Breaking down the restart that cost Matt Kenseth a shot at the title

With three (scheduled) laps to go in Sunday’s race at Phoenix, it sure looked like Matt Kenseth was on his way to securing a spot among the four drivers racing for the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

But after Michael McDowell’s car had a tire explode and his car went sliding into turn three, the margin of Kenseth’s lead of the race disappeared. And his chances of making the final round of the Chase disappeared not long after that. Let’s go through how it happened, shall we?

[Related: Joey Logano and Kyle Busch advance to championship round at Homestead]

McDowell’s caution sent the race past its scheduled distance and into a two-lap race to the finish. Kenseth started first and took the outside line entering turn 1. Alex Bowman, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s substitute driver who led the most laps, was on his inside in second. Kyle Busch was on the inside of the second row in third and Joey Logano was alongside Busch in fourth.

Bowman laid back on the restart to try to get a good run into the corner. By doing so he gave Busch an opportunity to go to the inside entering the corner. Busch made contact with Bowman’s bumper.

“It’s really unfortunate and devastating to have the race come down like that,” Busch said. “I got a little bit better restart than [Bowman] did and I felt like I had a run on him and had enough that I got to the inside and if he chopped me he was going to get wrecked and that’s what happened, but it carried on into [Kenseth] and essentially I guess I wrecked a teammate. It’s so frustrating and aggravating and I feel horrible about it. It’s a shame to see it come down like that.”

Bowman kept his car pointed straight and had a tight line entering turn 1. Kenseth had briefly cleared Bowman as the No. 88 was tagged by Busch, but Kenseth wasn’t clear as the two got to the corner. After he was cleared by his spotter, Kenseth dove to the inside line. But Bowman’s car was there.

“[Bowman] was laying way, way back for that restart — more than a car — so I got going early on purpose and I looked at him at the start-finish line and I thought we were doing okay, and I looked back and it looked like he had a little run on me, maybe not and shortly thereafter [spotter Chris Osborne] cleared me,” Kenseth said. “So with the glare I started looking to the corner to approach the corner and I got turned out of the way. He hollered ‘inside’ at the same time I got turned towards the fence so I really don’t know what happened. I was just going off the information I had to try to get the best corner I could and lead more laps.”

Kenseth and Bowman made contact and Kenseth went spinning towards the wall.

“I feel bad, but there was really nothing I could do,” Bowman said. “You get defensive there into Turn 1 and his spotter cleared him because he just drove across the nose like he thought he was clear. It’s unfortunate and I hate that. Maybe I just got in there too deep but I was against the inside wall when we made contact.”

Busch and Logano entered Sunday’s race tied in the points standings. With Kenseth occupying one of two available spots in the final round (the other two were already clinched by Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson), only one of the two could move on to the final round as long as Kenseth had the lead.

“I was really hoping I could get a good restart and force [Bowman] off the bottom and have him kind of block [Logano] and I could have a position in between me and [Logano] and both [Kenseth] and myself would transfer on into the final round,” Busch said. “That’s how I was projecting the restart going, it certainly didn’t end that way.”

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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