Matt Kenseth benefitted from a late race caution to win the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at the famed Darlington Raceway.
Kenseth, driving for Roush Fenway Racing mounted a late race charge and was running second behind Kyle Busch.
Busch who completely dominated the event by leading 143 of the races 153 circuits was in first with Kenseth picking up as much as three tenths of a second per lap as the race was in its closing laps.
Kenseth caught Busch with two laps remaining but before the former Sprint Cup champion could mount a pass the yellow flag came out after Scott Lagasse and Joe Nemecheck got together on the back stretch.
The caution set up a green-white-checker finish.
While the cars were circling the track under caution Busch ran over debris cutting down a right rear tire.
Busch had no choice but to pit to change the tire, handing the lead to Kenseth who had yet to lead a lap during the event.
Busch was regulated back to eighteenth place, the final car on the lead lap.
After the race restarted, the caution was out again for a spin at the start finish line of Morgan Sheppard.
NASCAR rules allow for only one attempt at an overtime restart, effectively giving the win to Kenseth, who takes home the trophy without ever leading a green flag lap or making a competitive pass for the lead.
The win marks the twenty fifth series win for Kenseth and the fifteenth win for Roush Fenway Racing at Darlington.
Coming in behind Kenseth were Jason Leffler and Carl Edwards.
Two rookies rounded out the top five with Erik Darnell and Justin Allgier posting incredible runs at a track that normally sees first time drivers struggle.
The race was slowed ten times for caution and saw only four lead changes among four drivers.
Qualifying for the event was rained out and the field was set on owners points.
Busch, the current series points leader finished eighteenth.
Busch continues to hold a 37 point lead over Carl Edwards as the series heads into an off weekend before heading to Lowes Motor Speedway.
Race Notes
One day following the event NASCAR announced that crew member Ben Williams of the winning Roush Fenway team was indefinitely suspended for violation of the sanctioning bodies’ substance abuse policy.
NASCAR, who has one of the toughest drug policies in all of sport, began randomly testing crew members and drivers at each weekly event. Jim Hunter NASCAR’s vice president of corporate communications indicated that in all three national touring series 8-15 random samples are taken each week. Williams is the second Nationwide crew member suspended since April 30th of this year
Former series driver Kevin Grubb was found dead in a hotel in Richmond Virginia on 5/6/2009. Grubb who competed in the series from 1997 to 2006 was twice suspended from driving for substance abuse policy violations. Preliminary reports indicate he died of apparent suicide.
Camaros for sale
