All Kyle Busch could do was watch as his teammate Matt Kenseth slid by and on to victory Saturday night at Darlington Raceway. After a dominating night that saw Busch lead more laps than anyone his Toyota began to fade in the closing stages; Kenseth was able to make the winning pass with 13 to go and power his way to his first Darlington win.
“The car was really, really fast. We had a lot of speed in it,” Kenseth said. “We just kind of got off. The racetrack changed, we got much looser than we anticipated. We really could never get it. The second to last pit stop we made we had it closer, but then it took off and wasn’t going to be near good enough. I don’t know what they changed the last pit stop.”
“I told them about four laps into the run, if we were going green to the end, we were going to be pretty good. Thankfully we saved the best for last.”
The win was even more special for Kenseth as his Joe Gibbs Racing crew was led by Wally Brown substituting for Jason Ratcliff who is serving a one race suspension. Teammate Denny Hamlin came home second in his first full race since a back injury at Texas in March sidelined him. MORE>>>
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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