If you looked at statistics alone, you’d say that Kenseth dominated Sunday at Kansas Speedway in the eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season. After all, Kenseth won the event from the pole and led 163 of the 267 laps.

In reality, Kenseth prevailed in a race of extraordinary strategic complexity, with divergent approaches shuffling and reshuffling the running order until an opportune caution on Lap 218 put Kenseth back in the lead at just the right time.

Nonetheless, it took all of Kenseth’s consummate skill to hold off fast-closing Kasey Kahne, who narrowed what had been a lead of more than one second to .151 seconds at the finish. Jimmie Johnson ran third, followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer.

The victory was Kenseth’s second at Kansas, his second of the season and the 26th of his career. The driver of the No. 20 Toyota has won both races at Kansas since the track was repaved last year.

“It was kind of like musical chairs,” Kenseth said. “You had to be out front when the music stopped. Our car was very fast in clean air. It was reasonable in dirty air, but it wasn’t quite good enough to catch all them guys and pass ‘em (in traffic).

“Thankfully, I had a couple of really crazy-good restarts for some reason and made up some ground and got us back in position.”

Kahne started 27th, but the speed in his No. 5 Chevrolet SS belied the qualifying effort. Kahne’s crew tightened up the handling of his car for the final run, but not quite enough. There was a sense of déjà vu for Kahne, who chased Kenseth to the finish line March 10 at Las Vegas.

“We were very close at the end, battling with Matt,” Kahne said. “Felt like Vegas all over again, just kind of felt like really similar to that in how I could catch him but couldn’t really do anything once I got close. It made my car a little bit looser. So I tried a few things there, and he kind of blocked those spots and went those directions and gained the speed that I (had), and then we were even again.

“It was tough, but we still had a great race.”

Defending Cup champion Brad Keselowski came home sixth, despite sustaining heavy damage to his rear bumper when the field checked up on the first lap.

That damage had far-reaching effects — so much so that it changed the complexion of the race on Lap 218. The rear bumper cover from Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford dislodged, causing the eighth caution — right after Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle had made green-flag pit stops.

But since all lead-lap cars came to pit road under the yellow, those four drivers were able to regain the lead lap through wave-arounds. Kenseth led the field to the restart on Lap 225, with Truex beside him and Hendrick teammates Johnson and Kahne on the second row.

Kenseth pulled away after the restart, and Kahne charged into the second spot. On Lap 236, Johnson passed Truex for the third position. That’s the order in which they ran to the finish.

With his third-place finish, Johnson opened a 37-point lead in the Cup standings over second-place Kahne, who gained five spots. Johnson is 38 points ahead of Keselowski in third.

Keselowski position in the standings reflects a 25-point penalty levied after the Apr. 13 race at Texas, where NASCAR confiscated the rear axle housings of both Penske Racing cars and subsequently levied penalties on the organization. Penske has appealed, but Keselowski won’t regain the 25 points unless the appeal is upheld.

Note: For the third straight race, a driver won from the pole. The last time that happened was 1985 (Bill Elliott at Michigan, Dale Earnhardt at Bristol and Elliott at Darlington).

Truex Jr’s No. 56 Toyota was found to be in violation of Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4J (any determination by NASCAR officials that the race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules); and 20-12.8.1B (the car failed to meet the minimum front car heights during post-race inspection) of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series Rule Book.

Crew chief Chad Johnston has been fined $25,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until June 5. Truex Jr has also been penalized with the loss of six championship driver points, and Michael Waltrip has been penalized with six championship owner points.

MWR issued a statement following the announcement of the penalty:

Michael Waltrip Racing is sensitive to working within the guidelines of NASCAR policy. This infraction clearly occurred as a result of a malfunction caused by race conditions. Therefore, we will not appeal. We thank NASCAR for providing a fair and equitable platform for all of its competitors and respect its decisions.

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The front of Truex’s car was too low during inspection. NASCAR took the car back to its Research and Development center in North Carolina for further evaluation.

Crew chief Chad Johnston said the shock would not rebound:

We tried to pull the shaft out of the body, and it’s just [stuck]. There’s something going on, whether it’s debris (inside) or parts and pieces of the shock.

If truth be known, Busch started the process on Friday afternoon and applied the coup de grace with 20 laps left on Saturday evening.

