Busch wins XFINITY Series Kansas Lottery 300

It’s quite possible – given Talladega’s propensity for producing massive multi-car wrecks – that Kenseth, Earnhardt and Busch may not even be running at the checkered flag. “We have two opportunities and we are a good enough team so we will see how that works out”. On the other hand, Matt Kenseth performs best when under pressure so don’t be surprised if we see the second walk-off performance in this year’s Chase. “If he fixes my problems, then I think we’ll have a decent day”.

Kenseth has every reason to be optimistic this weekend.

Busch finished eighth during the spring race at Kansas Speedway, where his best finish was a runner-up performance in the fall of 2013. Busch started the No. 54 fourth in the lineup and led 56 laps of the 204-lap event.

Then, consider that his five victories this season are the most of any driver, and that his Joe Gibbs Racing stable has won 13 times in all, more than any other team. Doing whatever it takes to get the win and move forward in the Chase is one thing, but Edwards is somewhat safe now in sixth place and a more conservative race may just be all he needs to stay safe in the championship hunt.

He might also have an intangible quality that is very hard, if not impossible, to measure: the willingness to stand your ground against your competitors, those you must beat to win the title. “I don’t know if the penalty is worse or not” if a risky move fails, he replied. “As the day went on, it got harder and harder for us to do that”, Kenseth said. He has led more than 500 laps.

JGR senior vice president Jimmy Makar said the team, which has gotten wins from all four of its drivers this year, has shown improvement in both engines and aerodynamics.

“My tongue was hanging out man, I can’t imagine what Matt felt like”, Busch said.

“I look at Chicago; we weren’t where we wanted to be and we definitely weren’t where we wanted to be at Dover or Charlotte, but beforehand we had a few great runs and we still have a lot to be proud of, but we just have to keep it going”. Can’t do anything about last week.

Busch never recovered from the incident, finishing 20th.

But it was the final restart in regulation that pushed Busch to victory.

“Good starting spot for sure, definitely a really good starting position”, he said. Kevin Harvick came to pit road for a splash of fuel to avoid the same fate.

The drama was for those near the cut line, including Earnhardt Jr. and Logano; Earnhardt went back out with six minutes left and went from 24th to seventh.

As a result, Buescher continues to leads the point standings but his margin over Elliott is pegged to 27 points, with Regan Smith five points further back just three ahead of Ty Dillon in fourth place.

Keselowski is firmly in the middle of the pack heading into the second of three races in this round, and a victory would give him an automatic berth in the eight-driver elimination round. Unlike Kenseth, Earnhardt admitted that he faces a must-win situation at Kansas.“We aint got nothing to lose, ” he said.

“If it happened to us in one race, it can happen to anybody in this race or the next race”.