It was a Saturday night race under the lights at Kentucky Speedway. The speedway was hosting their very first NASCAR Sprint Cup series race. The Quaker State 400 took the green flag to a sellout.
Friday’s track activities were halted when rain cancelled the first practice. Teams were able to get back on track for final practice.
22 cars into qualifying rain came and wiped out the rest of qualifying. Kyle Busch was awarded the pole.
Busch whacked…
I guess if you have been following practices since Thursdays test session the end result shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Kyle Busch was fast all weekend long. When qualifying was rained out Busch had prime track position and he never gave it up. Busch led 125 laps on his way to the inaugural victory at Kentucky Speedway.
He didn’t have much competition on Saturday night. Late in the race Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowksi were looking like they could challenge Busch. Pit cycles and late race cautions saw Busch hold of David Reutimann and Jimmie Johnson. Busch moved up in the standings to the points lead by four points over Carl Edwards.
Snake bitten…
Been a very rough month for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his team.. He had been running so well heading into Michigan but that is when the wheels have fallen off. He has finished 21st, 41st and 19th heading into tonight’s race the team needed to stop the bleeding.
They weren’t very good and struggled mid pack for much of the race. They couldn’t get the amount of grip they needed and on the final pit stop of the race disaster occurred. They were taking just fuel instead of taking at least two tires.
As he went back onto the track his right front tire blew and his night was basically over. He would finish 30th on the night and drop to eighth in the standings.
Heavy traffic…
No, I am not talking about on the race track but for the fans coming to the race. After watching fans attending the Nationwide race on Friday night the main entrance to the track was backed up as the field took the green. Members of the media warned fans to come early for Saturday night’s race.
Well they did and as they got closer to the green flag fans were tweeting that they were still not even near the speedway because of the backups. Prior to halfway word spread on Twitter that they were turning people away from the track because they did not have enough parking.
The speedway will have some work to do if they want fans to come back to the track. There is really no excuse for paying customers to get turned away because of logistics.
Lug Nuts…
-Jamie McMurray’s troubles continued with a very ill handling race car and then a blown engine on lap 200. He would finish 36th.
-Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon found themselves racing around each other a lot on Saturday night. Both struggled with ill handling race cars but both were able to take advantage of timely cautions and wave around. Newman worked his way into a top five finish and Gordon wound up 10th.
-Reutimann season hasn’t gone exactly as planned but on Saturday night he showed what he is capable of. Running top 10 all night long Reutimann needed one more lap and he could have won the race instead of Busch.
For the rest of tonight’s results click here and for the updated standings click here.
Next up for the NSCS is New Hampshire Motor Speedway Sunday at 1 ET on TNT.
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