Yes, Busch capped a perfect weekend when he took the checkered flag .508 seconds ahead of runner-up Martin Truex Jr. But Busch’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at Texas, his second of the season and the 26th of his career started with a pole-winning run on Friday that afforded him the luxury of picking the No. 1 pit stall.

At the race’s crucial juncture, under the final caution for debris in Turn 4, Busch used a lightning-fast pit stop and the pit stall position closest to the exit from pit road to grab the top spot for the final restart. Truex restarted on the outside and struggled to maintain contact with the race winner.

Though he gained ground in the closing laps, Truex ran out of time.

Carl Edwards was third, followed by Greg Biffle and Joey Logano, who barely made the starting grid and rallied for an unexpected top five.

Busch, who won Friday night’s Nationwide Series race after claiming the pole, finished off the seventh Nationwide/Cup sweep of his career, a NASCAR record–and all because of the final pit stop.

“It feels good–oh, man,” Busch exulted after climbing from his car. “(Crew chief) Dave Rogers and these guys gave me a great piece today. We ran up front all day long. But if it wasn’t for my pit crew, the most awesome group ever–since 2008 we’ve been together, haven’t had any changeover–man, those guys are just awesome.

“They pulled out one heck of a stop right there at the end to put us up front, to give us that lead, and we were able to bring it home.”

Busch led a race-high 171 laps to 142 for Truex, who was beyond disappointed with the second-place result.

“We started near the front and had a decent car at the beginning, but not great,” Truex said. “We worked on it all night and got it to where it was the best car out there. The last caution came out, and we got beat out of the pits, and that was the race. It was pretty frustrating to run second again. I feel like we’ve been in this boat and this position a bunch of times.

“Nothing about it is much fun. At the same time, it was a good run for us. We had a great weekend. Had a good race car all weekend long, and we learned a lot about things we can use in the future. Just running second sucks, especially when you’re that fast. So (I’m) a little bit frustrated right now.”

Nor would Truex use Busch’s No. 1 pit stall as an excuse.

“We came in with the lead,” Truex said. “I still feel like we should have been able to beat him out. I don’t know what happened there, but it wasn’t even close. I was three (car-lengths) behind, so it wasn’t all pit position, it was other things on our end…

“It’s so hard to get in position to win these races. It is so hard to make your car good enough to beat Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch and all these guys; and we had that tonight. We’ve got to get better at taking advantage of that. That’s where we’re missing, and that’s what we need to work on. So that’s why I’m upset. Second is a great accomplishment, but it’s not what we’re here for.”

Truex streaked away from the field after a restart on lap 229 and opened a lead of more than 2.5 seconds over Busch. That advantage grew to more than four seconds before a worn-out right front tire threatened Truex’s winning chances.

As Truex brought his No. 56 Toyota to pit road under green on Lap 280, however, David Gilliland turned Marcos Ambrose’s Ford on the backstretch to cause the sixth caution of the night. As the yellow flew, Jeff Burton ran into the back of Mark Martin’s Toyota and spun into the inside wall.

Since both Truex and Busch were already on pit road when NASCAR called the caution, they remained in the lead for a restart on Lap 291. Truex opened a lead once again before a Lap 314 caution for debris in Turn 4 slowed the field again and allowed the lead-lap cars to pit for four tires.

Busch won the race off pit road, and that proved decisive, as he sped away after a restart on Lap 319 and made a bridesmaid of Truex for the sixth time since his only Sprint Cup victory on June 4, 2007.

Trouble started early for the Penske Racing Fords of reigning series champion Brad Keselowski and Logano. NASCAR confiscated the rear-end housings of the cars, forcing the teams to make a change before the race.

Keselowski made it to the grid in time for the start, but Logano’s car was late presenting itself on pit road and had to start from the rear.

“It is just something that is not in the spirit of the rules,” NASCAR vice president of competition told the Sporting News in explaining the violation. If penalties are forthcoming, they will be announced next week.

Nevertheless, both drivers rallied from a lap to down to post top-10 finishes. Keselowski came home ninth and remained second in the Cup standings, nine points behind Jimmie Johnson, who ran sixth on Saturday.

Harvick passed Trevor Bayne on lap 37 to take the lead of Duel 1. He led the remaining 23 laps.

