Another sunny day in Avondale, though high clouds are visible. Congrats to Ryan Blaney on capturing the pole for this race.
The stages are 75-75-162 for today’s race.
Kutey Kyle Larson won the first stage.
Kutey Kyle Larson headed to the garage on lap 104 with an ailing engine.
Jimmie hits the wall on the last lap of stage 2. It appears he lost the right rear on lap 149 of 312.
Denny Hamlin wins stage 2.
Denny Hamlin hits the wall on lap 275 of 312. Denny heads for the ambulance for a trip to the infield care center.
He says he’s going to ‘make sure his competition doesn’t win’ at Homestead.
Kurt ‘KuBu’ Busch’s hood is crumpled up – not sure what happened on the restart to cause that. MRN is saying that Erik ‘Da Brat’ Jones checked up to avoid Brad ‘It’ Keselowski stacking up the field. Looks like Newman checked up and KuBu got into the back of him. Several cars got together in the midst of that incident, but everyone keeps going.
Chase Elliott loses the lead to Matt Kenseth with five laps to go.
Kenseth wins.
I have to say the final four for Homestead leaves me not interested in watching that race. I have a preference to win the championship,
Kenseth is crying in his on-track post-race interview. He’s thrilled as his career winds down. He’s announced that he’s stepping away at the end of this season. He’s apparently not had any offers that meet his standards. Good for him. He deserves to be in a ride of which he can be proud. He’s a good egg it seems.
Chase is totally bummed and blaming himself. I was hoping Chase would win and get in to Homestead to provide a bit of interest to the race. That didn’t happen so the final four are…
Final Four Championship Contenders:
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Busch
- Kevin Harvick
- Brad Keselowski
The best I can hope for is the expected outcome which leaves me with a lack of excitement, a lack of anticipation for Homestead. I have drivers to cheer for, but a lack of enthusiasm for either of them becoming champion. It would simply be better than the alternative.
NASCAR News:
- Unspeakably racist tweets at black NASCAR driver get coach fired.
- NASCAR world puzzled by 2 mid-race fires strangely on the track wall.
- Kenseth Back in Victory Lane.
- Johnson’s Hopes for Eight End.
- Larson Suffers Fourth Straight DNF.
- Justin Allgaier’s car fails post-race inspection, expected to lose crew chief for title race.