Kyle will drive the first fives races of the season including the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway. He will split the remaining races with Kurt, as the team will attempt to win the owner’s championship.

Monster Energy president Mark Hall said:

Monster Energy has always stood for competing and winning no matter what the sport. To make this happen, we’ve always sought out the most determined, fearless and committed athletes for the Monster team. With the Busch brothers sharing the wheel of the Kyle Busch Motorsports Monster Energy Camry, we have every reason to believe we have drivers capable of running up front every weekend.

Kyle added:

Since debuting in NASCAR, Kyle Busch Motorsports has had the goal to add a championship-caliber Nationwide Series team to our organization. With today’s announcement of Monster Energy as primary sponsor and my brother Kurt as the second driver, we’ve accomplished that goal. The Monster Energy team of athletes consists of champion performers united by a desire to be the best. Kurt and I share that same desire and will settle for nothing less than adding a NASCAR Championship to the long list of achievements for one of the strongest brands in the world.

Mike Beam will serve as the team’s crew chief. Beam has earned victories as a crew chief in all three national touring NASCAR series.

Kurt Busch will also drive select events for Phoenix Racing, for whom he drives in the Sprint Cup Series.

RBR announced earlier this season that they would not be returning to NASCAR in 2012.  The team’s future is still uncertain, just seven days before the end of the 2011 season.  It is expected that the team will shut down at season’s end, unless owner Dietrich Mateschitz can find a buyer for the operation.

Championship Rundown

The Championship battle is now a two man show between Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.  Edwards remains the point’s leader, with a three-point advantage over Stewart.  Both drivers had fast cars at Phoenix, but they were no match for Kahne.  Edwards and Stewart finished the race in second and third position, respectively.  Stewart led a race-high 160 laps.

Going into Homestead, Edwards seems to have an advantage over Stewart.  Edwards has won two of the last three races at Homestead, with an average finish of 5.7.  Stewart also has two wins at Homestead, back in 1999 and 2000.  However, Edwards has a better average finish  than Stewart, who has an average finish of 12.4.

For the first time in the past eight seasons for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Jimmie Johnson will not be eligible for the championship going into Homestead.   He finished in 14th position in Phoenix, his fifth finish outside the top-10 in nine races.  Johnson will try to keep a 10-season streak of finishing in the top five in points alive.  He is currently fifth position in points, just two points ahead of Matt Kenseth.

Rough Day for Busch and Kenseth

Kyle Busch, after being parked at Texas Motor Speedway, stepped back into Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 car at Phoenix.  He raced this weekend without his primary sponsor M&M’s after the organization decided that they did not want to be on the car for the remainder of the season.  During the first practice, Busch blew a motor, forcing him to start at the rear of the field.  To add insult to injury, as Busch was racing for third position on lap 188, he announced to the team that the engine was blowing up.  This resulted in a 36th place finish.

On the other side of the track, Brian Vickers and Matt Kenseth had fans thinking we were back at Martinsville Speedway.  Late in the race, Vickers slammed into straight Kenseth’s rear bumper going down the backstretch, causing major damage to Kenseth’s racecar.  Vickers claimed over the radio that Kenseth had slowed up, causing Vickers to slam into him.  Kenseth’s comments after the incident backed up that statement.

“I was out of brakes, and I was up on everybody,” he said. “I saw [Vickers] coming and I lifted at least 10 car lengths before where I would normally lift. And he drove in there at 165 miles per hour and cleaned us out.”  Kenseth finished the race in 34th position, Vickers in 23rd.

Stewart was running second when Jeff Burton ran out of fuel with four laps to go in the 334 lap race.  Stewart led on seven different occasions for a race-high of 173 laps.  He finished just one spot ahead of points leader Edwards, cutting his lead down to three points.

Teams Have Good Days

Roush Fenway Racing had a strong day with Greg Biffle and David Ragan qualifying on the front row, along with the rest of RFR starting in the Top 10.  Biffle led 23 laps early on and Matt Kenseth led 87 total.  Although Edwards only led 14 laps, he was the top finishing RFR driver by virtue of a second place finish.  Kenseth and Biffle finished the day out in fourth and fifth position, respectively.  Ragan, who raced in the Top 5 for most of the race, finished in 12th position.

