Kenseth wins as Johnson wrecks

Matt Kenseth fended off Kyle Busch to claim his third win of the season while reigning champion Jimmie Johnson took a major hit on his title hopes after crashing out of the race.

In a night where the Roush Fenway Fords looked to be the class of the field, Kenseth made the most of his Fusion, timed his strategy and his moves to perfection, overtaking Busch following a late restart after the Joe Gibbs Racing had paced the field for 110 consecutive laps.

Once on clean air Kenseth was able to open a gap and then keep Busch on his mirrors, hoping the race would go green all the way to the checkered flag.

However with 18 laps remaining the caution waved after Johnson got loose while trying to overtake Ryan Newman for seventh place into turn one. The #48 car drifted towards the inside of the track but Johnson couldn't avoid his car then turning right, up into the banking and straight into the wall at speed.

The massive impact from which he was able to walk away unhurt brought Johnson's day to a sudden end while seriously hitting his points tally in the play-off ranking after he was classified 34th.

On the final restart, 12 laps from the end, Kenseth was able to pull clear of Busch and fend him off, putting things right after he had slipped back in a previous restart against the Joe Gibbs Racing driver while lining up beside him.

Kenseth's win vaults him up to third in the standings, while his team-mate Carl Edwards continues to lead the Chase trailed by Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick by five points.

"It was an awesome win for us," said Kenseth. "I knew we had a car that if we could get it to the front it would be hard to beat. But it was really hard to pass tonight, specially after you had 20 laps or more on your tyres, you needed to get it done right away.

"It was a fun race with Kyle. We had a pretty decent restart there in the second-to-last one, got by Denny [Hamlin] and Carl [Edwards]. After running Kyle down it was tough to get by him. Glad we could make it happen because it was challenging."

Kenseth's and Johnson's race had looked almost equally promising earlier while they run first and second before a caution ahead of the halfway point shuffled the order as tyre strategies came into play.

Both of them took on a full set of Goodyear's while a number of drivers led by Tony Stewart took only right-sides, but despite being on equal footing, Johnson struggled to make as much progress as his Roush Fenway rival in the end, the Hendrick driver only racing back to the top 10 again shorty before his incident.

"The #39 just got tight on my right rear quarter panel getting in to turn one and just took the air off the side of my car and around I went," said Johnson. "From there I was trying to save the slide, got pointed back to the fence and hammered the wall."

In a day when overtaking was at a premium as proved by Johnson's incident, the younger of the Busch brothers made impressive progress after being forced to start from the back of the field following an engine change.

Busch lamented having lost a possible win, although his second place allows him to move back up to fourth in the title race.

"That 17 [Matt Kenseth] -- he found something that none of us could find tonight and made something out of nothing," said Busch. "He just out drove me. Great run by the [team]. The guys did a great job and gave me a great car. Best run we've had here in a while. Still coming up short."

Edwards extended his impressive top-10 run of results in the Chase with a third-place finish ahead of Red Bull's Kasey Kahne who scored his third-consecutive top-5 finish in the play-off. Richard Petty's Marcos Ambrose was a surprising fifth after running towards the front of the field for most of the night as his team-mate AJ Allmendinger who was sixth behind Harvick.

Tony Stewart looked as a victory contender early on, leading the first 42 laps from pole position but didn't have as much speed in the deciding stages. A late clash with Greg Biffle cost him a few spots but he recovered most of those to finish eighth ahead of JGR's Denny Hamlin and his team-mate Ryan Newman.

Penske team-mates Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski had both a tough night, never being in contention for a top-finish. In the end Busch salvaged a 13th place while Keselowski was the first car a lap down in 16th.

It was also a difficult night for Hendrick Motorsports as besides Johnson's accident, Dale Earnhardt Jr lost further ground in the Chase after an unscheduled green flag pitstop lost him a lap to the leaders late in the race. His team-mate Jeff Gordon spun at turn two on a restart after getting tapped by Kahne, while Mark Martin had a lengthy stoppage in the garage with mechanical issues.

