Allgemeines » Mark didnt play the way he normally

SPARTA, Ky. -- Matt Kenseths fuel-only pit stop gamble helped him beat Jimmie Johnson late and win Sundays rescheduled 400-mile NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway. A race that was Johnsons to lose ultimately became Kenseths series-high fourth victory of the season after crew chief Jason Ratcliff passed on putting new tires on the No. 20 Toyota following the races ninth caution. "I thought he was slightly crazy when that happened," said Kenseth, who widened his lead when the field went four-wide after the restart on lap 246 and saw Johnsons No. 48 Chevy spin from second place on a dominant day he led three times for 182 of 267 laps. "I didnt think there was any way that we were going to hold on for that win. He made the right call at the right time and those guys got it done." Kenseth led twice for 38 laps, including the final 23. Johnson, the five-time champion and current series points leader, finished ninth and leads Carl Edwards by 38. The restart bothered Johnson, who accused Kenseth of breaking the pace car speed. But he took solace in salvaging his 11th top-10 despite between sandwiched in the logjam that could have been worse. "We were kind of in an awkward situation in that restart there," he said. "We were like three- and four-wide going in the corner, then something happened with the air and just kind of turned me around. Unfortunate, but at least we rallied back for a good finish." Second was Jamie McMurray in a Chevy, followed by Clint Bowyer (Toyota), Joey Logano (Ford) and Kyle Busch (Toyota). Rain on Saturday forced NASCAR officials to postpone the race to a daytime start. The event was red-flagged for 18 minutes following a seven-car wreck involving defending race and Sprint Cup winner Brad Keselowski, who returned to finish 33rd. It was the biggest incident of 10 cautions for 42 laps, but things were clean after Johnson brought out the final yellow flag. The checkered flag crowned Kentuckys third different champion in as many events though Kenseth, like Johnson, was due for a breakthrough on the 1.5-mile oval. He finished seventh here last year and sixth in the 2011 inaugural race. However, victory didnt seem likely for the 2003 Cup champion after qualifying 16th and running outside the top 20 during the first quarter of the event. "I thought our first run, we were all right and I guess probably after the second run, we were able to move forward pretty good," Kenseth said. "I felt pretty good about what we had. I thought we need to get it better." From then on, the first-year Joe Gibbs Racing driver was a perennial top-five contender. Trouble was, he and other hopefuls seemed to need Johnson to suffer misfortune to have any shot of catching him. The way he was running, that appeared unlikely. Turns out, Kenseth needed to rely on the left-side tires Ratcliff ordered the previous stop. Taking fuel only the final time allowed him to gain the lead coming off pit road, and the rubber held up on the rough, bumpy track, both on the restart and through the final laps. Ratcliff was shocked that more teams didnt follow suit with that strategy. "I felt like more guys would make that call, and so I thought it was worth a shot to get out there," the crew chief said. "When we rolled off pit road and saw what everybody did, I looked to the guy beside me and Im like, I cant believe we are the only ones that did that." The decision led to a surprising late turn of events, and the tense finish in which McMurray and Bowyer took turns trying to chase down Kenseth provided a nice makeup after Saturday nights washout. In a season of struggles, McMurray was just happy with his first top-five. "Every week its been something," he said, "so its nice to have some good luck." Bowyer remained third in points and gave Michael Waltrip Racing its second straight top-two run following teammate Martin Truexs road win last week in Sonoma, Calif. Kenseths victory meanwhile typified a weekend where a number of drivers were projected to win at Kentucky. Fridays pole qualifying generated enough excitement for the series third visit, with eight drivers breaking Johnsons year-old track record of 181.818 mph. The group included the five-time champion, who shattered his own mark at 183.144 mph before Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.s 183.636 mph speed in the No. 88 Chevy snatched the record and the pole, leaving Johnson to settle for the third spot. Earnhardts objective was ending a 37-race drought and improving his seventh-place points standing coming in. Earnhardt succeeded with the latter, finishing 12th to gain a spot with nine races remaining in NASCARs regular season. Johnson eventually picked up where he left off in practice and qualifying, becoming the story on Sunday with the best car after several early lead changes. Edwards quickly got past Earnhardt after the green flag and led the first 32 laps, although a competition caution allowed Earnhardt to reclaim the lead with a two-tire stop, a strategy followed by the top 10. Denny Hamlin was one of those and restarted sixth on lap 36, but he quickly had to return to the pits when his right front tire went down. Hamlins misfortune quickly created concern for Earnhardt and Johnson when the rubber slid off the tire rim during his exit and flew back on to the track. Earnhardt ran over it, bending his splitters right side, before the tire flew off and bounced off Johnsons hood to bring out the races second caution on lap 39. A hard wreck later sent Hamlin to the infield care centre and left him 35th. "I had to take a moment when I got out of the car to kind of gather my thoughts because obviously I didnt feel that great," Hamlin said. The biggest incident came on lap 49 when Kurt Busch spun out Keselowski near turn 1, triggering an accident that red-flagged the race. Greg Biffle slammed into Keselowski, lifting his car off the asphalt and leaving both Fords mangled. Somehow, both returned to finish 33rd and 34th respectively. But at the time of the wreck Johnson had already taken his first lead of the race and appeared headed to a walkover victory before Ratcliffs risk resulted in Kenseths reward. Shoes NZ 2020 . Detroits powerful offence made that unnecessary. Scherzer allowed two hits and struck out seven, and the Tigers backed their star right-hander with three early homers in an 8-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night. Shoes NZ Nike . TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie tweeted that its believed the Flames are working towards a new contract with the defenceman. https://www.shoesnzonline.com/. The whole deflation of New England Patriots footballs is like a murder mystery without the violence or significance. On one side, this is a ridiculous issue. Shoes NZ Sale . PAUL, Minn. Shoes NZ From China . Even that couldnt slow them down against the New Orleans Hornets. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook scored 31 points apiece and the Thunder overcame injuries to two key backups to beat New Orleans 101-93 Monday night for their 10th straight home win.Ding Junhui demolished Mark Williams 13-3 with a session to spare to reach the World Championship semi-finals. The Chinese star was in stunning form to blow away the Welshman after racking up at least a half-century break in every frame.Having started the match in similarly dominant fashion by building a 6-2 lead, Ding did not let his foot off the gas by taking the first four frames on Tuesday evening to lead 10-2. Williams, a two-time Crucible champion, was short of ideas as he managed to pot just two balls before the mid-session interval.Although he showed a brief spark by winning frame 13, there was no holding back Ding who stormed over the line.Williams told World Snooker: I got beat easily and to be honest deep down I knew I was going to get beat easily, so I cant grumble.With the players left in, it was probably my best chance to win the World Championship again and I felt really confident. But as soon as my tip split last night, I knew that my chances were gone.While Ding, who has still to win the World Champiionship, added: I controlled the match, I took my chances to make breaks.dddddddddddd. I have confidence and every time I see a chance I think I can go for it and make breaks.Mark didnt play the way he normally does. The day off is a bonus, Ive never had that before, and Im going to enjoy the day. I feel more relaxed now, in this match I released a lot of pressure, I went for crazy shots.After the high of his win over Ronnie OSullivan, Barry Hawkins came crashing down to earth in Tuesdays afternoon session at the Crucible against Marco Fu.Hawkins withstood a stirring fightback by OSullivan from 12-9 to win a final-frame decider on Monday night but struggled badly against Fu to fall 7-1 behind.Four-time world champion John Higgins leads Alan McManus 5-3 in their all-Scottish clash, while Mark Selby went 6-2 up against Kyren Wilson. 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