After finishing the race in 13th position, Kevin Harvick remains third in points standings.  However, he is now 33 points behind the leader.  Kenseth, who finished the race in fourth position, gained one spot in standings and is now 38 points back in, fourth place.  Suffering from handling issues and troubles on pit road during the race, Brad Keselowski finished in 24th position, which drops him to fifth place in standings, now 49 points behind Edwards.

Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr finished in sixth and seventh, respectively, both gaining two spots in standings.  Earnhardt nows sit seventh in points, 79 points behind the leader. Gordon sits in eighth, 89 out of the lead.

Their HMS teammate, Jimmie Johnson, had a day that was indicative of his Chase thus far this season. Johnson started strong, running in the Top 10 for most of the race before sliding through the grass on lap 240, effectively ending his chance to win the race. This is just one example of a lackluster Chase performance this season that has plagued the No. 48 team.

Kyle Busch Parked For Race, Fined And Put On Probation

Kyle Busch did not participate in the Cup race after being parked by NASCAR for intentionally wrecking Ron Hornaday under caution in the truck series race on Friday night.  By missing the race, Busch dropped four spots in standings and is now 100 points behind the leader.  Busch has been fined $50,000 and placed him on probation until Dec. 31 for his actions.

When issuing the penalty on Monday, NASCAR said that “if during the remaining NASCAR events in 2011 there is another action by the competitor that is deemed by NASCAR officials as detrimental to stock car racing or to NASCAR, or is disruptive to the orderly conduct of an event, the competitor will be suspended indefinitely from NASCAR.”

Chase Is A Two-Man Race

With just two races left in the season, it looks like the Chase battle has come down to a two man battle.  The championship may just come down to the final lap at Homestead between Edwards and Stewart.  Next week we head to Phoenix International Raceway to see how the battle plays out!

Results: 1. Tony Stewart, 2. Carl Edwards, 3. Kasey Kahne, 4. Matt Kenseth, 5. Greg Biffle, 6. Jeff Gordon, 7. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 8. Martin Truex Jr., 9. Clint Bowyer, 10. AJ Allmendinger

With his fourth victory in the Chase and the 43rd of his career, Stewart put a dent in runner-up Carl Edwards’ series lead, scoring maximum points (48) to trim Edwards’ advantage from eight to three points with two races left in the season.

After winning last week at Martinsville, Stewart promised Edwards a sleepless three weeks  during the stretch run for the title. On Sunday afternoon, Stewart let his car do the talking, taking the lead from Edwards on a Lap 275 restart and coming back to the front through a cycle of green-flag pit stops late in the race.

“I don’t think we have to say anything,” Stewart said in victory lane. “I think our performance today spoke for itself. He knows we’re there—trust me. … Carl kept us honest today. We got all the bonus points we could get and we got the win, so we gained more than we needed to gain on the average for the week.

“It doesn’t take much right now. It’s one spot, if a guy wins the race. We’re doing exactly what we need to do. I’m really confident right now.”

Stewart didn’t regain the lead until Lap 330 of 334, when Jeff Burton lost his fuel-mileage gamble and ran out of gas with just over four laps left.

Edwards, whose lone win this year came at Las Vegas in March, found consolation in retaining the points lead and in putting distance between himself and third-place Kevin Harvick (33 points back) and fourth-place Matt Kenseth (38 points back).

“Although we would have loved to have won today, to be three points ahead, and then to have the third- and fourth-place guys father behind, it looks like it’s truly going to come down to Tony and I, and that’s going to be a lot of fun,” Edwards said.

Kasey Kahne ran third, followed by Kenseth and Greg Biffle. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished sixth and seventh, respectively.

Stewart had led 142 laps by the time Joey Logano’s Toyota dropped oil on the backstretch on Lap 261, causing the fourth caution of the race. Edwards, Stewart and the five cars behind took right-side tires only on Lap 263.

