Weird Series of Events in NASCAR Cup Finale

By ESPN

Matt Kenseth could breathe a huge sigh of relief after a bizarre accident caused by an ambulance nearly cost him a spot in the 16-driver NASCAR playoff field.

The accident ended Kenseth's night, but he made the playoffs thanks to a Kyle Larson victory Saturday night in the NASCAR Cup regular-season finale at Richmond Raceway.

Kenseth would not have made the playoffs, which begin next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, if a driver in a must-win situation had won the race. Kenseth would have been third in points among the winless drivers in the regular season, and there would have been only two spots available on points.

He had led 89 laps of the first half of the race and was in good position to make it on points if he didn't win when the caution came out and he went to pit with 143 laps remaining. An ambulance, though, had stopped at the entrance to pit road, and in the logjam as cars tried to weave around the ambulance, he ran into the back of Clint Bowyer.

"Kind of a weird series of events there," Kenseth said. "It didn't turn out good for us. ... Yeah, I was surprised [to see it]."

Kenseth later tweeted a photo of himself, positioned next to an ambulance, as he left the track.

NASCAR senior vice president Scott Miller said the ambulance driver did not follow the directive to stop well before it got to the entrance of pit road. He said NASCAR will investigate what happened.

"It is not a common occurrence for us," Miller said about the mistake. "It was a very strange thing. The track workers are usually very, very good at following directives."

Martin Truex Jr., the regular-season champion, said the incident left him flabbergasted.

"Whoever hits the button to open pit road needs to pay attention to what's going on on the racetrack," Truex said. "It's not like it was a big surprise. It didn't happen in a split second. ... Somebody obviously wasn't paying attention or wasn't doing their job probably, and in my opinion at this level, it's inexcusable."

NASCAR has an official whose sole job during a race is to dispatch emergency equipment. Another official can direct emergency equipment so cars can get by it on the track and determines whether pit road is clear and ready for cars to enter.

"I have never ran one of these races before, but I sure would think that up in the tower, you're calling pit road and all of a sudden you see an ambulance sitting in the middle of the pit-road entry, you'd probably close it for a lap and wait until it clears out," Kenseth said.

"It's easy for me to say if I'm standing here instead of racing."

Before knowing that he made it in the playoffs, Kenseth said he likely wouldn't lobby for a spot if he missed the cut.

"That's just part of racing," Kenseth said. "This is 1/26th of the season ... and every race is equally as important. It's no better, no worse than any of our other five DNFs or whatever we've had this year.

"It's just been an awful year as far as finishing races and having trouble and getting in wrecks."

There is a precedent for NASCAR to add an extra driver to the playoffs. Jeff Gordon was added in 2013 after NASCAR determined that Michael Waltrip Racing drivers brought out the caution and pitted at certain times to get one of their drivers in at Gordon's expense.

"If we can't be in the top 16 after 26 races, we probably didn't deserve to be there," Kenseth said before knowing he got in. "We are working at it as hard as we can. We've been running good. Unfortunate circumstance, but hopefully we'll still get in."

Kenseth could smile a little bit after the race, which featured a caution with four laps remaining that created a double-file restart for a green-white-checkered finish. Without that caution, Truex had a comfortable lead, which would have allowed the lead-lap cars -- including those who could have knocked Kenseth out of the playoffs with a win -- one last chance to pit and capitalize on what often is mayhem in a two-lap dash to the finish. Truex ended up in the wall, and luckily for Kenseth, Larson won the race with Joey Logano in second, one spot short of eliminating Kenseth.

"It was a frustrating ending to watch on TV, to be honest with you," Kenseth said. "The whole thing on pit road, getting crashed out and that late caution to watch a demo[lition] derby restart, I am not really a big fan of that kind of racing.

"So that wasn't that great to watch. I'm glad we made it in, and hopefully we do something now that we're in it."

Kyle Larson Wins at Richmond

 Kyle Larson and his Chip Ganassi Racing team needed a break, and it came with two laps to go.

Running second to a dominant Martin Truex Jr. and itching for fresh tires and a shot at victory in overtime, Larson got it when Derrike Cope's car hit the wall, bringing out the seventh yellow flag of the night. Larson grabbed the lead on pit road and sailed to the victory.

"I guess we stole the win, I guess you could say, or our pit crew, I felt like, stole the win because they got me off as the leader,'' Larson said.

The victory was his fourth of the season, tying Truex for the most this year.

"I'm really pumped for the playoffs -- we've got a really good shot at the championship,'' Larson said. "I've got the greatest team out here and definitely the best pit crew. They were money all night long to gain spots. This win is a huge congrats to them."

And a nod to the 58-year-old Cope, who was starting his 13th race of the season and hasn't finished better than 31st. He was 38th at Richmond.

Truex, who clinched the regular-season NASCAR Cup title last week, had the race easily in hand until Cope crashed with under four laps remaining. Truex then wrecked in overtime while racing with Denny Hamlin for position. The sequence cost him his fifth win of the season.

"A caution for a guy who shouldn't even have been out there,'' Truex said about Cope. "It's kind of ridiculous.''

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was officially eliminated from the playoffs with a 13th-place finish. He's retiring at the end of the season, and he has never won a Cup title. Earnhardt stayed out during late green-flag pit stops, briefly assuming the lead with 66 laps to go, but the caution that could have made the strategy pay off never came.

"That's what we needed at the moment, and we didn't get it,'' Earnhardt said. "It was the only shot we had.''

Truex will still start the 10-race playoff stretch as the favorite to win the championship because he earned the most bonus points during the regular season. He and his Furniture Row Racing team were presented with the regular-season championship trophy.

The reward is a slew of bonus points, but Truex feigned a smile because he'd have preferred to have the race-winning trophy, too.

"Tonight is a little tough, it's a little hard to be excited,'' he said.

He's also got to watch over his shoulder for Larson, who now has a nice bit of a momentum going into the opening round of the playoffs at Chicagoland.

The Richmond victory was Larson's first on a short track in the Cup series.

"This has been a dream season for me, and we still have a long way to go,'' Larson said.

Chaos erupted with 140 laps remaining because an ambulance clogged the entrance to pit road as cars headed to their stalls. When traffic bottlenecked, Matt Kenseth ran into the car in front of him, and his contending car was knocked out with a crumpled hood.

"I saw an ambulance sitting there,'' Kenseth said. "It was an accordion effect and I just couldn't get stopped.''

The incident could have knocked Kenseth out of the playoffs had there been a first-time winner, but Larson fixed that, allowing Kenseth, Chase Elliott and Jamie McMurray to make the 16-driver field as the only non-winners.

Joey Logano and Clint Bowyer, both needing a victory to advance, also suffered damage in the ambulance incident. Logano ran in the top 10 for much of the night, and Bowyer got up into the mix a few times, but Logano's hope to strike lightning never quite materialized.

"It's happened to us a few times at Richmond that we didn't have a winning car and we won,'' he said. "We almost did it again.''

Logano finished second, and Bowyer was 24th.

Logano did win here in the spring, but the result was "encumbered'' by NASCAR when Logano's car was found to have an illegal rear end. Under series rules, Logano was allowed to keep the victory, but it no longer guaranteed him a spot in the playoffs. He also lost playoff points.