Once Again Glory Eludes Carl at Kansas Speedway

This Kansas race may have been one of Carl's most frustrating at this, the track he calls home.  Throughout the entire race weekend, things just seemed to be a bit off.  Not terrible by any means, just not as superb as we have come to expect of late.  He finished practices in 3rd and 12th.  In the first practice, his teammates were in 6th, 10th, 21st, not at all the typical Gibbs domination.  Even in qualifying, although Carl made it into the third round to guarantee a starting spot in the top 12, he ended up last in that final round to qualify 12th.

As the race got underway, he stayed pretty much where he qualified, sliding back a bit, regaining spots, making slight gains.  During an early caution, Dave Rogers called for a two-tire change to get him into clean air.  Carl restarted 2nd, but slowly began falling back.  At one point he felt a vibration in the left rear, then later got into the wall when his car got loose.

And then, he had a flat tire and missed the entry to pit road.  After limping around the track and pitting for fresh tires, he found himself two laps down.  Eventually the cautions fell just right for him to take the wave around and get one lap back.  He dug and dug until he got himself into position to be the first car one lap down so he could be the recipient of the lucky dog during the next caution. And that caution came just in the nick of time.  Carl was practically out of fuel by the time he got to his pitbox.  But he found himself back on the lead lap and well within the top 20.

Kansas is not known for "The Big One" like they have at Talladega.  But this race produced a doozy, resulting from cars that got loose and started to spin without initially touching one another.  But when the spinning stopped, several cars were wrecked.  Thankfully Carl was able to drive cleanly through the melee, and the resulting carnage moved him close to the top ten.

The Big Crash at Kansas Speedway

It would have been a fairy tale ending if he could have driven through the field to claim his first Cup victory at Kansas, but it was not to be.  He crossed the finish line in 11th place.  Not the glorious victory at his home track that he longs for, but a far cry better than finishing two laps down in the 30s.  It was a good enough finish to keep him in second place on the Chase grid and third in the drivers' standings.

Carl's woes were nothing compared to Martin Truex, Jr., though.  He led the most laps and clearly had the dominant car.  But more bad luck in the form of a loose wheel brought him to pit road so late in the race that he did not have enough time to recover.  That seems to be the theme of his season so far.  However, he can take comfort in the speed of his car, knowing that sooner or later he will find himself in victory lane.