Edwards got a huge jump on the restart on Lap 267 and pulled away to a lead of more than one second before NASCAR called the fifth caution on Lap 270 for debris in Turn 3. The first 13 cars stayed out under the yellow, and Stewart stayed with Edwards on a restart on Lap 275, moving around the No. 99 Ford to the outside.

“I think if I could have stayed in front of him, I’d have been able to get him,” Edwards said. “The restart before that, he spun his tires, and I felt really good about that one, (but) he timed it just right on that last restart and hung on my door.

“I give those guys credit. They’ve done a good job, but now we get to pull out all the stops here. We’ve been hanging on, we’re leading these points, we get to pull out all the stops these last two races, and there couldn’t be a better place to finish it than Homestead. I think folks ought to stay tuned. It’s going to get pretty exciting, and I’m just glad Tony and I are out there, and we can race for this thing.”

Notes: Subbing for Kyle Busch, who was parked by NASCAR for wrecking Ron Hornaday Jr. under caution in Friday’s truck race at Texas, Michael McDowell finished 33rd, three laps down. … Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman were eliminated from title contention.

Most of the drama already had occurred, however, by the time Harvick took the checkered flag for his fourth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win in nine starts this season, and one of the central figures in the action was Ron Hornaday Jr., who drives Harvick’s No. 33 Chevy.

Harvick powered across the finish line .294 seconds ahead of runner-up Austin Dillon, who extended his lead in the series standings to 20 points over second-place Johnny Sauter. Dillon’s brother, Ty Dillon, ran third, followed by Nelson Piquet Jr. and Matt Crafton.

James Buescher ran out of fuel under caution with three laps left, fell from second position to 18th and saw his title hopes all but evaporate with a 19th-place finish.

Long before Harvick collected his 13th victory in the series, NASCAR parked Kyle Busch for the rest of the race after a Lap 14 incident that started with Busch and Hornaday racing hard side by side and ended with Busch knocking Hornaday into the Turn 4 wall and out of the series championship battle.

Hornaday slid up into Busch as the drivers approached the slower truck of Johnny Chapman, and after the contact, Busch and Hornaday scraped the outside wall. Busch pursued Hornaday into Turn 4 and turned him hard into the outside wall.

“This is just stupid,” Hornaday fumed after the wreck. “He knew what I was going for. He knew I was there. He had to lift, too. If I’d have lifted, I would have hit the back of that slower truck and it would have caused a big wreck.

“He just drove me in the fence and ruined a pretty good racecar.”

Busch was unapologetic.

“If you consider that Ron was in the championship, maybe Ron could have played it a little bit smarter on (Lap 14) and checked up a little bit and given room to everybody around,” Busch said. “Obviously, if you make it a three-wide situation, I can’t go up in the dirt.

“I’m already on the outside lane. There’s not three lanes out there right now. … If I just lay over and give up everything for Ron Hornaday, that’s not Kyle Busch’s fashion. I’m out here to win the race as much as anybody else is. When he races up on my inside, gets loose and takes me up to the fence, I ended up losing my cool.

“I’ve been wrecked four weeks in a row, and finally I just had enough of it. I’m sorry it was Ron Hornaday. He’s going for a championship, but the fact of the matter is you can’t place all the blame on one person. There was two people that got into it to begin with, and there was two people that ended it.”

NASCAR officials met with Busch and Kyle Busch Motorsports general manager Rick Ren for three minutes after the race. Another meeting is planned for Saturday morning, likely before the first scheduled Sprint Cup practice at 9:45 a.m. ET.

“We met with Kyle, and we’re going to revisit with him in the morning,” NASCAR spokesperson Kerry Tharp said.

Hornaday also visited the NASCAR hauler after the race to express his opinion.

“The last five races before that, we gave each other room,” Hornaday said before he met with NASCAR officials. “He caught me—I let him go. I caught him—he let me go. All of a sudden, why did it change? I don’t know. I didn’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed. He did.

