Kenseth wrecks late, Elliott and Edwards also involved

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief

A contender for a possible win, misfortune struck Matt Kenseth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Following a restart on lap 224 of Sunday’s Kobalt 400, heavy winds and aggressive racing took shape as the field jockeyed for position.

Kenseth was running on the inside of Martin Truex Jr.’s when the backend of his No. 20 began to spin around in Turn 1. As a result, rookie Chase Elliott collided with Kenseth. Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch made contact as well, but the damage was too severe for Kenseth and Elliott to continue.

Fast in all three of the opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this year, Kenseth has been left frustrated at not getting the results to match the pace.

Last week, Kenseth received a pit road penalty at Atlanta Motor Speedway, after being one of the dominant cars early on. There was also communication error between driver and team following the penalty that led to NASCAR to not score the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for one lap.

Following his crash in the Kobalt 400 Kenseth was left baffled as to what happened.

“I have no idea, honestly,” said Kenseth. “I went into turn one and I wasn’t really hardly turning yet and just spun out before I had any idea what happened. I don’t know, after that I was just trying to save our DeWalt Toyota and got ran into from behind.”

NASCAR moves onward to Phoenix International Raceway next week, a track that Kenseth has visited Victory Lane only once in 26 appearances.

Image: Patrick Smith/Getty Images

About Joey Barnes 619 Articles
Joey Barnes is the Founder of Motorsports Tribune, an outlet that began with the goal of helping aspiring journalists break into and grow the industry. A regular on the racing scene since 2013, the journey for Joey started by covering a Grand-Am event at Circuit of The Americas in his home state of Texas. He has since primarily focused on the IndyCar Series, with appearances in the garages of NASCAR, paddocks of Formula 1, IMSA and World Endurance Championship, while also occasionally engulfing clouds of dust at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals and select Supercross rounds. With previous stops at Autoweek, IndyCar.com, Motorsport.com and RACER, among others, Joey evolved from the singular task as a freelance writer to advanced roles behind the copy desk and alongside some of the best editorial teams in the business. Recognized as a multi-time award winner by the National Motorsports Press Association, Joey currently resides in Dallas-Fort Worth with his trusty four-legged canine companion, Rocket.

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