NASCAR’s championship race took a huge swing Saturday night moments after a viscous wreck sent Jimmie Johnson spiraling in the standings.
Matt Kenseth passed Kyle Busch with 25 laps to go at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., and was pulling away when Johnson’s wreck brought racing to a halt.
The five-time defending champion was running seventh with 17 laps remaining when contact with Ryan Newman sent him headfirst into the wall. The hit was so hard, his back tires briefly lifted off the track.
He finished 34th and dropped to eighth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings with five races remaining.
Johnson, winner of last week’s race at Kansas, had started the race ranked third in points and only four points behind leader Carl Edwards.
“That one stung for sure. Pretty big impact,” Johnson said. “Definitely not the night we wanted. This is not going to help us win a sixth championship.”
“What happened to Jimmie Johnson is a sobering lesson for everyone,” winning car owner Jack Roush said.
Kenseth, meanwhile, was celebrating in Victory Lane for the third time this season. He quietly hung near the front all night, but missed several chances to take the lead because of botched restarts. He finally got it right with 25 laps remaining when he sailed past Busch, and held him off again on the final restart with 13 laps to go.
Enumclaw’s Kasey Kahne recovered from a late crash to finish fourth. Vancouver, Wash., native Greg Biffle, who led 68 laps before experiencing various troubles, finished 15th.
MASSEY CAN’T QUALIFY
Top Fuel points leader Spencer Massey failed to qualify Saturday for the final eliminations today in the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Ariz.
Larry Dixon, Cruz Pedregon, Mike Edwards and Hector Arana Jr. raced to the No. 1 qualifying positions in the 20th of 22 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series and the fourth of six races in the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship, the six-race playoffs to determine the world championships.
Pedregon held on to his top spot in Funny Car with his Friday night run of 4.215 seconds at 296.37 mph in his Toyota Camry. It was Pedregon’s sixth No. 1 qualifier of the season, 45th of his career and second in the Countdown to the Championship, with his last coming in Dallas.
Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan was sixth in the field in his Dodge Charger, while second-place Mike Neff qualified fourth. Countdown contender Ron Capps failed to qualify.
HORNADAY WINS TRUCKS RACE AGAIN
The afternoon heat and high speeds at Las Vegas Motor Speedway had trucks slipping and sliding all over — into the wall, into each other, eventually into the pits.
For a veteran driver like Ron Hornaday Jr., this was a perfect setup to turn back all those flat-out-all-the-time youngsters he’s been chasing all season.
Hornaday waded through a crash-filled Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday for his second straight victory.
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