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Sometimes in sport, it’s not just the competition that needs to be defeated, but the conditions also. Brad Keselowski and the No.2 Ford Fusion team did just that on Sunday winning the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
To claim victory, Keselowski had to endure the weirdest day of weather the sport of NASCAR has ever seen.
He passed Las Vegas native Kyle Busch with five laps left to win for the first time since the fifth race of 2015 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.
The 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion beat Team Penske shop-mate Joey Logano to the finish line by 0.675 seconds, as Busch lost ground over the closing laps.
Here’s what you need to know from Sunday’s Kobalt 400:
Wild West weather
The conditions on Sunday were bizarre to say the absolute least. Going into Sunday’s race some medium winds were expected along with a few showers but these elements combined to create the most dramatic conditions we have ever seen.
The wind blew a steady 30-40km/h throughout the day but the extreme 80km/h wind gusts were what made the day challenging. The gusts blew horizontally across the track sending the drivers into turns three and four faster than they have ever been before.
Preceding the race, the wind gathered up the sand and dust surrounding the Motor Speedway and created something you would see in a Mad Max movie. Race fans stuck through all of this and some rain showers to witness a truly great race to the finish.
Kenseth gets a bad roll of the dice (again)
If the Daytona 500 was ran to 199 laps instead of 200 Matt Kenseth would have three 500 wins under his belt. Instead, coming out of the final turn Kenseth tried to throw a block on late race charger Denny Hamlin and fell back to 14th place.
Fast forward another week to Atlanta where Kenseth was leading and running great in the early portion of the race, only to come down pit road and be slapped with an illegal gassing penalty. The No.20 Toyota Camry’s crew chief Jason Ratcliff tried to argue the call with NASCAR officials for too long, and the chaos ended with Kenseth being two laps down and also ending with a sub top-ten finish.
Kenseth’s struggles continued into Sunday running above P-5 most of the day only to have it all go to waste after getting loose in turns one and two and being rear-ended rather hard by rookie Chase Elliott. Without these series of unfortunate events, Kenseth would be most likely locked into the chase and sitting pretty high in the points standings. At some stage something’s gotta give and this bad luck has got to end.
Rookies play a good hand
Sunoco Rookie of the Year competitors Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney ran a great race Sunday and week by week brighten the expectations for the future of the sport. Both Elliott and Blaney ran extremely well throughout the event-filled day.
However, one did have to place higher than the other, and this week goes to Blaney because Elliott was caught up in that late crash with Kenseth. Elliott was noticeably let down in an interview where he took all the blame upon himself, saying it was completely his fault and it was disappointing to crash out of two of the first three races of the year.
On the other hand, Blaney brought home a sixth place finish, one outside of the top five for the Wood Brothers team. As of late the Wood Brothers have been running only a partial schedule but that changed this year when they announced they would run full-time week in, week out.
Although they are without a charter they are not without great talent behind the wheel and you can expect the No.21 team to gain speed and momentum throughout the year.
After a great start to the NASCAR season, fans like me have high expectations for everything the sport has to offer. The racing seems to be headed upwards, along with storylines being played out the way we would like to see.
Next week the boys and Danica head further south to the great state of Arizona for some great racing at Phoenix International Raceway. This is without a doubt Kevin Harvick’s house lately but something tells me a changing of the guard is in store.
With three great races under our belt and a fourth on its way, you can expect this season to be one of the greatest ever.
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