Danica Patrick, who will start the 500 from the pole, played it safe and dropped to the back early on to ensure her car would not sustain damage.

Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jimmie Johnson, and Kurt Busch rounded out the top 5 of Duel 1.

The first duel was relatively uneventful until lap 52 when Denny Hamlin appeared to get loose and bumped Carl Edwards.  Edwards was turned into the wall triggering a multi-car accident that damaged the cars of Hamlin, Edwards, Trevor Bayne, and Regan Smith.

Kyle Busch used a fuel-only pit stop at lap 41 to take the lead coming off pit road. He ran most of the remaining laps with teammate Matt Kenseth behind him. But, with two laps to go, Kasey Kahne and Austin Dillon were able to pass Kenseth. They couldn’t mount a charge to pass Busch, though.

Busch said after the race that the original plan was to take two tires, but his crew chief made the call to go fuel-only.

Kahne, Dillon, Clint Bowyer, and Kenseth finished second through fifth, respectively.

Jeff Gordon, who will start the 500 on the front row, led the first 40 laps of Duel 2, before a pass-through penalty for speeding on pit road ended his chances of winning the duel.

Martin Truex Jr, who ran in the lead pack for most of Duel 2, was black-flagged for losing a side window. He finished 19th. Mike Bliss also had to make a pit stop to fix his window net, which came down. That cost him a chance at making the Daytona 500. Brian Keselowski was the only other driver who did not qualify for the race.

Truex will drive Phoenix Racing’s No. 51 Chevy.

I will be making my SPRINT CUP debut at Richmond in the #51 for Phoenix Racing. Running multiple races in 2013 as well as Indy NNS race

— Ryan Truex (@Ryan_Truex) February 18, 2013

On the last lap in what was the debut race for NASCAR’s Gen-6 race car, Harvick blocked Stewart on the inside and moved back up the track to block Biffle, who was perilously close to sending Harvick’s No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet into the fence.

Biffle ran second, Joey Logano took third, and Stewart — his momentum broken by Harvick’s block — finished fourth. Matt Kenseth finished fifth in his first competition for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Harvick’s victory was his third in five races, following back-to-back wins in 2009 and 2010. Though Harvick will leave RCR at the end of the season to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing next year, he said the impending job change is of no consequence on the track.

“I think it’s one of those deals, where, for us, it’s about winning races,” Harvick said in Victory Lane. “The politics and everything are one thing, but when we get to the race track, it’s about sitting in this race car, making it as fast as it will go.”

Harvick may not have had the fastest car — in fact, he thought the Stewart’s Chevy SS and Kenseth’s Camry were slightly better — but he made the critical moves at precisely the right times, particularly when it came to blocking Biffle.

“In the middle segment, I could tell that Biffle was backing up and trying to time what his move was going to be as we got further into the segment,” Harvick said. “So I was working on my timing to kind of back up and block that.

“Those guys (Biffle and Logano) were coming on the outside, and I don’t know if the 14 (Stewart) and the 16 (Biffle) were side-by-side, but I just felt like I needed to move up and block that momentum, and we were able to block two of those moves.”

Biffle said he thought about trying the outside lane entering the final corner but wasn’t sure he had enough room.

“I thought about sticking it in there, and it just didn’t look like it was going to work to me,” Biffle said. “It looked like it would be sparks and parts flying. He shut the door on the top. That’s what Kevin needed to do to win the race. I looked in the mirror and didn’t have anyone pushing me.”

An incident-free 25-lap second segment, won by Harvick over Biffle, set the starting order for the final 20-lap dash for the victory. By the end of the segment both Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had lost touch with the 10-car pack ahead of them, but caution between the second and final segments bunched the field for a restart on Lap 56 of 75.

The first segment, on the other hand, featured plenty of action.

On Lap 15, the halfway point, a nine-car incident ruined the winning chances of nearly a third of the field. Stewart turned down across the nose of Marcos Ambrose’s Ford near the apex of Turns 1 and 2. Stewart saved his No, 14 Chevrolet, but drivers behind him checked up, seeing sparks trailing from the rear of Stewart’s car.

The ensuing wreck destroyed the cars of Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin. Martin Truex Jr.’s Toyota was nicked in the melee, but he was able to continue, as were Stewart and Ambrose.