“He’s got to be parked. They did it to Harvick at Martinsville (in 2002, while Harvick already was on probation). If they don’t park him for the Cup race and the Nationwide race …”

To Hornaday, the circumstances were markedly different from Carl Edwards’ retaliation against Brad Keselowski in a Cup race at Atlanta last year, an incident that earned Edwards a three-race probation.

“This was a whole different points deal,” Hornaday said. “This was a yellow flag, (turned) when you’re not prepared and your heart’s not pumping and you’re going down the back straightaway, and all of a sudden you get turned directly into the fence.

“He lives too close to me. We’ll see what NASCAR does, and if they don’t handle it right, I’ll be at his house Monday morning.”

Harvick, who has been warned to stay away from Busch after both served probation for a postrace confrontation at Darlington in May, shared Hornaday’s sentiment.

“He’s going to grow up, or he’s going to have some swollen eyes,” Harvick said.

Notes: The victory gave Kevin Harvick Inc. the owners championship. … Austin Dillon can clinch the drivers title with a finish of 16th or better in the season finale at Homestead. … Harvick led a race-high 61 of the 148 laps. Buescher led 56 laps. … Ty Dillon, 19, was making his second truck start. He finished 18th last month at Kentucky in his debut.

While racing for second position on the 14th lap of the race, Hornday and Busch got three-wide going into Turn 1. Hornaday appeared to move up to pass a slower car, making it three-wide. Hornaday got a little loose and made contact with Busch, who was on his outside, in Turns 1 and 2.

Hornaday continued wiggling, trying to regain control of his truck. The two made contact again and both bounced of the wall. Both appeared to have tire rubs and cosmetic damage, but certainly nothing that would put them out of the race.

The caution came out and Hornaday was making his way back to pit road. Busch drove into the back of Hornaday and pushed him through Turn 3 wide open. He kept on Hornaday’s bumper, eventually turning him into the outside wall head-on. Hornaday made hard contact with the wall, but walked away from the incident.

Hornaday was a championship contender going into the race, but thanks to Busch, he will not win it this year. Busch was immediately parked for the remainder of the race.

On Saturday morning, Busch was then parked for the rest of the weekend’s events.

NASCAR president Mike Helton said:

The responsibility over the past two or three seasons we’ve given back to the drivers came, I think with a very clear understanding that there could be a line that got crossed. As annoying as the comments that I’ve made personally in the past about ‘we’ll know it when we see it’ might have been, we saw it [Friday] night. Obviously after the event, a lot of folks put their heads together to decide what, if anything, we would do. The volume of occurrences or reactions like I’m talking about, the rarity of those times that we’d make a step like this speak to the uniqueness and the severity of the topic. We understand the ramifications or the ripple effect of us making this type of a move, but we also take our responsibility very serious as to maintaining control of the event in all the garages; so it’s a balance there that we ultimately have to make a decision.

In response to NASCAR’s decision, Joe Gibbs Racing’s (Busch’s Sprint Cup team) owner Joe Gibbs said:

What we’re going to try to do now, [as in the past, with other situations involving Busch] we’ve tried to handle those things the right way and tried to make the right decisions and certainly that’s what we’re going to try to do with this.

Denny Hamlin was named to drive Busch’s Nationwide Series Toyota and Michael McDowell will drive JGR’s No. 18 Sprint Cup car.

This is the harshest punishment to date that NASCAR has issued since they instructed the drivers to “have at it.” This should serve as a warning to other drivers that “have at it” only goes so far.

An interesting note about the penatly, though, is that JGR is also punished by Busch’s actions when he was driving for his own Kyle Busch Motorsports team.

The Winners

Tony Stewart: Stewart survived mayhem throughout the race to steal the victory away from champions Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.  This win has moved Stewart to second place in the championship points standings.  After being told that he is just eight points behind Edwards, Stewart replied, “He better be worried, that’s for sure. He isn’t going to have an easy three weeks.”  This is Stewart’s 42nd career win and his third win of the season, all of which came in the Chase.

