Kenseth Outlasts Delays, Melee for Bristol Win

Polesitter Matt Kenseth led just 47 laps of the rain-spattered Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up To Cancer. But after a late race wreck-fest at Bristol Motor Speedway, he was leading at the end, claiming his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory since September 2013.

Three cautions in the final 30 laps made a long day even longer as fuel became an issue while teams raced to beat the next wave of rain sweeping toward the 0.533-mile track. Rain began to fall again as the race passed the 500-lap mark under caution, leading to a red-flag stop at Lap 505 in an effort to get a green-white-checkered finish.

After waiting for the track to be dried one last time, Kenseth won the shootout in a race that started 90 minutes late and endured a four-hour delay after the first 22 laps.

Jimmie Johnson rallied from an earlier wreck to finish second, with Jeff Gordon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Newman completing the top five.

Rain was an issue throughout Sunday’s event. A second caution for rain came out after the midpoint of the race — at Lap 265 — followed by a red-flag stop at Lap 273, but the shower passed quickly.

After the race re-started, Johnson and Jeb Burton made contact, sparking a pileup that collected NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leader Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Chevrolet and David Ragan’s No. 18 Toyota. Up to that point Harvick had been dominant, leading 184 laps and appearing to be headed toward an eighth consecutive top-10 finish to start the 2015 season.

Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet appeared to drift into Burton’s No. 26 Toyota.

“When you race back there with the squirrels, sometimes you find the nut,” Ragan said. “As soon as my spotter said ‘They’re wrecking,’ I was into the No. 48.”

Rising Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones, who got his first NASCAR XFINITY Series victory a week ago at Texas Motor Speedway, made his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series laps Sunday when Denny Hamlin required a substitute.

Hamlin had a strained neck, and efforts to relieve his pain during a four-hour rain delay failed. So the 18-year-old Jones, who has won the pole in the past three consecutive XFINITY Series races and finished fourth Saturday at Bristol, got behind the ill-fitting wheel of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry as the race re-started on the 23rd lap.

Early in the race, Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano suffered significant damage when Keselowski slipped sideways and checked up on Lap 21, collecting Logano in the accident.