Martin Truex Jr. wins at Kansas; Almirola involved in scary crash

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Highlights from Saturday night's Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway, the 11th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race:

WINNER: Martin Truex led a race-high 104 laps to earn his second victory of the season on a night when Aric Almirola was taken to a local hospital after a fiery crash.

Truex took the lead on a restart with 19 laps remaining, then held on after two subsequent restarts to bring his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota to victory lane at another 1½-mile track. Truex won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.

"These races are so hard to win," Truex said in victory lane. "Any of these restarts you never know what can happen. We won the Southern 500 with this car and now here. It's just amazing ... Awesome day, awesome weekend. We just stuck with it all night. There were times there it looked like we weren’t going to have a shot at it."

MORE COVERAGE:

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Brad Keselowski stormed back from a pit-road penalty that set him a lap down early in the race to take second. Kevin Harvick, who was also a lap down earlier in the race, finished third, pole-sitter Ryan Blaney fourth and Kyle Busch fifth.

Blaney, who led 83 laps, appeared to have the fastest car for good portions of the night, but Truex came on strong at the end, passing the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford with less than 30 laps remaining then holding off Blaney on the late restarts.

“That kid’s good," Truex said. "He’s going to win a ton of races. Today, we were able to get those right when it mattered. It was an awesome team effort.”

PHOTOS: MARTIN TRUEX JR. THROUGH THE YEARS

SCARY CRASH: Almirola was airlifted to the University of Kansas Medical Center after a collision with Joey Logano and Danica Patrick. According to a team release, the Richard Petty Motorsports driver is in stable condition and will remain hospitalized overnight for observation. The team did not say whether Almirola had suffered any injuries. The crash was caused when something on Logano's No. 22 Ford broke, sending him hard into Patrick's No. 10 Ford in Turn 1 shortly after a restart on Lap 69. Almirola, who was trailing, came up on the wreck and hit both cars hard, lifting the No. 43 Ford's back wheels off the racing surface. Almirola's window net was lowered but safety crews continued to work to release him from the car, removing the windscreen and cutting off the top of the car. He was alert when he was pulled from the car and was placed on a board. Logano and Patrick were released from the infield care center. Patrick suffered minor burns on her fingers.

STAGE 2: Blaney captured his third stage win of the season, tying Harvick for the second-most of the season behind Truex's five. Points leader Kyle Larson was on Blaney's tail, followed by Truex, Jamie McMurray and Stage 1 winner Kyle Busch.

PHOTOS: ARIC ALMIROLA'S KANSAS CRASH

NEWMAN CONKS OUT: Ryan Newman,  a former winner at Kansas, experienced a broken engine on lap 158 and finished last. "The bottom end of the motor just broke," Newman said. "We finally got the Chevrolet running well, not to where we needed to be, but better from how we started the race.  We knocked a hole in the grill from a spring rubber or something. I watched what I hit, but I couldn’t tell what it was. Finally got enough tape on it so it would run warm and stick a little bit better and made a whole bunch of changes to the car, but just something in the motor broke, bottom end for sure, but I’m not really sure what happened first.”

STAGE 1: Kyle Busch, winner of last year’s Go Bowling 400, won Stage 1, taking the lead from Truex on the 63rd of 80 laps. It was the second stage win of the season for Busch and first since the Daytona 500. Busch also won Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race and has a track-most seven wins at Kansas — one in Cup, four in the Xfinity Series and two in the trucks. Truex was second in Stage 1, followed by Blaney, Larson, and two-time race winners Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson, who was promptly sent to the rear of the field after going through too many pit boxes.

ELLIOTT DAMAGED: Chase Elliott’s Chevrolet suffered damage to the right front fender while exiting his pit stall when he collided with Michael McDowell, who was entering the stall during a Stage 1 caution. Elliott’s car was repaired within the five-minute window before he would have had to go to the garage. McDowell was sent to the rear of the pack because a crew member jumped over the wall too soon.  Adding insult to the damage, Elliott was sent to the rear of the pack for having too many crew members over the wall when he came in for more repairs.

PASSING GRADES: After a season-high 11 race cars — including those driven by Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Clint Bowyer — failed inspection Friday and were unable to get on the track in time to qualify for Saturday’s race, all hands were on deck for the green flag. Logano, whose team was penalized and crew chief Todd Gordon suspended for two weeks (including this race), after failing post-race inspection following a win at Richmond, could empathize with the drivers who had to start from the rear of the field.

“I think every team pushes the limits and finds them every weekend when you roll through tech like that,” said Logano, who started on the outside of the front row alongside Blaney. “We are right on that edge. Any little discrepancy is what makes you go over the line. You have to be close to the edge. If you aren’t close to the edge you won’t be competitive. That is not just the car, that is the drivers too.

