Matt Kenseth held off Kyle Busch for the victory in a rain-filled Geico 400 for his sixth victory of the season. With the win, Kenseth will maintain the points lead in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The race started during the daytime but due to weather delays, finished under the lights at Chicagoland Speedway.
Busch, who finished second, was denied in his bid for a Chicagoland sweep after winning Friday night’s Truck Series race and Saturday’s Nationwide Series race.
The rest of the 10 from third to 10th: Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman. Eight of the top 10 spots had drivers in the Chase.
Rain delays created havoc Sunday. The race, which was slated for a 2:10 p.m. ET start, stretched out into the late evening due to bad weather, ending at 12:01 a.m. ET. The original start time of the race had been moved up eight minutes from its originally slated start time. However, the start of the race was delayed for nearly 90 minutes before the green flag dropped at 3:39 p.m. ET.
After roughly an hour of racing, the red flag for rain came out on lap 110. There was officially five hours, 10 minutes and 21 seconds of red flag time.
Joey Logano, who started on the Coors Light Pole, led the first 32 laps of the race. But under the lights, Logano ran into some engine trouble and his car started smoking again on lap 176. His night was finished at that point and he finished in 37th place.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran into some trouble as well as his night came to an end on lap 225 when flames were coming out of his exhaust pipe. He finished in 35th place.
The other drivers in the Chase and how they finished: Carl Edwards (11th place), Kasey Kahne (12th place) and Greg Biffle (16th place).
NASCAR officials announced rules changes affecting the double-file restart procedure in the pre-race drivers’ meeting. The revisions got an early test, in a 37th-lap restart after a competition caution at Lap 30.
Jimmie Johnson, the race leader at the time, restarted the race and was ahead when the green flag was displayed to the field. But Kyle Busch got a better jump, outran Johnson’s No. 48 to the start-finish line and was credited with leading the 37th lap before Johnson went back in front.
