Matt Kenseth has staked his claim for the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup by taking his third win of the season in the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte.
The Roush Ford driver made the winning move on long-time leader Kyle Busch with 25 laps to go, and survived a final restart to take the victory.
Busch gained the upper-hand in a hard scrap for second with points leader Carl Edwards over the closing laps, while Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top five.
Five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson brought out the last full-course yellow of the race with just 17 laps remaining when he lost control of his Hendrick Chevrolet while battling with Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne for seventh place.
Johnson over-corrected a slide before making heavy contact with the Turn 2 exit wall, and was lucky to emerge from the incident unharmed.
Ambrose appeared in trouble on the resulting restart, dropping from third to eighth after contact with Denny Hamlin, before recovering to trail home Kahne.
The Red Bull Toyota driver had been one of several to spin out in Turn 1 when the green flag flew with 42 laps remaining.
Kevin Harvick took sixth in his Richard Childress Chevrolet and is now five points behind championship leader Carl Edwards, with Kenseth just two points further adrift in third
AJ Allmendinger, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman also walked away from Charlotte with top 10 finishes.
See below for the race result
|
FIN |
ST |
DRIVER |
MAKE |
SPONSOR |
PTS/BNS |
LAPS |
STATUS |
| 1 | 2 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | Fluidmaster | 47/1 | 334 | Running |
| 2 | 25 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | M&M’s | 44/2 | 334 | Running |
| 3 | 3 | Carl Edwards | Ford | Aflac “Now Hiring” | 42/1 | 334 | Running |
| 4 | 8 | Kasey Kahne | Toyota | Red Bull | 40/0 | 334 | Running |
| 5 | 12 | Marcos Ambrose | Ford | Stanley / Bostitch | 39/0 | 334 | Running |
| 6 | 14 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches | 38/0 | 334 | Running |
| 7 | 4 | A.J. Allmendinger | Ford | Best Buy | 37/0 | 334 | Running |
| 8 | 1 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | Mobil 1 / Office Depot | 37/1 | 334 | Running |
| 9 | 17 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | FedEx Express | 35/0 | 334 | Running |
| 10 | 6 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | Cookies for Kids’ Cancer | 35/1 | 334 | Running |
| 11 | 11 | David Ragan | Ford | UPS Freight | 34/1 | 334 | Running |
| 12 | 16 | Joey Logano | Toyota | The Home Depot | 32/0 | 334 | Running |
| 13 | 20 | Kurt Busch | Dodge | Pennzoil Ultra | 31/0 | 334 | Running |
| 14 | 32 | Juan Montoya | Chevrolet | Target | 31/1 | 334 | Running |
| 15 | 5 | Greg Biffle | Ford | 3M “Give Kids A Smile” | 30/1 | 334 | Running |
| 16 | 26 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | Miller Lite | 28/0 | 333 | Running |
| 17 | 7 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | CertainTeed / Menards | 27/0 | 333 | Running |
| 18 | 28 | Jeff Burton | Chevrolet | Caterpillar | 26/0 | 333 | Running |
| 19 | 15 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | Amp Energy / National Guard | 25/0 | 333 | Running |
| 20 | 31 | Brian Vickers | Toyota | Red Bull | 24/0 | 333 | Running |
| 21 | 23 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | Drive to End Hunger | 23/0 | 333 | Running |
| 22 | 38 | J.J. Yeley | Ford | Long John Silver’s | 23/1 | 333 | Running |
| 23 | 18 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | NAPA Auto Parts | 21/0 | 332 | Running |
| 24 | 19 | Clint Bowyer | Chevrolet | Cheerios / Hamburger Helper | 20/0 | 332 | Running |
| 25 | 21 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | Furniture Row Companies | 19/0 | 332 | Running |
| 26 | 29 | David Reutimann | Toyota | Aaron’s Dream Machine | 18/0 | 332 | Running |
