Matt Kenseth wins at Richmond; Chase field set

RICHMOND, Va. Matt Kenseth closed out NASCAR’s regular season with a victory Saturday in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

Now it’s on to the playoffs.

Kenseth’s triumph his fourth of the year helped set the field for the 16-team, 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which begins Saturday at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. The Chase concludes Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Kenseth finished ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch. Joey Logano, who started on the pole, finished third. Aric Almirola, who needed a victory to qualify for the Chase, was fourth.

There was no movement of drivers either moving into or out of the Chase grid. Jamie McMurray clinched his spot in the postseason just by starting the race. Clint Bowyer, who finished 10th, moved into the 15th spot ahead of Paul Menard, who struggled and was 26th.

“This is a good way to go into the Chase,” Kenseth said. “We were really superb in the long runs, but had to work on short runs. But it feels good to come here and do everything right.”

It was a dominant evening for Gibbs drivers. Denny Hamlin, racing with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, was sixth. Carl Edwards was 11th. The team’s drivers have won nine of the last 15 races beginning with Edwards’ victory at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. Since then, Busch went on a four-wins-in-five races streak and Kenseth won two-of-three at one point. Edwards won the Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway last week.

At one point during the race, JGR cars were running in the top four spots.

“That’s when I was most nervous in the race,” JGR team owner Joe Gibbs said. “But everybody who is in (the Chase), we always talk about winning, but being consistent is going to be a huge part of it. All 16 teams earned their way in, but if somebody gets hot, they’ll have a chance at winning the championship.”

Although it rained for several hours during the day, the bad weather had stopped by the time the green flag was to drop at 7:44 p.m. Still, the race was postponed by about 15 minutes while work crews worked to dry off a portion of pit road.

The race was relatively wreck-free. After 18 cautions at Darlington (a track record), there were just six yellow flags at Richmond.

The final yellow came out for debris on Lap 372. It provided Almirola, who finishes 17th and one spot out of the Chase, with a chance at the win. He was fourth at the time and came out of the pits in third. But he was unable to make up any ground on Kenseth, Logano and Busch.

Kenseth led for long stretches including 56 laps at one point and 62 at another.

The top seed in the Chase goes to Johnson, a six-time champion who has had an uneven summer. He was ninth Saturday.

“We didn’t have the summer that we wanted to have,” Johnson said. “But we’ve been in this position before during some of the years that we were able to win the championship. It’s not a true sign of where we’re at, but we know we can do better.”

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