Carl Edwards: Edwards may not have won the race, but finishing in ninth position felt like a win after his misfortune during the race.  Due to qualifying being rained out, Edwards started the race in the pole position.  He lost the lead on Lap 27 under caution when he pitted and seven or more cars behind him stayed out.  From that point on, he kept losing positions and by lap 167 he dropped to 17th position.  After pitting under caution on Lap 197, Edwards restarted the race in 26th due to a lug nut getting hung up behind the wheel.

He fell a lap down twice during the race, but was able to take advantage of the lucky dog rule twice.  Thanks to the high number of cautions in the race, Edwards was able to gain positions back and was in the Top 10 with 22 laps to go.  Edwards ultimately finished the race in ninth position, retaining the points lead by eight over Stewart.

Kevin Harvick: Harvick started the race in fifth position and ran in the Top 10 for most of the race.  He took the lead of the race under caution after pitting for just two tires with 102 laps to go.  On Lap 438 Johnson took the lead from Harvick with teammate Gordon following close behind.  Harvick was then bumped to fourth position late in the race when Stewart made a mad dash to the lead.  Harvick finished the race in fourth and gained himself two spots in standings.  He is now third place in points, 21 points behind leader Edwards.

Dale Earnhardt Jr:  Earnhardt put on a show for his fans at Martinsville with his have at it attitude and aggressive racing style.  Unlike many drivers, he kept saying on his team radio how much “fun” he was having during the race.  On Lap 8, he was involved in a pile up involving Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon, revoking him of his Top 10 position, dropping him to 34th place.  He quickly made his way through the pack and finished the race in seventh position.  Although he remains ninth in points, overall he had a good race and put on quite a show for the fans.

The Losers

Brad Keselowski: The most disappointed driver of the day would have to be Brad Keselowski.  After starting in the Top 5, he was a top runner all race long and was heading towards a good points day.  His Top 10 finish, however, disappeared in just one lap. While running in seventh place with two laps to go,  Keselowski was spun by another car and a caution was not thrown, causing him to drop from seventh to 17th position.

This finish has dropped him one spot in standings to fourth position, 27 points behind Edwards.  Keselowski needs to win the race at Texas Motor Speedway next weekend to have any kind of chance at staying in this points battle.  Last year, Keselowski clinched his Nationwide Series championship at Texas Motor Speedway. He typically runs well at intermediate tracks.  I wouldn’t count him out of this championship battle just yet.

Matt Kenseth: After starting in second position, Kenseth ran in the Top 10 for most of the race.  With 36 laps to go, he made contact with Kyle Busch, sending him to the garage for repairs.  When he came back onto the track, he was then wrecked by Brian Vickers, who retaliated against Kenseth for spinning him out with 43 laps to go.  This resulted in a 31st place finish.  Kenseth is now fifth place in standings, 36 points behind Edwards.

Kyle Busch: After leading a race high of 128 laps, Kyle Busch’s strong run evaporated with 37 laps to go.  Kenseth locked his tires up going into the turn, causing him to slam Busch, spinning him out.  He then pitted to fix the damage. While leaving pit road, his left front tire came completely off the car.  Apparently there was a lack of communication with the team on whether they were supposed to put the tire on or off.  Either way, this caused Busch to finish in 27th position.  This finish dropped him one position in standings to seventh, 57 points behind the leader.

Brian Vickers: Out of the 18 cautions that occurred during the race, Vickers was involved in five of them, including three just in the first 100 laps.  I think the only thing Vickers didn’t hit was the pace car.  Needless to say, he did not have many friends at the end of the race.  He finished the race, with what was left of his No. 83 Toyota, in 30th position.  With Red BullRacing leaving the sport at season’s end, Vicker’s future is in doubts.

