After a 76-race long absence from Victory Lane, Matt Kenseth dominated over Clint Boyer by a whopping 8.315 seconds in Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Victory was Kenseth's 2nd at Texas and the 19th of his Cup career since an impressive start of 2009 season, when he won the Daytona 500 and the second race of the season at Fontana Speedway. "I've said it after every win, but especially after over two years, I didn't know if I'd ever have a chance to get here again. We had a packed house tonight, and it probably wasn't the closest finish for them, but we had great racing all night."
Kenseth's Roush Fenway Racing teammates Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle came home third and fourth, respectively, with Paul Menard completing the top five.
Marcos Ambrose ran sixth and pole-sitter David Ragan seventh, as Ford drivers claimed five of the top seven positions. Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kurt Busch completed the top 10.
Kenseth, who led 169 of 334 laps, commented that staying out front in clean air was the key to win the race form the incoming Clint Boywer.
"A couple of times, when we got behind a little bit, it took awhile to get to the front. We were short on fuel [because of a fueling issue on pit road], but because of the tire situation -- how much time you could gain on [new] tires -- we got lucky. When we pitted, it forced the field to pit. That was the key in long runs."
Initially, Kenseth passed Bowyer for the lead on Lap 249, when Boywer tried to pass the lapped car of Brian Vickers but his car slid sideways. Although he managed to correct his driving line and kept the car away from spinning, he eventually lost the lead but only to gain it back when Kenseth had to pit one lap later as his car hadn't taken on a full load of fuel on the previous stop.
Boywer commented about his fault:
"Dang it. That was my fault, totally my fault. You come up on those lappers, and they hold you up so bad. Matt started to catch me, and I was pressing, trying to get around [Vickers]. He gave me room. I just slid up and got into him... Man, I thought it was going to end our day completely."
In fact Kenseth's pitstop activated a parade to pit road for the whole field that lasted 26 laps. Only Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch decided to stay out as long as possible, hoping for a caution but without any further chance. Kurt Busch finnaly pitted on Lap 270, but Stewart waited until Lap 276, opening a fuel window that would allow him to finish the race without another stop -- or so he thought. Yet he was penalized for speeding on pit road and then ran out of fuel on the last lap, finishing 12th, the last car on the lead lap.
The race’s major accident occurred on lap 216 as Martin Truex Jr. lost control of his car exiting the second turn after a slight contact from Kevin Harvick. Martin and Smith were innocent victims of Martin Truex Jr's move but their cars were crippled anyway.
