2013 Darlington NASCAR: Cup results

Matt Kenseth capped a great week for the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing team by winning the Southern 500 Saturday night race at Darlington Speedway.

Andrew Lewin_1

12 May 2013

Just a few days after celebrating a victory over NASCAR in an appeal over too-harsh penalties for a rules infraction, Matt Kenseth and his team were celebrating again - this time in victory lane at Darlington Speedway, his third win of 2013 and the 27th victory in his 483-race Cup career to date.

It's Kenseth's first Cup win at Darlington. He led for only 17 of the 367 laps of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Southern 500 race at the 1.37-mile superspeedway on Saturday night, but 13 of those were at the very end of the race and the last came with the chequered flag attached. He finished three seconds clear of his Joe Gibbs Racing team mate Denny Hamlin making his first full-length return to the race seat after his recent injury.

The third member of the JGR line-up, Kyle Busch, had lead for a whopping 265 laps after taking over from his brother Kurt who led the first 69 laps. A late problem dropped Kyle to sixth while Kurt crossed the line in 14th. Jeff Gordon finished in third place on his 700th Cup race, just one place ahead of his Hendrick Motorsport team mate Jimmie Johnson who extends his lead in the points standings to 44pts over Carl Edwards who finished in seventh. Kenseth moves up to third place thanks to his wins in both the hearing room and on the race track this week.

Race results

1. #20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 3hrs 32mins 45secs 367 laps (47pts)
2. #11 Denny Hamlin Toyota + 3.155s (42pts)
3. #24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet + 3.761s (42pts)
4. #48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet + 4.467s (40pts)
5. #29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet + 7.059s (39pts)
6. #18 Kyle Busch Toyota + 7.880s (40pts)
7. #99 Carl Edwards Ford + 8.108s (37pts)
8. #42 Juan Pablo Montoya Chevrolet + 8.884s (36pts)
9. #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet + 9.014s (35pts)
10. #39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet + 9.815s (34pts)
11. #15 Clint Bowyer Toyota + 10.283s (33pts)
12. #56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota + 10.519s (32pts)
13. #16 Greg Biffle Ford + 11.350s (31pts)
14. #78 Kurt Busch Chevrolet + 12.165s (31pts)
15. #14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet + 12.665s (29pts)
16. #1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet + 20.557s (28pts)
17. #5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet + 22.999s (27pts)
18. #17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford + 1 laps (26pts)
19. #27 Paul Menard Chevrolet + 1 laps (25pts)
20. #43 Aric Almirola Ford + 1 laps (24pts)
21. #31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet + 2 laps (23pts)
22. #22 Joey Logano Ford + 2 laps (22pts)
23. #93 Travis Kvapil Toyota + 3 laps (21pts)
24. #51 Regan Smith Chevrolet + 4 laps (0pts)
25. #55 Mark Martin Toyota + 4 laps (19pts)
26. #47 Bobby Labonte Toyota + 4 laps (18pts)
27. #7 Dave Blaney Chevrolet + 5 laps (17pts)
28. #10 Danica Patrick Chevrolet + 5 laps (16pts)
29. #38 David Gilliland Ford + 5 laps (15pts)
30. #33 Landon Cassill Chevrolet + 7 laps (14pts)
31. #87 Joe Nemechek Toyota + 8 laps (0pts)
32. #2 Brad Keselowski Ford + 9 laps (12pts)
33. #32 Timmy Hill Ford + 9 laps (11pts)
34. #9 Marcos Ambrose Ford + 9 laps (10pts)
35. #36 JJ Yeley Chevrolet + 13 laps (9pts)
36. #83 David Reutimann Toyota + 40 laps Accident (8pts)
37. #13 Casey Mears Ford + 40 laps Accident (7pts)
38. #35 Josh Wise Ford + 41 laps Accident (0pts)
39. #34 David Ragan Ford + 49 laps Engine (5pts)
40. #30 David Stremme Toyota + 137 laps Engine (4pts)
41. #95 Scott Speed Ford + 290 laps Brakes (3pts)
42. #98 Michael McDowell Ford + 309 laps Brakes (2pts)
43. #19 Mike Bliss Toyota + 349 laps Overheating (0pts)

Sprint Cup Series championship standings

1. (--) Jimmie Johnson 423pts (0pts)
2. (--) Carl Edwards 379pts (-44pts)
3. (+1) Matt Kenseth 364pts (-59pts)
4. (-1) Dale Earnhardt Jr. 359pts (-64pts)
5. (--) Clint Bowyer 349pts (-74pts)
6. (+1) Kasey Kahne 326pts (-97pts)
7. (-1) Brad Keselowski 326pts (-97pts)
8. (+2) Kyle Busch 325pts (-98pts)
9. (-1) Aric Almirola 317pts (-106pts)
10. (+2) Kevin Harvick 315pts (-108pts)
11. (-2) Paul Menard 315pts (-108pts)
12. (+2) Jeff Gordon 311pts (-112pts)
13. (-2) Greg Biffle 311pts (-112pts)
14. (-1) Martin Truex Jr. 301pts (-122pts)
15. (--) Jamie McMurray 295pts (-128pts)
16. (--) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 282pts (-141pts)
17. (--) Ryan Newman 276pts (-147pts)
18. (+2) Kurt Busch 262pts (-161pts)
19. (-1) Joey Logano 259pts (-164pts)
20. (-1) Jeff Burton 258pts (-165pts)
21. (+1) Tony Stewart 253pts (-170pts)
22. (+3) Juan Pablo Montoya 238pts (-185pts)
23. (-2) Marcos Ambrose 235pts (-188pts)
24. (-1) Mark Martin 226pts (-197pts)
25. (-1) Casey Mears 210pts (-213pts)
26. (--) David Ragan 197pts (-226pts)
27. (+4) Denny Hamlin 197pts (-226pts)
28. (-1) Danica Patrick # 196pts (-227pts)
29. (-1) Bobby Labonte 195pts (-228pts)
30. (--) Dave Blaney 190pts (-233pts)
31. (-2) David Gilliland 188pts (-235pts)
32. (--) JJ Yeley 157pts (-266pts)
33. (--) David Stremme 150pts (-273pts)
34. (--) David Reutimann 149pts (-274pts)
35. (+1) Landon Cassill 130pts (-293pts)
36. (+1) Travis Kvapil 127pts (-296pts)
37. (-2) A J Allmendinger 122pts (-301pts)
38. (--) Scott Speed 74pts (-349pts)
39. (--) Michael McDowell 72pts (-351pts)
40. (--) Michael Waltrip 63pts (-360pts)
41. (--) Terry Labonte 52pts (-371pts)
42. (--) Timmy Hill # 45pts (-378pts)
43. (--) Ken Schrader 29pts (-394pts)
44. (--) Scott Riggs 6pts (-417pts)
45. (--) Brian Keselowski 4pts (-419pts)