In fact, Stewart’s car was fast to enough to take the lead on the final lap of the first segment, and he held it to the finish line. During the planned caution between segments, the 12 remaining cars came to pit road for mandatory four-tire stops — a requirement dictated by a fan vote.

Fans voted to set the starting lineup for the race according to the chronological order in which drivers won their poles. That put 2012 Daytona 500 pole winner Edwards in the top starting spot and Martin, winner of the pole at Phoenix the following week, on the outside of the front row.

Both Edwards and Martin, however, had to drop to the rear for the start, because neither driver practiced his back-up car after a wreck in Friday’s opening Sprint Unlimited practice forced a change of equipment. Accordingly, Kasey Kahne led the field to green, with Biffle beside him.

Instead, they witnessed the latest episode of “Survivor.”

Matt Kenseth won a wild war of attrition, otherwise known as the Hollywood Casino 400, beating Martin Truex Jr. to the checkered flag by .495 seconds to claim his third victory of the season, his first at Kansas and the 24th of his career.

Paul Menard ran third, followed by polesitter Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart, who rallied from a 33rd-place starting position and spin on the backstretch during the race.

Kenseth won the race despite scraping the wall behind spinning Aric Almirola on after a restart on Lap 173.

“I thought it was over when I got in the fence when Aric wrecked under Mark (Martin),” Kenseth said. “I was watching them and trying to make sure I didn’t hit them and I flat-sided it pretty bad. It ended up working in our favor. They fixed the body as good as it was when we started, and we had to take less gas in that last pit stop, and the pit crew put me out front.

“I knew I hit it really hard but thought it was centered up in the door real good, and we had a similar thing happen at Homestead last year. As soon as we got the fender back where it was supposed to be, it was fine. I was happy, as hard as I hit it, that my steering wheel was still in the right place.”

Throughout the day, however, other drivers found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. The slick, new racing surface at the 1.5-mile speedway produced a track-record 14 cautions for 66 caution laps, and no one was immune from disaster — not even a five-time champion.

Jimmie Johnson’s quest for a sixth Cup title appeared to have suffered a severe setback on Lap 135, when the No. 48 Chevrolet spun in heavy traffic and backed into the Turn 4 wall. After leading 44 laps, Johnson had just taken a wave-around for a restart on Lap 128, having been trapped a lap down when Aric Almirola smacked the Turn 2 wall, and the resulting caution interrupted a cycle of green-flag pit stops.

Johnson, however, stayed on the lead lap through a succession of pit stops under the yellow, and a liberal application of BearBond kept the No. 48 competitive. Astoundingly, Johnson and his team salvaged a ninth-place finish on a day that could have been much worse and remained seven points behind eighth-place finisher and series leader Brad Keselowski with four races left in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

“I’m very proud, but also disappointed,” Johnson said. “I crashed the car. I spun out trying to get inside the 56 (Truex). He bobbled a little in front of me, and I thought that was an opportunity to jump in the gas real hard.

“When I did that, my car took off and I couldn’t catch it. All-in-all, a good day, but it could have been a lot better. I think we could have been in Victory Lane, and stretched some points on these guys.”

Keselowski, who fought his way forward from the 25th starting position was thankful for a day that ended with his No. 2 Dodge intact.

“I’m ready to go home and have a couple beers,” Keselowski said after climbing from his car.”It’s just been a long day, Everybody has been asking all season long where the cautions have been. Well, they flew to Kansas and they’ve been hanging out here, because there was caution after caution, and it seemed like every wreck that happened today happened right in front of me.

“So, I’m glad to have survived the carnage and brought back a decent car in great shape and dodged a bullet of a race. That’s the only thing I can use to describe it.”

Despite the conditions, the repaving job, which included a reconfiguration with graduated banking, drew favorable reviews — not surprisingly — from drivers who finished near the front of the field.

“I thought the track was great,” Truex said. “The outside lane is going to come in really, really good — probably by next year, I would say. Their winters here are pretty rough, and I expect it will weather the track in really nicely.

“Once the outside got working, it was actually pretty darn good. It’s going to be a cool race track here in the future, and they did a great job with it.”