Pos Driver Team Laps 1. Matt Kenseth Ford 334 2. Kyle Busch Toyota 334 3. Carl Edwards Ford 334 4. Kasey Kahne Toyota 334 5. Marcos Ambrose Ford 334 6. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 334 7. A.J.Allmendinger Ford 334 8. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 334 9. Denny Hamlin Toyota 334 10. Ryan Newman Chevrolet 334 11. David Ragan Ford 334 12. Joey Logano Toyota 334 13. Kurt Busch Dodge 334 14. J.P.Montoya Chevrolet 334 15. Greg Biffle Ford 334 16. Brad Keselowski Dodge 333 17. Paul Menard Chevrolet 333 18. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 333 19. D.Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 333 20. Brian Vickers Toyota 333 21. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 333 22. J.J. Yeley Ford 333 23. Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 332 24. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 332 25. Regan Smith Chevrolet 332 26. David Reutimann Toyota 332 27. Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 332 28. Landon Cassill Chevrolet 332 29. Bobby Labonte Toyota 331 30. Mike Bliss Ford 331 31. Trevor Bayne Ford 329 32. Casey Mears Toyota 323 33. Hermie Sadler Ford 322 34. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 316 35. Dave Blaney Chevrolet 292 36. David Gilliland Ford 289 37. Mark Martin Chevrolet 287 38. Robby Gordon Dodge 33 39. Michael McDowell Toyota 30 40. Travis Kvapil Ford 27 41. David Stremme Chevrolet 22 42. Andy Lally Ford 20 43. Joe Nemechek Toyota 11

Hamlin: Toyota teams to collaborate

Denny Hamlin says Toyota teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series plan to work closer together in order to have a better shot at the title next year.

Following the announcement earlier this year that Joe Gibbs Racing, the leading Toyota outfit in Cup, is set to run Toyota Racing Development (TRD) engines like those used by Michael Waltrip Racing and Red Bull Racing, the Japanese manufacturer plans to get its teams to share more information in the future.

Speaking at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Denny Hamlin said he ran a Michael Waltrip Racing car equipped with the new for 2012 fuel injection system during last week's test at Phoenix International Raceway. He said the move was part of a new philosophy of having a bigger pool of information for all Toyota teams in NASCAR's top Series.

Chevrolet currently has more than a third of the Cup field, while Ford has almost the same amount of cars, leaving the smallest roster to Toyota.

"I think there are some things in both programmes and if we work together, the two Toyota teams, we can make all of them better," said Hamlin. "But, there has to be some transparency between the teams and I think they are starting to do that.

"It's not the one element that we have to work on to make our cars drive like the MWR cars because I feel like our cars are strong in the running sense and a lot of areas. You got to kind of mesh those worlds. It definitely opens up your eyes to see different changes that you might want to have."

Part of the success that Toyota has enjoyed in the Truck and Nationwide Series, where it has already been champion, has been due to TRD bringing its teams together in an effort to beat rival manufacturers Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge.

Hamlin believes the possible closure of the current Red Bull Racing Team may eventually bring the number of Toyota teams down to only two, making it even more important to join forces between the remaining outfits.

"Realistically [it could be] two teams after this year is over with the Red Bull cars going away, so we have to optimise," he said. "When you think about it, Roush has probably 10 cars out here in different teams and things like that. So, they have 10 engines, so when they work on fuel development and things like that, it's affecting a large part - 25 per cent - of the field.

"Same with the RCR [Richard Childress Racing], Hendrick engines - you have so many Chevrolet cars and Ford cars that they're able to share that fuel information and everything.

"We have to really figure it out between a couple teams. If we can double our capacity by getting more information from MWR and MWR coming over and helping JGR, then that's going to help all Toyota teams.

"That's our goal, to try to make Toyota as strong as possible because the better they run, it's going to help us and vice versa. I think in the future you'll see all the teams work a little bit closer together."

Hamlin reckons Toyota may currently be at a disadvantage relative to its competitors in the engine department, given that all other manufacturers have released new engines over the past four years while Toyota continues to run the same block it has since joining the series in 2007.

"They have the oldest engine, believe it or not, of all the other manufacturers," he said. "Ford and Chevrolet and Dodge, I feel, have come out with new engines these last few years and it's really seemed to help them where we have the oldest block.

"We have the same block that we started with years ago. Things change and obviously we're trying to optimise that engine as much as possible, but maybe we should go to NASCAR and lobby to get a newer engine.

"Their support is unwavering. I feel like they're going to do whatever it takes to get on top of this game. It took a little while for it to happen in the Trucks and even longer to happen in the Nationwide Series and the same thing goes for Cup.

"This is a very competitive business and asking them to just be out here and be the best right off the bat, it's possibly too much to ask for. It could be some time before you'll see that."

