Matt Kenseth shook of an early penalty and held off Kasey Kahne for 12 laps to hang on and win Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kahne, who won in the spring, tried numerous times over the final dozen laps to make the pass but never could get it to stick. On the last lap, he went for the bump and run and missed.
Kenseth’s win in the IRWIN Tools Night Race was the fifth of the season, most in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. With the win, he clinches a spot in the Chase for the Championship, which starts in three weeks at Chicagoland Speedway.
“I know he wanted it bad,” Kenseth said afterward. “We raced as hard as we could race.”
The race was fairly clean until a seven-car crash erupted on a restart with 53 laps remaining.
Hamlin, who started on the pole, made contact with Brian Vickers, cutting Hamlin’s right rear tire. Hamlin clipped Ryan Newman in a chain reaction crash that also collected Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex, Jr., and Brad Keselowski.
he NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to action at 7:30 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 1, at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the AdvoCare 500 (ESPN).
Unofficial Race Results:
- Matt Kenseth
- Kasey Kahne
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Brian Vickers
- Joey Logano
- Paul Menard
- Jeff Gordon
- Marcos Ambrose
- Greg Biffle
- Dale Earnhardt
- Kyle Busch
- David Ragan
- Jeff Burton
- Clint Bowyer
- Aric Almirola
- Travis Kvapil
- David Stremme
- Ricky Stenhouse
- Jamie McMurray
- Mark Martin
- Ryan Newman
- Dave Blaney
- Landon Cassill
- JJ Yeley
- David Gilliland
- Danica Patrick
- Ken Schrader
- Denny Hamlin
- David Reutimann
- Brad Keselowski
- Kurt BUsch
- Tony Raines
- Casey Mears
- Kevin Harvick
- Martin Truex KJr
- Jimmie Johnson
- Josh Wise
- Bobby Labonte
- Carl Edwards
- Scott Speed
- Michael McDowell
- Ryan Truex
- Joe Nemechek
