Jimmie Johnson took a fuel gamble in the NASCAR race at Kansas Speedway Saturday night (5/9) to capture his third win in the Sponge Bob Square Pants 400.
Joey Logano started the race from the pole, but had to go to the back of the field not once, but twice due to pit road penalties. While he was able to race his way forward through the field both times with a fast car, the second time was too much to have a chance to race for the win.
During a caution period on lap 107 the rain began and the Sponge Bob Square Pants 400 was put under the red flag. The rain delay would last two hours and sixteen minutes before the field was brought back out on the track and racing would resume at Kansas Speedway.
There were ten drivers that led the race and exchanged the lead 16 times. Martin Truex Jr. appeared to be the car to beat through most of the race as he led a race high 95 laps in the 267 lap event. However, as the race neared the end the #78 Chevrolet along the majority of leading cars chose to pit under the last caution of nine total that came with just 11 laps left in the race.
Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were two of the handful of cars that chose to gamble that they had enough fuel to make it to the end and stay out instead of pitting. They restarted the race in the front row with Jimmie on the outside and Dale Jr. on the inside. The two Hendrick Motorsports teammates raced side-by-side for the first lap after the restart, but Jimmie was able to pull out to the lead after that. The #48 Chevrolet was able to hold off the charges of Dale Jr. and Kevin Harvick to grab his third win at Kansas Speedway and third win of the 2015 Sprint Cup season.
Kevin was able to get around Dale Jr. to grab second place and third places respectively. Jeff Gordon finished in fourth place with Joey Logano’s second charge through the field resulting in a fifth place finish. See the complete race results in the Sponge Bob Square Pants 400 here.
The top five in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Point Standings remained steady with Kevin Harvick in the lead followed by Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in second through fifth places respectively. See the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup Point Standings here.
Jimmie Johnson’s win at Kansas moves him to the top of the 2015 Chase Grid by becoming the only driver with three wins this year. Kevin Harvick has two wins and sits in the second spot on the grid. Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin remain the only six drivers on the grid with a single win this year. See how the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase Grid looks following the 11th race of year at Kansas Speedway here.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup season takes a break from racing for points this week as it heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the All-Star weekend. The NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers will be racing for bragging rights and $1 million in the Sprint Showdown Friday night May 15th and the All-Star Race Saturday night May 16th.
By: Buck Stevens