Toyota's chances of fighting for this year's Cup title rely solely with Kyle Busch right now, as Hamlin has lost too much ground in the title race, following a poor start to his Chase.

Childress laments Bowyer's exit

Team owner Richard Childress says he regrets that Clint Bowyer is leaving his outfit and all but confirmed that financial reasons caused their split.

Bowyer announced last week that he will join Michael Waltrip Racing for the next three years after agreeing a deal with the Toyota outfit and sponsor 5-Hour Energy.

When speaking about his deal Bowyer said he tried to get his sponsor to be part of a new deal with that had been in the works with RCR for months, but that negotiations hit a stumbling block.

Speaking at Charlotte Motor Speedway Childress said the team had a car fully sponsored for Bowyer to run but admitted they could not agree on financial terms.

However he left the door open to Bowyer returning with his outfit sometime in the future. Childress gave the former Nationwide Series champion his break in NASCAR back in 2004.

"We knew what our financial model was and Clint knew where he needed to be and we just couldn't ever come together to make it work," Childress said. "We had the car completely sponsored but it just didn't really work out and I'm very sad that it didn't because I really like Clint.

"He's going to be a great driver. Never say never; hopefully he will be back some day at RCR."

Following Bowyer's departure, the outfit is expected to downsize its operation back to three full-time cars again, with a fourth one being fielded at some events for RCR protege and Truck Series leader Austin Dillon, who made his Sprint Cup debut at Kansas last week.

However Childress did not completely rule out making further use of his fourth entry.

"Right now we're looking at three Cup cars with an occasional Cup race," he said. "Who knows what may come up between now and then? I've had offers to race people and race drivers and had another full sponsorship with a driver; I just want to make sure it's the right move when we make it. So we're still, as of right now, three Cup teams."

He added: "I'm sure if we don't have a team we may stick Austin in another car one or two times. We've got a couple of other people that said 'hey, we want to run.' If we see it's the right opportunity for a change that we can test something or look at a driver or something we may do that."

Bowyer has scored the most points this season out of those not in the Chase, outperforming many of the title contenders in the past four races and coming close to victory three weeks ago at Loudon.

Stewart claims pole at Charlotte

Tony Stewart claimed his first pole position of the season in qualifying for Saturday's Chase round at Charlotte.

Rebounding from two weekends where he lost ground in the standings -after winning the first two races of the play-off - the two-time Cup champion beat the benchmark set by fellow title contender Matt Kenseth by 0.006s in order to win his first pole position in more than a year.

"I thought we could pick up time [relative to practice] because we were watching lap times and guys weren't picking up as much [time] as we're used to seeing here at Charlotte," said Stewart. "I knew [Stewart Haas team-mate] Ryan [Newman] would put in a good lap.

"I rely on Ryan a lot when it comes to qualifying because he's the master at it for sure. So just took some of the information he gave us and went forward.

"It'd be nice to be the first guy to get to the start-finish line at the start of the race this week. This is a place where track position is really important so this is an awesome start for our team."

The Roush Fenway Fords of Kenseth and Chase leader Carl Edwards were two of a total four Fusions in the top-five as Richard Petty's AJ Allmendinger and Roush's Greg Biffle were fourth and fifth, ahead of Stewart's team-mate.

Richard Childress Racing's Paul Menard and Red Bull's Kasey Kahne had been fastest earlier in practice but could not improve significantly on their qualifying runs and ended up seventh and eighth ahead of reigning champion Jimmie Johnson.

Most of the title contenders were spread through the field, RCR's Kevin Harvick pipping Hendrick's Dale Earnhardt Jr from provisional pole after his run but ending up just inside the top-15 in the order.

Penske drivers Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski were among those not enjoying solid qualifying runs – ending up 20th and 26th respectively.

Trevor Bayne was the fastest of those having to make the race on speed, securing a top-ten starting spot on his series' return after last racing a Cup car five weeks ago at Chicagoland Speedway. Former Truck Series champion Geoffrey Bodine, Scott Speed and Josh Wise failed to make the field.

Teams will run two practice sessions on Friday focusing on race preparations ahead of Saturday night's event.

Times to follow.

Johnson feels 'back in the groove'

Reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson is confident his team is on top of its game as the halfway point of this year's Chase approaches.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver has charged from 10th up to third in the play-off standings in the last two weeks, following a second-place finish at Dover and his second win of the season at Kansas last Sunday, which placed him just four points behind championship leader Carl Edwards.

