Please note: Spoilers are contained in this article. If you would rather watch the race without knowing what happened, please come back later.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Samsung Mobile 500 was scheduled to start at 11:00 am central time, with the Nationwide O’Reilly 300 set to go off 45 minutes following the end of the Cup Race.
Tony Stewart won the pole for the Samsung 500 with a pole speed of 191.327 MPH, with Sam Hornish Jr on the outside pole. There were 7 caution periods for 32 laps, and 2 were non-accident related: a competition caution on lap 27, and on lap 312 for fluid on the backstretch, when David Reutiman went up in literal flames. If you follow the NHRA, you know what a funny car fire is. David Reutiman did everything but blow the body off of the car.
The Samsung 500 started simple enough, the cars became rather strung out as is typical of a 1.5 mile race after being rained out, but after the competition caution, business picked up in a hurry. By lap 65, 3 of the top 5 cars were owned by Rick Hendrick, with Tony Stewart filling out the 4 for 6 of Hendrick’s satelite operations. On lap 79, brian Vickers spun to bring out the second caution period, which trapped 3 or 5 cars a lap down because they had just pitted prior to the caution. The lead changed hands during the resulting pit stops, but Hendrick Motorsports still had a commanding lead, at one point having all 4 Hendrick Teams plus Tony Stewart, blockading the top 5 positions. Shortly thereafter on lap 113, Sam Hornish went for a loop-de-loo in turn 2 without hitting anything, but brought out the caution flag. On this round of pit stops, because it had only been 10 laps, the top 5 became shuffled as teams excersized strategy between fuel, 2 tires, and 4 tires. Also on this round of pit stops, Jeff Burton hit the commitment cone, and was penalized with a tail-end position on the restart.
The middle of the race, from lap 116 to 234, was competitive deep in the field, however, Rousch and Hendrick dominated the top of the scoring pylon. This interval was 118 laps which comprised of 2 rounds of green flag pit stops, and Hendrick/SHR once again had a Lion’s grasp of the top 4. Juan Pablo Montoya broke up the long, strung out period, when he went for a spin, bringing out the caution with 100 to go. Another 80+ lap run then ensued, with a round of green flag stops occuring with 54 to go, until David Reutiman had his engine let go in a ball of fire with 24 to go. After Reutiman made it back to pit road and was extinguished in a plume of white extinguishing agent, Pit road was opened, allowing the entire field to get new tires and fuel for the final 18 lap sprint race.
The field took the green flag with 18 to go, however, only 3 laps later, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, and Jeff Gordon tried to force the issue of multiple cars into a piece of track that only fits one car, while crossing the finish line for lap 319. The resulting Melee sent cars scattering through the infield grass and into a very blind turn one. NASCAR immediately posted the red flag to stop all action on track, as turn 1 was completely clogged with sliding cars. In the end, 7 cars were removed from the track, most by wrecker. Only Carl Edwards, AJ Allmendinger, and Joey Logano were able to drive back to the garage under their ownpower. Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon, Jamie McMurray, and Juan Pablo Montoya were brought back to the garage via Tow trucks, causing a proverbial traffic jam in the garage. I am not sure if Paul Menard was towed to the garage or if he arrived under his own power. Gordon had led 124 laps prior to being eliminated from the race.
The red flag lasted 20 minutes 28 seconds, and racing resumed with 12 laps to go. Only a few cars pitted under this caution, most electing for track position over tires. Jeff Burton took the field to the green flag, but Denny Hamlin quickly got around him for the lead. Johnson restarted sixth, and through an aggressive and determined charge, finished the race in second, 0.152 seconds behind Hamlin. This was Hamlin’s second win this year. Dale Earnhardt Jr spent the least time on pit road, and thus won the Tissot Pit Road Precision award, with a total time of 275.470 seconds.
Joey Logano started the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 from the pole, with teammate Kyle Busch directly behind him in third, and Clint bowyer along side in 2nd. Bowyer had been eliminated from the Cup race via the 7 car debacle into turn 1, and was looking for redemption on the day, while the two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers simply wanted to survive running 801 miles in a single day. Like the cup race, a competition caution was scheduled to take place around lap 25, due to the lack of practice. And survive, they did. Both of them checked out early, pulling a long lead on Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, and Jamie McMurray. The competition caution came at lap 25 and all cars came to pit road. The running order stayed virtually unchanged through the round of stops, Joey Logano still led Kyle Busch over Carl Edwards.
Kyle Busch took the green flag on lap 31 via a lead change on pit road, and resumed the all-so-familiar routine of lapping the field at a fast pace. The next caution did not come out until Justin Lofton made very heavy head-on contact with the inside wall of the backstretch on lap 68. 6 laps were run under the yellow, as the safety trucks worked diligently to clean up the remnants of Lofton’s car. Kyle Busch led the field back to green on lap 74, only to be slowed again when Clint Bowyer hit the wall in Turn 3. The prior lap, he and cup teammate Kevin Harvick made heavy contact, giving Bowyer a tire rub, which cut the tire down, leading to the contact with the wall.
Kyle once again brought the field to the green flag on lap 89, again towing Logano and Edwards. Kyle and Logano dropped off the track on lap 132 for green flag pit stops, giving the temporary lead to Carl Edwards for 3 laps, until he came to pit rod on lap 135. However, when Edwards goes to leave his pit box, a catastrophic failure occurs in the rear axle. Edwards would later return to the track, 34 laps down. The round of pit stops finished on lap 141, giving the 18 second lead to Kyle Busch. It was also reported at this time that some teams would fall short on fuel mileage. Little action would occur until lap 168, when teammates Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Colin Braun got together, sending Stenhouse for a spin. This final caution set up a mess of the top 10, as all teams had different plans, and used strategy to make their way up. The restart occured with 27 to go, and Kyle Busch drove away from his nearest competition, Joey Logano, with 27 laps to go.
Kyle Busch and Joey Logano fought back and forth for the lead, but Kyle Busch was able to hold on to the lead as well as the win, his 5th win in a row.
Imagery has been uploaded to Steve McDermott’s Racing Imagery Album.
