Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the pack to the race starting green flag and by the end of the first lap, Dale Jr. had himself the lead, which he held onto for 70 laps.
Cautions today included a
- Lap 44 incident with Timmy Hill.
- 73: A David Reutimann spin.
- 127: Travis Kvapil blew an engine.
- 204 & 229: debris caution.
- 244: Landon Cassill blew an engine.
- 255: Kurt Busch RR tire blew, sending him into the inside wall.
- 259: Kyle Busch LR tire, solo spin.
That that said,
Brendan Gaughan hit the wall early... no caution, but hard enough to mess his day up.
Despite Dale Jr. pulling away and leading the entire first bit of the race, he had a scare when he started pitting on lap 44/5 when the caution came out... but he got back out in time and retained the lead for the restart.
On the restart, Dale Jr. again led them to speed...
On lap 71, car Nos 88, 17, 29, 16 and 14 were the front runners.
The lap 78 restart found Dale Jr. back in the pack for the first time today, in 16th after taking four tires while many took two!
The front runners included Kenseth, Harvick, Johnson, Stewart and Biffle.
A bit later Jimmie Johnson took the lead from Kenseth...
With around the 50 to go mark, we had Stewart, Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth lead the pack to speed.
With 38 to go, we had a caution and the field piled onto the pits. Two or four tires? If any!? Leaders were topping off only and everyone was ready for the last dash of the day. (I thought)
But one more caution pulled everyone together for a restart but this restart cursed Brad Keselowski which was a shame... it looked like he might have won this race... but he had some sort of fuel issue.
But now the race looked like it was going to come down to Tony Stewart (leading) and Jimmie Johnson on his tail. (I wonder if Jimmie might have been saying "Here kitty, kitty, kitty"?)
But then as they got going, the No. 51 car of Kurt Busch drove-piled the wall after his RR tire went away, bringing everyone back together and cooling those tires back down down. Again.
(I don't think Kurt's having fun yet this season.)
Again... with 9 to go, Stewart led them aggressively to the line and pulled away while Johnson spun his tires.
AND THEN KYLE BUSCH spins and lands it in the grass... LR tire flat.
OK, once again, with feeling!
With 4 to go... Stewart, Johnson, Biffle, Kenseth, Edwards... and Edwards shot down onto the apron to pass the pack and Kenseth gets into the outside wall... the closing few laps Johnson covered Stewart's butt like a blanket, trying to pass him.
With one to go, Johnson can't quite get there and Tony Stewart won the Kobalt Tools 400, Jimmie Johnson finished 2nd, followed by the 16, 39, 99, 16, 27, 1, 21 & 88 cars.
It was good to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. perform well in clean air but once he got in dirty air, he seemed to have a few more issues.
Plus, I was keeping an eye on Dale Jr. during restarts. On SiriusXM radio, a caller had said earlier in the week that Jr sucked at restarts. It seemed to be a bit of an iffy talent of his on this day.
But there you have it... a snarky race recap from NASCAR Bits and Pieces on the Kobalt Tools 400.
NASCAR: Kobalt 400 results - unofficial
Now... we all wait until Tuesday when we'll hear about the No. 48 team appeal decision! See ya there!
=-Bruce
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