Chase for the Sprint Cup

1. Carl Edwards, 2. Tony Stewart (-8), 3. Kevin Harvick (-21), 4. Brad Keselowski (-27), 5. Matt Kenseth (-36), 6. Jimmie Johnson (-43), 7. Kyle Busch (-57), 8. Kurt Busch (-58), 9. Dale Earnhardt Jr (-73), 10. Jeff Gordon (-76), 11. Denny Hamlin (-80), 12. Ryan Newman (-89)

Dega Wreaks Havoc on Chasers

On Lap 174, Michaeal Waltrip was pushing Bobby Labonte when Labonte lost control of his race car and spun in the middle of the turn.  Kurt Busch had no where to go and drove straight into the side panel of Labonte.  This destroyed the hood of Busch’s race car and ended his day.  The elder Busch brother finished the race in 36th position, 15 laps down.  This did not help his chances for the championship, knocking him down one spot in standings to eighth place, 52 points behind the leader.

Luckily for Kurt Busch, he isn’t the only Chase driver that struggled at Talladega.  Hendrick Motorsports’ Chasers did not finish as expected on Sunday, coming home with 25th (Dale Earnhardt Jr), 26th (Jimmie Johnson), and 27th (Jeff Gordon) place finishes.  All three drivers rode out the race in the back of the pack and just didn’t seem to have the momentum to race towards the front at the end.

Earnhardt remains in ninth position in standings, 74 points behind the leader.  Thanks to others’ misfortune, Johnson moved up one position to seventh place, but is now 50 points behind the leader.  Jeff Gordon also moved up one position; however, he is now 82 points behind the leader.   I would say this is the end of Hendrick Motorsports’ chances to win the title.  Johnson would be the only driver with a chance, but he would need the drivers ahead of him in the Chase to have substantial bad luck to overtake them.

Kevin Harvick came to Talladega only five points behind leader Carl Edwards.  Leaving Talladega, he is in fifth position, now 26 points behind the leader.  Early on in the race, Harvick had a fast car; he even led the race on six different occasions.  But, he fell victim to a large pile-up on Lap 104 when AJ Allmendinger spun on the front-stretch. Harvick finished the race in 32nd position, nine laps down.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Joey Logano worked well together early in the race.  On Lap 67, as the duo was attempting to make green flag pit stops, Trevor Bayne cut in front of them, abruptly separating the pair.  This caused Logano to spin his race car and forced Busch to drive down pit road to avoid an accident.  Logano then blew a left-front tire on the backstretch, bringing out the caution. Busch was then sent to the rear of the field for failure to reduce speed while driving down pit road.

Busch was able to recover, leading the race on Lap 90 with help of his teammate, Denny Hamlin.  After the pile-up on Lap 104, however, Busch was unable to race his way to the front and finished the race in 33rd position.  Logano on the other hand, was able to push Tony Stewart to the lead of the race on Lap 136, despite the damage to his race car. Logano finished the race in 24th position.  Busch is now sixth in standings, 40 points behind the leader.

Chase for the Sprint Cup

Carl Edwards remains the points leader after finishing in 11th position at Talladega.  Fellow Roush driver Matt Kenseth sits second, 14 points behind Edwards.  Brad Keselowski gained three spots in the standings, moving to third, just 18 points back.  Tony Stewart moved up to fourth position after finishing the race in seventh place and is now 19 points behind Edwards.

Both Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch dropped positions because of their misfortune and are now in fifth and sixth position.  Rivals Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson are now right beside each other in standings, sitting in eighth and ninth position.  Dale Jr and Jeff Gordon round out the top-10 in ninth and tenth positions, respectively.  Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman reside in 11th and 12th place, respectively.

Best Efforts of the Race

The Red Bull Racing team of Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne have to be recognized for their effort on Sunday.  Kahne started 26th, Vickers 30th, and the two pushed their way into the top-five within 10 laps.  They had troubles with the two-car tandem on Lap 159, causing Kahne to spin across the nose of Vickers to bring out a caution.  But with 50 laps to go, the pair had already hooked back up and were headed to the front.  Unfortunately they just couldn’t catch the RCR tandem, but still came home with fifth (Vickers) and sixth (Kahne) place finishes.