Tryson stepped down from his position with Michael Waltrip Racing. Since then, he has served as a consultant for JTG Daugherty Racing. He was recently granted his release from that contract so he could join BKR immediately.

Tryson said:

I’m not exactly sure what the plan is yet. We’ll see as we go along. I’ve been asked to look around, assess the situation and see where I think they can use some help. Once I do that, I’ll know more.

BKR owner Ron Devine added:

Pat is obviously crew chief capable, but he’s also competition director capable. We’ll see where he feels he can be of the most use.

Outrunning Jeff Gordon on a two-lap dash to the finish in Sunday night’s AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hamlin scored his second straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, his series-best fourth of the season and the 21st of his career.

Hamlin also preserved Busch’s status as the second provisional wild card in the Chase for the Sprint Cup by keeping Gordon out of Victory Lane.

Hamlin beat Gordon to the finish line by .378 seconds after a caution spoiled a probable victory for Martin Truex Jr., who was leading by two seconds when Jamie McMurray wrecked on the frontstretch on Lap 320 of 327.

Brad Keselowski ran third, followed by Truex and Kevin Harvick.

Matt Kenseth (ninth Sunday), Truex, Keselowski, Hamlin, Clint Bowyer (27th) and Harvick all clinched top-10 spots in the Chase, joining series leader Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson. Defending Cup champion and pole-sitter Tony Stewart fought an ill-handling car all night and finished 22nd but clinched at least a wild-card spot.

“This is one I wanted real bad,” Hamlin said. “Last week was a big one (at Bristol) — no doubt about it — but I’ve been really good here the last few years and not won.”

Hamlin’s crew got him off pit road in the lead when all the contending cars stopped under the final caution, which extended the race two laps past its scheduled lap count of 325.

“The pit crew won me the race,” Hamlin said. “That’s what a championship team is all about, to have all the pieces of the puzzle put together, and this year I think we have it all.”

Gordon, who celebrated his 41st birthday last month, allowed that he must be getting soft in his old age.

“He (Hamlin) made a mistake off of (Turn) 2 (after the final restart), and I got a run on him, and I made a bad decision,” Gordon said. “All night I was able to get to guys’ quarter panels and get to the outside and stay there. I should have just run into the back of him going into (Turn) 3 and moved him up the race track.

“We’d be sitting in Victory lane right now counting another win. This Chase is too important to be in it for me not to make a move like that. I wouldn’t have wanted to wreck him, but I would have liked to have that one over again.”

Gordon trails Busch by 12 points with one race left before the Chase field is set next Saturday night at Richmond. A race win there would guarantee either driver a wild-card berth.

After the midpoint of the race, Harvick and Hamlin established themselves as the class of the field, running away from the pack after a restart on Lap 135. Hamlin’s team opted to stretch fuel mileage, intending to finish the race on one more stop after coming to pit road under green on Lap 221.

Harvick had pitted for fuel and four tires on Lap 216 and would have needed two more stops to make it to the end of the race. The tradeoff was that the extra five laps on new tires had given Harvick an 8.4-second lead over Hamlin after the cycle of stops.

Hamlin, however, trimmed a second per lap from Harvick’s advantage and had pulled up to the bumper of the No. 29 Chevrolet when caution for Juan Pablo Montoya’s brush with the outside wall on Lap 241 made all the fuel calculations moot.

Hamlin beat Harvick off pit road under the yellow and held the top spot after a restart on Lap 248. Truex moved past Harvick into the second position one lap later and kept Hamlin in his sights during the ensuing green flag run.

Running a higher line than Hamlin, Truex was moments away from taking the lead when the engine in Carl Edwards’ No. 99 Ford blew on Lap 264, causing the fourth caution of the night. The early end to Edwards’ night forces last year’s Chase runner-up, who finished 36th, to win next Saturday at Richmond to have even a remote chance at a wild-card spot in the Chase.

Pit stops on Lap 266 put fuel strategy back into play. Hamlin, for instance, left pit road needing to save four laps worth of fuel to get to the checkered flag. On the restart on Lap 270, though, the entire tenor of the race changed when Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman and Sam Hornish Jr. wrecked on the backstretch.

His car destroyed, Newman was credited with a 35th-place finish. His only realistic avenue into the Chase is a victory at Richmond.