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Kenseth Ends Victory Drought By Winning At Homestead

Matt and Katie Kenseth and their daughters enjoy victory lane. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Homestead, Fla. – Matt Kenseth had not been to victory lane for more than a year but he got re-acquainted with it by winning the Ford EcoBoost 300 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. As he understood, winning does not come easy and he had to survive a pair of late-race yellow flags and a green-white-checker finish to wrap it up.

To retain the lead, Kenseth had to stave off the repeated challenges of teammate Kyle Busch and youthful sensation Kyle Larson. At the finish line, Kenseth nipped Busch by .395 seconds with Larson just a few feet behind.

The Nationwide Series season finale also marked the end of series sponsorship for the insurer with XFINITY assuming the title sponsor role starting in 2015.

For Kenseth, he won for the first time in 2014 and for the 29th time in his NASCAR Nationwide Series career. He led three times for a total of 52 laps, including 26 of the final 31 rounds.

The Wisconsin driving star was behind the wheel of the GameStop/Rock Candy Toyota from the Joe Gibbs Racing stable.

“We kept getting those restarts near the end, and I got away good,” Kenseth said. “On that second-to-last one, I was able to get rolling well. We had a really good car, especially on short to mid-range runs, and it kind of fell into our hands, except for last few cautions. It did work out, and we got out front.”

Crew chief Kevin Kidd stated, “It is a great victory for us after a long dry-spell. Some of our guys got to victory lane for the first time, and it was great to see the smiles on their faces.”

An enthused Joe Gibbs stated, “The Nationwide Series is a big part of what we do at Joe Gibbs Racing. I don’t know how many times Matt (Kenseth) has had the lead, but we would get nipped on restarts. I’m glad this one came out on the other end.”

Said Busch, “We had a strong car, but somewhere in the middle we started falling behind, but Adam Stevens made some great race calls and some good adjustments to get our car handling better. (At the end) it was a race among Matt Kenseth, Kyle Larson and myself, and that’s the way it came down at the end.”

For the second night in a row Kyle Larson put on a dazzling driving exhibition but came up short after leading 111 laps.

“We were able to lead a lot of laps, a lot more than I’ve probably led in my career. That was fun,” he commented but expressed disappointment in not getting the win. “(We were) really close to a win today.”

Fourth and fifth went to Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher.

Rounding out the top-10 was Regan Smith, Ty Dillon, Brad Keselowski, Elliott Sadler and Brian Scott.

Chase Elliott clinched the series championship a week ago at Phoenix, and the teenager was officially crowned champion tonight, becoming the youngest champion in NASCAR national series history at 18 years, 11 months and 18 days. Previously, Brian Vickers had held the record at 20 years, 0 months and 2 days.

The teenager finished 17th after grazing a wall near the end.

For JR Motorsports, it won its first Nationwide Series championship. Owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. fielded his first car as an owner at Homestead nine years ago. Overall, the team has won 21 Nationwide Series races.

.For the second consecutive year, Team Penske took the owners’ championship with its No. 22 Ford. With five drivers racing it, the team scored five wins, 23 top five’s and 29 top 10s.

“It has been a great day,” Roger Penske said. “I thought that race would never get over. I think we had a green-white-checker and all we had to do was finish 25th, but you never know. This was a team effort at Team Penske. I think we have four championships here over the last few years.”

Eleven caution flags slowed the race for 48 of the 206 laps.

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