Dave Blaney’s third place finish at Talladega represented Tommy Baldwin’s Racing’s best finish yet at the Cup level.  Blaney was in the battle at the front in both the Daytona 500 and the spring race at Talladega this year, but couldn’t get the finishes he deserved.  This is a big step for a small organization with a short history in the sport.  Team owner Tommy Baldwin hopes the Talladega finish is a step in the right direction for a more competitive season in 2012.

Landon Cassill and Casey Mears deserve a shout-out for their strong effort at Talladega.  Before the race had even one lap in the books, Mear’s No. 13 GEICO Camry had moved from its 42nd starting position into 26th.  On Lap 3, Mears paired up with Cassill to head to the front.  They spent most of the race in the Top 5 and Top 10 until lap 174 when Mears lost his drafting partner.  Cassill was collected in a turn two crash involving Bobby Labonte and Kurt Busch, forcing Mears to find another dancing partner.  Although their finishes of 16th and 17th do not represent their hard effort, the fact that they survived Talladega tells the story by itself!

Kenseth gave fans excitement after a long, mostly single-file race.  Jimmie Johnson’s late-race accident brought out the caution, giving Kenseth a chance to catch Kyle Busch on the restart.  There was a 12-lap dash to the finish and Kenseth was able to pass Busch and take the checkered flag.  This is Kenseth’s third win of the season, moving him up two positions in standings to third position.  He is now only seven points behind leader Carl Edwards.

Kenseth’s primary sponsor, Crown Royal, is exiting the team at the end of the season, leaving Kenseth without a sponsor for the 2012 season.   Kenseth said in post race interviews, “Crown Royal — it’s not too late to come back. We don’t have any sponsors for next year, so this should be a good audition. And Fluidmaster for being on this week — it was a great night for us.”

Busch wasn’t thrilled to finish in second place, after leading 111 laps during the race.  Busch said after the race, “It’s frustrating, but we’ll take it, and if we can finish second here on out, we might win this deal.”  He has now moved up four positions in standings to fourth place, 18 points behind the leader.

Bad Night for Hendrick Chase Contenders

Dale Earnhardt Jr needed a good finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway to give him any kind of chance at the championship.  After pitting too early and altering his pit strategy, he was then forced to come down pit road for a loose tire.  Earnhardt finished the night in 19th position, one lap down, and even that was a small rally, as he was running two laps down late in the race.  Junior remains ninth in standings and has fallen 60 points behind the leader.

Jeff Gordon finished the race in 21st position after being a part of the first accident of the night, involving Kasey Kahne and David Ragan.  Ragan made an attempt to pass Kasey Kahne on the inside and slid up into Kahne, sending Kahne into Gordon.  Gordon dropped from 10th to 11th in standings and is now 66 points behind the leader.

Coming off his win at Kansas Speedway last week, Jimmie Johnson was one of the drivers predicted to do well at CMS.  Johnson was running in seventh and seemed to be moving towards the front in the closing laps when the unexpected happened.  Johnson got loose inside of the No. 39 car of Ryan Newman. The two made slight contact. Johnson looked as if he was going to save until the car veered towards the outside wall, hitting it nose-first.  The front of his race car was unrepairable, and his race was over. He finished 34th.  Johnson dropped five spots in standings, leaving him eighth position, 35 points behind the leader.

Although mathematically this does not eliminate the HMS drivers, it will be very tough for them to recover from this race.

Underdogs of the Race

For more than half the race, rookie Trevor Bayne was driving his No. 21 car like a veteran.  After qualifying in tenth position in his first Cup race at CMS, Bayne stayed in the top-10 the entire night.  While running in seventh position, he ran out of gas with only 97 laps left in the race.  Instead of finishing the race in the Top 10, he finished in 31st, three laps down.  Team co-owner Eddie Wood said after the race that a problem with the new fuel system is what likely kept them from contending for the win.

Marcos Ambrose celebrated his fifth Top 5 of the season with Richard Petty Motorsports after finishing in fifth position in the Bank of America 500.  He ran in the Top 10 the entire race and overcame many cautions to hold his position on the track.  Ambrose said after the race that he has his “mojo” back.

