Photo Credit: Mike Holloway/OnPitRoad.com
Joe Gibbs Racing had cars that were dominate at Texas Motor Speedway for the Duck Commander 500, with their drivers leading the majority of the laps throughout the night. While Kyle Busch wound up winning the race, it wasn’t as kind to some of their other drivers, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth, as they both had issues later on after they had ran up front through the first half.
On Friday in qualifying, Edwards had won the pole for the Saturday night race while Kenseth would start ninth.
At the start of the race Edwards was led a chunk of the laps, followed by running in the top-three till an issue with one of his wheels on Lap 223 and had to make an unscheduled pit stop. As a result, he would go a down a lap. Then with 47 laps to go when Greg Biffle make contact with the wall bring out the caution flag, he was in the lucky dog position as the first car a lap down, putting him back on the lead lap. He was then able to battle back to a top 10 finish as he finished sixth.
Meanwhile, Kenseth’s season has been marred with many issues which have included many pit road mistakes, a crash and an almost win at Daytona International Speedway for the Daytona 500 only to get pushed back to 14th on the final lap of it.
The trend continued again at Texas. He had been outside of the top-five early in the race till he pitted under green before a caution on Lap 211. He was able to remain on the lead lap and when the leaders pitted, he gained the lead. He used that track position to stay up there, till issues on a pit stop under caution with 56 laps to go. He would have to come back down pit road again as a flying lug nut would get stuck between the wheel and the hub, resulting in the team leaving a lug nut loose. Then with 40 laps to go, Denny Hamlin would get Austin Dillon loose, causing him to slide right across Johnson with contact resulting. Dillon sliding across the track would result in a 13 car wreck, including the No. 20 of Kenseth. He would finish the race in 11th.
Both drivers will be looking for a better race when they go to Bristol Motor Speedway on April 17th for the Food City 500.
