Matt Kenseth Nails Third Win of Season at Charlotte

Racin’ with Russ  

With Matt Kenseth rising to the occasion in winning the latest round of the Sprint Cup Chase at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Jimmie Johnson’s cape falling off late in the show, oddsmakers are narrowing their choices down to four with just five weeks remaining.

Kyle Busch led quite a few laps, but a late race restart saw Kenseth rocket by the Shrub and grab his third win of the season, moving up two spots to third in the standings, just seven markers shy of the lead.

Tony Stewart led the opening laps after earning a rare pole position, but Greg Biffle’s Ford Fusion was strong enough to zoom out front and distance itself from the field. Biffle’s strong run started to fall apart mid-race when his crew left a lug nut off, forcing an extra pit stop and ultimately a remarkable 15th place finish.

While Kyle Busch was out front for more than 100 laps, Johnson tried to make some kind of decent finish. As Johnson tried to pass a difficult Ryan Newman, he lost the car on his own, winding up very hard and going head-on into the outside wall. The bell-ringing hit left Johnson limping away from the wreck and wondering what might have been.

As Kenseth took his latest checkers, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, a rapid Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose wrapped up the top five. Edwards had been alongside Busch at one point before being sliced off, a point Carl immediately brought up to Busch after the race.

Edwards now leads the points, just 5 ahead of Kevin Harvick, 7 in front of teammate Kenseth and 18 ahead of Kyle Busch. The rest of the pack has their work cut out for them.

Notes

With Johnson spinning out on his own with only 17 laps remaining, I will go on record to say his chance at a sixth consecutive title is toast. I don’t think even Johnson can recover from being 35 points down over the next five weeks to earn the next title. It was nice run while it lasted.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had another so-so day, sliding further down in the standings and further away from that next elusive win.

Nationwide

Carl Edwards made yet another miraculous recovery after side slapping the wall early in the race with his Nationwide Ford Mustang. The crew made a series of repairs to get Edwards’ Ford back on track and beat Kyle Busch to the finish line for his eighth checkered flag of the season.

Busch, Trevor Bayne, Elliott Sadler and Brian Scott capped the top five, while points leader Ricky Stenhouse dropped late from a top five to ninth, yet still leads Sadler by 15 with just three shows to go.

Truckin’

Ron Hornaday continues to impress, winning his 51st truck race in dominating fashion in Las Vegas. Points leaders Austin Dillon and James Buescher both had miserable days, finishing 17th and 21st, respectively, the result of separate wrecks, yet both managed to stay atop the standings in first and third with Johnny Sauter in between. Hornaday jumped up to fourth, just 21 out of first. Amazing!  

Across the Pond

Sebastien Vettel won his 10th Formula One race of the year, this one in Korea in front of  Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber. Vettel already nailed down his second title last week despite having three races left in the season.

Indy Car News

In what should have been a celebration of a new champion and a chance for Dan Wheldon to win a special $5 million prize in the Indy Car series finale in Las Vegas turned to tragedy when the 33-year-old driver succumbed to injuries after a horrific 15-car wreck on the 12th lap of the race.

The 34-car field had jockeyed for position three and four cars wide when two cars touched and set off the wild melee of cars flying through the air and into each other and the catch fencing.

After a two-hour red flag period, the drivers, team owners and series officials decided to cancel the remainder of the race in honor of the two-time Indy 500 winner. The very personable driver from England was a fan and driver favorite and will be sorely missed. God speed, Dan.

From Rumorville

Several readers have asked where, if anywhere, Mark Martin will compete next year. Martin was asked this again over the weekend, when he said he will be in Cup racing in a part-time capacity.

I think he will land at Stewart-Haas as a teammate and mentor to Danica Patrick. After that, who knows?

That’s it for this week. Next week, RWR will review the Cupper and truck results from the big one, Talladega, along with more racing news from around the globe.