’s what you want, right? You want everybody in your mirror,” Kenseth said. “I really didn’t get to see much of the racing, except what I saw in my windshield (mirror).”
Kenseth ran nearly the perfect race. He started the Pure Michigan 400 at the front of the field and that is where he stayed for most of the afternoon, leading 146 of the race total 200 laps. At the end of the day, Kenseth crossed the finish line ahead of everyone.
After the race, Kenseth said it was all in the day’s work. Every driver strives to win the race at hand. He said the team approaches every race with one goal — to win.
“To win at the Sprint Cup level to me is a huge deal. It’s something that doesn’t happen very often, and you have to enjoy each and everyone of them,” said Kenseth, who now has three race victories this season and 34 in his career. “We showed up this weekend with the idea of trying to qualify the best we can and race the best we can, and we’ll do the same next weekend.”
It was the second win in three races for Kenseth, whose first victory of the season came at Bristol Motor Speedway, the site of the next race, in April.
Finishing second to Kenseth was series leader and reigning Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick, who admitted to having an “up-and-down day” and was happy to finish on the podium.
“The first half of the race or so, really struggled with the handling of the car. (The latter part of the race) we were able to have a good enough handing car to drive back up through there and everything go good,” the race runner-up said. “I didn’t have anything for the 20 (Kenseth’s car). But for everything that we overcame, it was still a good day.”
Martin Truex, Jr. placed third at the Pure Michigan 400.
One of the stories on the day was the effort by Kyle Busch, who is fighting to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Busch has won four races this year despite missing the first part of the season while recovering from a broken leg and shattered foot suffered on Feb. 21, 2015. His four wins tie him for season high, but NASCAR said he must be in the Top 30 in the driver standings in order to qualify for the Chase.
Busch’s race was dealt a blow when he was forced to start at the back of the field after an accident in practice forced him to go to his backup car. Though stating the outcome “wasn’t what we wanted,” Busch deemed Sunday’s race a “success.” He ended up leading 10 laps and finishing 11th and solidifying his position within the Top 30. He sits 29th, 18 points ahead of the driver in 30th and 23 points up on 31st.
“We had a really, really fast car yesterday, but I screwed up and wrecked that car,” Busch said. “It was a winning car, (though) maybe not the winning car.”
Ten drivers have secured their spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, 11 if you include Kyle Busch, who must finish the regular portion of the season among the Top 30 in the drivers standings. With only three races remaining before the start of the Chase, all eyes are on Busch and the other five non-winners on the Chase grid and the others on the outside looking in, for whom a win will put them in the 2015 10-race shootout for the series title.
Next on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule is the Irwin Tools Night Race, at Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway, on Aug. 22, 2015. The Chase for the Sprint Cup begins at Chicagoland Speedway, on Sept. 20, 2015, and ends with the crowning of a champion in Miami on Nov. 22, 2015.