Johnson has led 394 laps during this year's Chase so far, more than twice the number of second-best man Kurt Busch, who has been up front for 164 laps. Johnson is also one of only three drivers to have led each one of the play-off races.

While still early to draw any conclusions about the championship, the Californian believes his team's level of performance is right where it needs to be in order to be in contention, although he remains cautious about labelling anyone as favourite with six races to go.

"I definitely feel that our groove is here, and it's been slowly building," said Johnson. "In some respects I wish it would have got here a long time ago. If you go back to the regular season and how we ran in Atlanta... Richmond was going to be a strong night for us...

"We had some good momentum in the three or four races coming into the start of the Chase. Chicago was a great race for us. I'm speaking also for the pit crew, as well, not only on track but on pit road. We've been slowly building in these last two weeks. It's hard to argue with a second and a first and all the laps that we led, what type of performances we've been having.

"I'm excited. I feel that we're where we need to be. We're in a groove of sorts, but this year it's been tough to stay consistent, not only for ourselves but for all the drivers, and I think it's going to make for an exciting Chase as we go here, and that's why you can't pick a favourite at this point.

"We're going to have to get three or four more races behind us to kind of see the picture of who's going to be racing for the championship."

Next up in the play-off schedule is Charlotte, a track where Johnson leads all Chase rivals with six victories in points-paying races. His recent performances at other mile-and-a-half tracks like Chicago and Kansas make him confident of keeping his momentum rolling at the halfway point of the title race this weekend.

However he remains wary of what the race may have in store from a technical standpoint after he struggled to be a contender for victory when the series visited Charlotte last May for the All-Star and the 600-mile races. Johnson retired from the season's longest event with an engine failure after fighting his way to a hard-fought top 10 spot in the closing stages.

"I think we're going to be a threat," Johnson said. "When I go back to Chicago, Kentucky, Kansas obviously, our mile and a half stuff has been coming along pretty good over the last two or three months, so I feel good about it.

"Charlotte, with that asphalt that's down, it is its own environment and really tough to get your car right from the start of the race to the end of the race. So I feel like directionally we're going the right way, but until I get on the track this week and understand what our grip level is and what our issues are, it's hard to build too much confidence.

"But it's been that way all year. It's so tough to take what you learn at one track and carry it to the next, harder than I have ever seen it in our sport."

Following Jeff Gordon's engine failure at Kansas last weekend, Johnson remains the only Hendrick Motorsports driver with a clean shot at the 2011 title as the four-time champion and Dale Earnhardt Jr are respectively 47 and 43 points behind in the Chase rankings.

Johnson dominates at Kansas

Jimmie Johnson took a dominant second win of the season at Kansas, strongly enhancing his quest for a sixth consecutive title.

The reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion probably produced his most emphatic display of the whole season, leading 197 out the 272 laps run, only looking under threat on the green-white-chequered finish, when the charging Red Bull Toyota of Kasey Kahne challenged him.

Johnson was more than 12 seconds ahead of the field when the third caution of the day waved for debris 61 laps from the end, apparently turning the race into yet another fuel-saving contest. However a further caution on lap 219 allowed the leaders the chance to pit, Johnson going for a splash while others like Tony Stewart, his main rival at the time, took on new right-side tyres also.

The Hendrick driver restarted from third behind Penske's Kurt Busch and Richard Childress' Kevin Harvick, both of whom stayed out during the caution to gain track position, but it took Johnson just a couple of laps to put things back in order at the front of the field.

Just when he looked under control once again, yet another caution waved only 27 laps from the end. Johnson and his team were aggressive with their strategy and pitted once again for two new tyres, while Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin gambled on staying out.

Again Johnson lost no time in jumping to the front, passing both drivers on the inside as soon as the green flag waved. As he pulled away from his rivals Kahne started to make up ground, getting an unexpected break to challenge Johnson in a two-lap sprint when the final caution waved due to fluid being spilled on the track from Jeff Gordon's failing engine.

Kahne spun his tyres on the final restart, then got pushed by Keselowski as a consequence, while Johnson pulled a couple of car-lengths ahead. The Red Bull Toyota reeled in the leader on the last lap but Johnson held Kahne off to win for the first time in the last 21 races, ending his longest win drought in Cup.

