Kenseth Wins at Michigan as The Chase for The Nextel Cup Tightens
Matt Kenseth easily held off Jeff Gordon on the final laps of the Gordon Food Service 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday to take his third Nextel Cup Victory of the season and thirteenth of his Cup career. The win wasn’t enough however to propel Kenseth into the series points lead past Jimmie Johnson who came home thirteenth despite cutting a tire down on lap 2 and brushing the wall.
Kenseth said after Sunday’s race that he made a conscious effort on the final run to pace himself so that he had enough tires left in the final laps to hold off a surging Jeff Gordon. Gordon’s post race comments suggested he may have been able to compete for the win if he just has a few more laps.
Kenseth’s win puts him securely behind point’s leader Jimmie Johnson in second place. Both Kenseth and Johnson are projected to secure a spot in The Chase for the Nextel Cup possibly as soon as this weekend at Bristol.
Sunday also saw Mark Martin, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon all move up in the Nextel Cup top 10 while Kyle Busch and Jeff Burton lost ground but remained in the top 10 for the time being. Making this years Chase seems all but lost for Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch. Kasey Kahne is still trying to hunt down 10th place from Dale Earnhardt Jr. but he will need a lot of good luck the next two weeks as well as some bad luck for Dale Jr., Jeff Burton and Denny Hamlin.
This week the Nextel Cup Series roars into Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee for the Sharpie 500. Last years winner, Matt Kenseth will look to make it two in a row as he tries to defend his title and lock his team into the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
by Michael Cash – thespread.com – Email Us
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