| 27 | 27 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops / Arctic Cat | 17/0 | 332 | Running |
| 28 | 30 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | Thank A Teacher Today | 0 | 332 | Running |
| 29 | 22 | Bobby Labonte | Toyota | Lance Snacks / Tom’s Snacks | 15/0 | 331 | Running |
| 30 | 42 | Mike Bliss | Ford | Street King | 0 | 331 | Running |
| 31 | 10 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto | 0 | 329 | Running |
| 32 | 24 | Casey Mears | Toyota | GEICO | 12/0 | 323 | Engine |
| 33 | 41 | Hermie Sadler | Ford | Susan G. Komen for the Cure | 0 | 322 | Running |
| 34 | 9 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | Lowe’s / Chevy 100th Anniversay | 11/1 | 316 | Accident |
| 35 | 35 | Dave Blaney | Chevrolet | Golden Corral | 9/0 | 292 | Engine |
| 36 | 33 | David Gilliland | Ford | Tastykake | 8/0 | 289 | Running |
| 37 | 13 | Mark Martin | Chevrolet | GoDaddy.com | 7/0 | 287 | Running |
| 38 | 43 | Robby Gordon | Dodge | Speed Energy / Harris Teeter | 6/0 | 33 | Vibration |
| 39 | 37 | Michael McDowell | Toyota | HP Racing LLC | 5/0 | 30 | Susp. |
| 40 | 34 | Travis Kvapil | Ford | Ingersoll Rand | 0 | 27 | Overheating |
| 41 | 36 | David Stremme | Chevrolet | Red Rocks Cafe | 3/0 | 22 | Overheating |
| 42 | 40 | Andy Lally * | Ford | HOD | 2/0 | 20 | Brakes |
| 43 | 39 | Joe Nemechek | Toyota | AMFMEnergy.com | 0 | 11 | Vibration |
See below for the updated championship standings
|
RANK |
DRIVER |
POINTS |
| 1 | Carl Edwards | 2203 |
| 2 | Kevin Harvick | 2198 |
| 3 | Matt Kenseth | 2196 |
| 4 | Kyle Busch | 2185 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | 2179 |
| 6 | Brad Keselowski | 2178 |
| 7 | Kurt Busch | 2176 |
| 8 | Jimmie Johnson | 2168 |
| 9 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 2143 |
| 10 | Ryan Newman | 2142 |
| 11 | Jeff Gordon | 2137 |
| 12 | Denny Hamlin | 2117 |
| 13 | Clint Bowyer | 868 |
| 14 | A.J. Allmendinger | 865 |
| 15 | Kasey Kahne | 857 |
| 16 | Greg Biffle | 856 |
| 17 | David Ragan | 829 |
| 18 | Marcos Ambrose | 821 |
| 19 | Juan Montoya | 819 |
| 20 | Mark Martin | 816 |
| 21 | Paul Menard | 802 |
| 22 | Joey Logano | 791 |
| 23 | Martin Truex Jr. | 790 |
| 24 | Jeff Burton | 761 |
| 25 | Brian Vickers | 721 |
| 26 | Regan Smith | 717 |
| 27 | Jamie McMurray | 705 |
| 28 | David Reutimann | 642 |
| 29 | Bobby Labonte | 618 |
| 30 | David Gilliland | 502 |
| 31 | Casey Mears | 427 |
| 32 | Dave Blaney | 403 |
| 33 | Andy Lally* | 379 |
| 34 | Robby Gordon | 251 |
| 35 | J.J. Yeley | 165 |
| 36 | Tony Raines | 129 |
| 37 | Michael McDowell | 114 |
| 38 | Bill Elliott | 100 |
| 39 | Terry Labonte | 92 |
| 40 | Ken Schrader | 87 |
| 41 | David Stremme | 72 |
| 42 | Boris Said | 38 |
| 43 | Stephen Leicht | 20 |
| 44 | Michael Waltrip | 20 |
| 45 | Andy Pilgrim | 18 |
| 46 | Chris Cook | 17 |
| 47 | T.J. Bell* | 14 |
| 48 | Brian Simo | 11 |
| 49 | Geoffrey Bodine | 6 |
| 50 | Brian Keselowski* | 3 |
| 51 | Erik Darnell | 2 |
| 52 | Steve Park | 2 |
| 53 | Trevor Bayne | 0 |
| 54 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 0 |
| 55 | Landon Cassill | 0 |
| 56 | Steve Wallace | 0 |
| 57 | Mike Skinner | 0 |
| 58 | Mike Bliss | 0 |
| 59 | Travis Kvapil | 0 |
| 60 | Austin Dillon | 0 |
| 61 | David Starr | 0 |
| 62 | Scott Wimmer | 0 |
| 63 | Hermie Sadler | 0 |
| 64 | Joe Nemechek | 0 |
| 65 | Patrick Carpentier | 0 |
| 66 | Ron Fellows | 0 |
| 67 | Scott Speed | 0 |
| 68 | Jason White | 0 |
| 69 | Andrew Ranger | 0 |
| 70 | Sam Hornish Jr. | 0 |
| 71 | Johnny Sauter | 0 |
| 72 | Todd Bodine | 0 |
| 73 | Josh Wise | 0 |
| 74 | Dennis Setzer | 0 |
| 75 | Robert Richardson Jr. | 0 |
| 76 | Reed Sorenson | 0 |
| 77 | Scott Riggs | 0 |
| 78 | Kevin Conway | 0 |
| 79 | P.J. Jones | 0 |
| 80 | Jeff Green | 0 |
| 81 | Derrike Cope | 0 |
| 82 | Tony Ave | 0 |
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