"There was a lot of action - and definitely a lot of yellows," he reflected, "We benefit from being in the front, for sure, but that's just a typical Richmond race - very difficult, very long. I think we had a strong car, and Marco did too. We split the strategies just to try to cover both bases, and finally the luck was on my side.

"When I was in the lead in traffic, and when Marco pulled away, it was tough. But I have to say, lapped traffic was really good - I was really impressed how people respect the leaders and did not impede the progress of it, but I think it was busier. There were 26 cars, a lot of people hitting each other but, like I said, this race is always going to be busy. You're always going to be mad at somebody or somebody is going to be mad at you, because you're always passing or trying to lap somebody. That's the way it is. What are you going to do?"

Despite the potential for controversy, however, Kanaan reckons that Richmond - and the other short ovals - have their place on the schedule.

"It's the nature of the track - you put 26 cars on a little track like this and it becomes exciting, but also it has a potential for a lot of drama in the race," he said, "But that's the nature of the track, and I don't think we can't blame anything. It's just the way it is.

"And I think it's a pretty good thing to have, so we have all types of diversities when you go from a superspeedway to a small track and then go to just a little track like Iowa and have millions of passes, and then you come back here and have a totally different race. That definitely adds to the championship."

A championship that Kanaan now figures to put himself back into the middle of.