Chase for the Sprint Cup

The current points standings are as follows: 1. Carl Edwards, 2. Kevin Harvick (-5), 3. Matt Kenseth (-7), 4. Kyle Busch (-18), 5. Tony Stewart (-24), 6. Brad Keselowski (-25), 7. Kurt Busch (-27), 8. Jimmie Johnson (-35), 9. Dale Earnhardt Jr (-60), 10. Ryan Newman (-61), 11. Jeff Gordon (-66), 12. Denny Hamlin (-86).

The driver of the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford was delighted to win Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway with new sponsor Fluidmaster on his car—make that with any sponsor on his car.

In a race that saw five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson suffer a Chase-changing accident in the final 20 laps, Kenseth pulled away from Kyle Busch and teammate Carl Edwards during a 12-lap run to the finish and notched his third victory of the season and the 21st of his career.

Kenseth finished .968 seconds ahead of Busch, with Edwards coming home in third, miffed by the way Busch raced in Turn 2 as the two were contesting second place in the closing laps.

Kenseth climbed to third in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings halfway through NASCAR’s 10-race playoff in an event that was as much an audition as a triumph for the 2003 Cup champion. With Crown Royal leaving as primary sponsor of his car after the current season, Kenseth needs financial backing for next year.

That’s why he didn’t mind the puns about Fluidmaster, which makes systems designed to conserve water when toilets are flushed.

“After all the toilet jokes about my restarts, we finally got a good one today,” said Kenseth, who got the jump on Busch on the last restart of the race, on Lap 323 of 334. “Thankfully, we got a good one there at the end.

“Crown Royal—it’s not too late to come back. We don’t have any sponsors for next year, so this should be a good audition. And Fluidmaster for being on this week—it was a great night for us.”

Kenseth is seven points behind Edwards, who expanded his Chase lead to five points over sixth-place finisher Kevin Harvick.

“That’s good, but it only matters where you are in the last lap at Homestead (in the season finale). But it’s been a great five races, and it feels great to win.”

Busch, who led a race-high 111 laps, wasn’t elated with second, but considering that he started at the rear of the field after an engine change, Busch had reason to feel encouraged.

“It was the best run we’ve had here in a while, but we still came up short,” Busch said. “We’ve got to keep finishing like this. It’s not that hard. We finally finished where we ran—except we didn’t. We still lost a position, which is four points essentially, because you get three bonus points for winning a race.

“It’s frustrating, but we’ll take it, and if we can finish second here on out, we might win this deal.”

Edwards was upset by the line Busch took as they raced for second after the final restart—and Edwards told Busch as much after the race.

“We should definitely be racing each other hard,” Edwards said. “It’s just that there’s a difference between racing hard and then cutting across a guy’s nose.

“What I told Kyle is I just wonder why, coming off of Turn 2 when I got underneath him, that he drove down instead of going up to the wall like we would normally do. And I just let him know that next time that happens, I’ll just stay where I’m at and he can drive across my hood and wreck himself.

“It just surprised me. Now he told me that he didn’t mean to do it, and so I got to believe that, but I don’t know what else there is to say about it. Just it’s racing, and we didn’t wreck, and we’re going to race hard like that—that’s just how I saw it.”

Busch had his own explanation.

“I got loose, and it was steering me down the track instead of my butt going up the track, and I was just trying to hold on and not do anything. Then I side-drafted him to stay along side of him down the backstretch, and that was it. I was trying to keep my position.”

Running in close quarters with Ryan Newman on Lap 316, Johnson slid sideways and slammed nose-first into the Turn 2 wall. With a 34th-place finish, Johnson fell from third to eighth in the standings, 35 points behind Edwards.

“I’m OK—that one stung for sure,” Johnson said after the wreck. “Just thankful to have safe racecars, safe walls, softer walls, and everything did its job. Pretty big impact. Unfortunate that we wrecked. We got into Turn 1 and the 39 (Newman) was real tight on my outside and pulled me around. From there on I was just hanging on.”

Johnson’s hopes for a sixth straight title may have started circling the bowl—and that’s a toilet joke Kenseth might actually enjoy.