“The drivers have to be right on the edge of out of control, with the rules, we have to handle that every week. It is the same for everyone but you have to push it to the edge if you want to win. That is just part of it.”

TO THE REAR: Two cars were sent to the back of the field — McDowell because of an engine change and Matt DiBenedetto, for an unapproved tire change.

PHOTOS: 2017 NASCAR CUP SERIES RACE WINNERS

GO BOWLING 400 RESULTS

Saturday from the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway (starting position in parentheses):

1. (3) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 267 laps, 0 rating, 57 points.

2. (17) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267, 0, 41.

3. (8) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 267, 0, 38.

4. (1) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 267, 0, 51.

5. (5) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 267, 0, 48.

6. (9) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 267, 0, 47.

7. (15) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 267, 0, 30.

8. (12) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 267, 0, 36.

9. (30) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 267, 0, 28.

10. (16) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 267, 0, 27.

11. (4) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 267, 0, 26.

12. (14) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 267, 0, 28.

13. (35) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 267, 0, 24.

14. (22) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 267, 0, 23.

15. (31) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 267, 0, 28.

16. (11) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 267, 0, 21.

17. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 267, 0, 20.

18. (20) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 267, 0, 19.

19. (6) Kurt Busch, Ford, 267, 0, 19.

20. (33) Dale Earnhardt Jr, Chevrolet, 267, 0, 17.

21. (36) Landon Cassill, Ford, 267, 0, 16.

22. (32) Erik Jones, Toyota, 267, 0, 17.

23. (7) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 267, 0, 22.

24. (29) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 267, 0, 18.

25. (37) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 267, 0, 12.

26. (26) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 266, 0, 11.

27. (38) Corey Lajoie, Toyota, 265, 0, 10.

28. (39) Timmy Hill, Chevrolet, 259, 0, 0.

29. (10) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 258, 0, 8.

30. (21) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 257, 0, 7.

31. (40) Carl Long, Chevrolet, 256, 0, 0.

32. (23) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 243, 0, 5.

33. (27) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 243, 0, 4.

34. (25) Gray Gaulding, Toyota, 231, 0, 3.

35. (18) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, accident, 202, 0, 2.

36. (24) Danica Patrick, Ford, accident, 199, 0, 1.

37. (2) Joey Logano, Ford, accident, 199, 0, 2.

38. (13) Aric Almirola, Ford, accident, 199, 0, 1.

39. (28) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, engine, 179, 0, 1.

40. (19) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, garage, 154, 0, 1.

———

Race Statistics

Average Speed of Race Winner: 117.640 mph.

Time of Race: 3 hours, 24 minutes, 16 seconds.

Margin of Victory: 1.1 seconds.

Caution Flags: 15 for 61 laps.

Lead Changes: 21 among 9 drivers.

Lap Leaders: R.Blaney 1-9; M.Truex 10-52; K.Harvick 53-62; Ky.Busch 63-82; M.Truex 83-99; Ky.Busch 100-138; R.Blaney 139; C.Bowyer 140-142; R.Blaney 143-163; Ku.Busch 164-166; R.Blaney 167-179; M.Truex 180-195; R.Blaney 196-198; M.Truex 199-204; R.Blaney 205-217; D.Earnhardt 218-219; T.Bayne 220; R.Blaney 221-242; M.Truex 243-245; E.Jones 246-247; R.Blaney 248; M.Truex 249-267

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): M.Truex, 6 times for 98 laps; R.Blaney, 8 times for 75 laps; Ky.Busch, 2 times for 57 laps; K.Harvick, 1 time for 9 laps; C.Bowyer, 1 time for 2 laps; Ku.Busch, 1 time for 2 laps; D.Earnhardt, 1 time for 1 lap; E.Jones, 1 time for 1 lap; T.Bayne, 1 time for 0 laps.

Wins: J.Johnson, 2; B.Keselowski, 2; M.Truex, 2; Ku.Busch, 1; K.Larson, 1; J.Logano, 1; R.Newman, 1; R.Stenhouse, 1.

Top 16 in Points: 1. K.Larson, 475; 2. M.Truex, 431; 3. B.Keselowski, 408; 4. C.Elliott, 361; 5. J.McMurray, 354; 6. K.Harvick, 347; 7. Ky.Busch, 325; 8. J.Johnson, 323; 9. J.Logano, 320; 10. C.Bowyer, 317; 11. R.Blaney, 291; 12. D.Hamlin, 289; 13. R.Stenhouse, 276; 14. T.Bayne, 250; 15. Ku.Busch, 246; 16. K.Kahne, 242.