Johnson is now third in the points, only four points off the Chase lead. His victory also ensures he is the only Cup driver to have won at least one race in every Chase since 2004, Sunday's being his 20th victory in a play-off event.

"There are just days when you have the strength across the board and you can control the race," said Johnson, whose victory was the 199th for Hendrick Motorsports and gave yet another manufacturers' title to Chevrolet in the process. "It's just one of those days when we had the strength in all areas and we could capitalise on it."

Kahne's second-place finish kept momentum rolling for Red Bull Racing as the team remains amid the uncertainty of trying to secure funding to keep it rolling into 2012, once Red Bull pulls the plug on its backing.

Keselowski managed a strong third-place finish which allows him to move back up to fourth in the standings as the leading Penske driver, following a tough day for his team-mate Kurt Busch, who came back from a lap down to challenge at the front through strategy, but dropped down to 13th at the flag.

Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth was fourth, leading the race for 26 laps - the most any other driver but Johnson managed. Behind him his team-mate Carl Edwards kept his top-10 Chase streak rolling with fifth, which vaults him up to the Chase lead. Edwards recovered from being a lap down in the late stages of the race while struggling with handling throughout the day.

"That was very, very bad at the beginning of that race," said Edwards. "I cannot thank my guys enough for sticking with it and working hard all day. I cannot believe we finished fifth. It feels like a win. That is the most we have done with a car that wasn't capable of winning ever."

Harvick charged to sixth in the end and drops to second in the standings, while the rest of the top 10 was filled by non-Chasers, led by RCR's Clint Bowyer.

Stewart, who looked to be Johnson's main threat for a while, finished only 15th after a four-tyre stop during the penultimate caution cost him track position. Although he moved up to seventh following that, he pitted once again under the final caution but slid in his pit-stall, having a long stop that placed him on the tail end of the lead-lap cars. His team-mate Ryan Newman got back on the lead lap during the final caution and finished 18th.

Patrick: Teams key to transition

Danica Patrick hopes being supported by top and established teams while moving to NASCAR will allow her to succeed in her transition.

The IndyCar star will be competing full-time in the Nationwide Series next season while running a number of Sprint Cup races in what will be the third year of a gradual entry into stock car racing.

Patrick is the latest open-wheel driver to make the move into the NASCAR ranks, following recent attempts from former IndyCar colleagues Sam Hornish Jr and Dario Franchitti.

While Hornish continues to race sporadically after losing his full-time Cup drive at Penske Racing at the end of last year, Franchitti could not complete his debut season in Cup with Chip Ganassi Racing, being hampered by an injury sustained during a Nationwide race at Talladega. The Scotsman then returned to IndyCar and is currently in the running for a fourth title, which would be his first in a row since his return to the series.

Despite her IndyCar peers' past experiences, Patrick believes her chance to tie up with top NASCAR teams can make the difference for her. JR Motorsports, her current team in Nationwide, is among the leaders in the second-tier series and is co-owned by Rick Hendrick, while she will be driving for Tony Stewart's Stewart-Haas Racing in selected Cup outings in 2012.

"The support that I have makes a big difference," Patrick said. "It makes a big difference when you have people looking after you and from the very beginning, at the end of the [2010 Daytona] ARCA race to hear Mr [Rick] Hendrick come on the radio and say something to me, and to get phone calls from him from time to time telling me 'good job', that's pretty cool.

"It's a good confidence booster and he's obviously paying attention. He cares along with all the other people that go with it.

"I'm really fortunate to have good people looking after me, hoping to their best to see me succeed."

At JR Motorsports Patrick currently works alongside Tony Eury Jr, who served as crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr in Cup up until 2009. He is expected to continue to work with her next season, something she values as they continue to build up to her first full season in the sport.

"I just try to surround myself with good people and get support and I ask a lot of questions and I try to take as much advice as I can from people, trying to fast-track my learning," said Patrick.

"I'm lucky to have Tony Eury Jr. I know he's got a lot of experience and he listens to me and I feel like we just keep getting better over time, for him to know what kind of characteristics on the car I like.

"And obviously I feel like I'm getting better to where I know what I'm looking for, more so than before. With those things hopefully we can be successful, but everybody's different."

She added: "I think the most important thing is that you're lucky enough to be with a very established team that has good resources."

Patrick competes at Kansas Speedway this weekend in her 22nd NASCAR Nationwide series outing, her ninth of the season thus far.