Catchfence

There was no denying the defending NSCS champion, Jimmie Johnson, his victory in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, as he led the most laps and puts himself  third in the “chase for the championship.”

Johnson, who led 197 laps of the 272 that were run, received his 2nd series win of the 2011 season, his 55th series career win, his twentieth series career “chase” win and his second series win at Kansas Speedway.

Following Johnson (now 4-points behind the series’ leader, Carl Edwards) to the drop of the checkered flag by 0.548  seconds was Kasey Kahne, followed by Brad Keselowski finishing third, Matt Kenseth fourth and Carl Edwards finishing fifth.

Rounding out the top-ten finishing positions were Kevin Harvick finishing sixth, Clint Bowyer seventh, Greg Biffle eighth, Marcos Ambrose ninth and Mark Martin finishing in the tenth position.

With Carl Edwards finishing in fifth and with Kevin Harvick (who came into the race as the points leader) finishing in sixth, Edwards takes over the series points lead by 1-point over Harvick.

The Best Finish and Worse Finish Among the “Chase” Drivers: Race winner, Jimmie Johnson, was the best finishing “chase” driver, while a blown engine left Jeff Gordon in the 34th-place finishing position and worse finishing “chase” driver.

RACE NOTES:

Average Speed: 137.181 MPH
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 58 Mins, 27 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 0.548 Seconds
Lead Changes: 19 among 9 drivers
Cautions: 6 for 25 laps
Attendance: 82,000

Unofficial Top-12 in the Point Standings: 1. Carl Edwards – 2161 (Leader) 2. Kevin Harvick – 2160 (-1 Points Behind the Leader) 3. Jimmie Johnson – 2157 (-4) 4. Brad Keselowski – 2150 (-11) 5. Matt Kenseth – 2149 (-12)  6. Kurt Busch -2145 (-16) 7. Tony Stewart – 2142 (-19) 8. Kyle Busch – 2141 (-20) 9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 2118 (-43) 10. Jeff Gordon – 2114 (-47) 11. Ryan Newman – 2107 (-54) 12. Denny Hamlin – 2082 (-79).

Next Up: The Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday night, October 15th, with ABC beginning their (pre-race) coverage at 7:00 PM (EDT).-

2011 NSCS Hollywood Casino 400 Race Results

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Lap	Pts	BPts	Status	TLd	LLd
1	19	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe's Chevrolet	272	48	5	Running	7	197
2	5	4	Kasey Kahne	Red Bull Toyota	272	42		Running
3	12	2	Brad Keselowski	Miller Lite Dodge	272	42	1	Running	2	5
4	4	17	Matt Kenseth	Crown Royal Ford	272	41	1	Running	2	26
5	2	99	Carl Edwards	Aflac Ford	272	39		Running
6	14	29	Kevin Harvick	Budweiser Chevrolet	272	38		Running
7	24	33	Clint Bowyer	Cheerios / Hamburger Helper Chevrolet	272	37		Running
8	1	16	Greg Biffle	Sherwin-Williams Ford	272	37	1	Running	4	23
9	21	9	Marcos Ambrose	DeWalt Ford	272	35		Running
10	9	5	Mark Martin	CARQUEST / GoDaddy.com Chevrolet	272	34		Running
11	3	18	Kyle Busch	M&M's Toyota	272	34	1	Running	1	8
12	6	27	Paul Menard	Schrock / Menards Chevrolet	272	32		Running
13	17	22	Kurt Busch	Shell Pennzoil Dodge	272	32	1	Running	1	6
14	18	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	National Guard / AMP Energy Chevrolet	272	30		Running
15	23	14	Tony Stewart	Office Depot / Mobil 1 Chevrolet	272	29		Running
16	7	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Freight Toyota	272	28		Running
17	41	51	Landon Cassill(i)	Security Benefits / Thank A Teacher Today Chevrolet	272	0		Running	1	2
18	11	39	Ryan Newman	HAAS Automation Chevrolet	272	26		Running
19	15	83	Brian Vickers	Red Bull Toyota	271	25		Running
20	13	6	David Ragan	UPS Ford	271	24		Running
21	31	31	Jeff Burton	Caterpillar Chevrolet	271	23		Running
22	29	1	Jamie McMurray	Bass Pro Shops / Arctic Cat Chevrolet	271	22		Running
23	34	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	Target Chevrolet	271	21		Running
24	16	78	Regan Smith	Furniture Row Racing / Farm American Chevrolet	271	20		Running
25	22	43	A J Allmendinger	Best Buy Ford	270	19		Running
26	26	98	Austin Dillon(i)	President Ronald Reagan Centennial Chevrolet	270	0		Running
27	36	38	Travis Kvapil(i)	Long John Silver's Ford	270	0		Running	1	3
28	42	32	Mike Bliss(i)	Street King Ford	270	0		Running
29	20	20	Joey Logano	The Home Depot Toyota	270	15		Running
30	33	47	Bobby Labonte	Bush's Beans / Kingsford Toyota	269	14		Running
31	38	36	Dave Blaney	Big Red Chevrolet	269	13		Running
32	30	34	David Gilliland	A&W All American Food Ford	268	12		Running
33	25	46	Scott Speed(i)	ordergreenstuff.com Ford	266	0		Running
34	10	24	Jeff Gordon	DuPont Chevrolet	264	11	1	Engine	1	2
35	27	0	David Reutimann	Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota	264	9		Running
36	8	56	Martin Truex Jr.	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	241	8		Running
37	35	71	Andy Lally #	Interstate Moving Services Ford	72	7		Overheating
38	39	7	Reed Sorenson(i)	SPEED Energy / MAPEI / Menards Dodge	37	0		Vibration
39	40	66	Michael McDowell	Victory Junction Toyota	30	5		Brakes
40	32	30	David Stremme	Inception Motorsports Chevrolet	27	4		Rear Gear
41	43	87	Joe Nemechek(i)	AM FM Energy Toyota	18	0		Clutch
42	37	13	Casey Mears	GEICO Toyota	16	2		Brakes
43	28	55	J J Yeley	Front Row Motorsports Ford	12	1		Ignition

(i) Ineligible for Points in this Series
# Denote Rookie