Change to restart officiating

Following complaints of Matt Kenseth jumping the final restart at Richmond, NASCAR decided to add a camera feed and official with the sole purpose of monitoring the restart zone.^[13]

NASCAR record

When the green flag flies on Sunday, Jeff Gordon – who made his first career Sprint Cup Series start in the 1992 Hooters 500 at what was then Atlanta International Raceway (now Atlanta Motor Speedway) – tied Ricky Rudd's record for most consecutive starts at 788.^[14] The 23–year veteran of the sport will break the tie next weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.^[14] “I’ve got to get through this weekend first,” he said. “That’s one of those things where I feel a little strange talking about it because I do appreciate and respect the safety of this sport. (That) side can be taken away from you at any time. I want to break that record. I think it’s a huge accomplishment because it’s not easy to do. It’s easier today because the sport is safer. I look at Ricky Rudd and what he went through to make it. That is pretty extraordinary. I can’t quite compare that.”^[14]

Entry list

The entry list for the myAFibRisk.com 400 was released on Sunday, September 13 at 11:49 a.m. Eastern time. Forty-six cars were entered for the race. All but Ryan Blaney in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford were entered for the previous week's race at Richmond. The two driver changes for this weekend's race were Travis Kvapil returning to the No. 30 Chevrolet for The Motorsports Group and Josh Wise returning to the No. 32 Go FAS Racing Ford.

Start

Under clear blue Illinois skies, Kevin Harvick led the field to the green flag at 3:18 p.m. He edged out Joey Logano to lead the first lap. The first caution of the race flew on the second lap when A. J. Allmendinger came down across the nose of Denny Hamlin and went spinning in turn 3. Trying to avoid ramming the No. 47 car, Hamlin got loose on the high-side, spun out and slid down the race track.^[20] He didn't suffer any damage and he continued on racing.^[21]

The race restarted on lap 7. Martin Truex Jr. forced Harvick up the track to take the lead the next lap. By lap 15, Austin Dillon was pressuring him for the top spot, but got loose in turn 3 and lost the second position to Harvick. By lap 23, Harvick pulled up next to Truex and edged out front but the No. 78 car beat him back to the line. By lap 36, Kyle Busch, now in second place, began to pressure Truex for the lead. Finally, Busch slid up in front of him to take the lead on lap 47. A number of cars began hitting pit road on lap 52 and Busch hit pit road from the lead on lap 54. In a rare circumstance, the lead didn't change at all through the cycle. Alex Bowman and Carl Edwards were both tagged for speeding on pit road and they had to serve drive-through penalties.^[21]

Second quarter

When the pit cycle was over, Busch began driving away from the field. 20 laps later, Harvick began to run him down. However, lapped traffic prevented him from getting close to the leader. On lap 87, Kurt Busch, running fifth at the time, made an unscheduled stop after slamming the wall in turn 3. Despite this, the race continued under green. Another round of green flag pit stops began on lap 100 and Ky. Busch surrendered the lead to make his stop on lap 106 and handed it to Dale Earnhardt Jr. He pitted the next lap to give the lead back to Busch. Debris on the backstretch brought out the second caution of the race on lap 123.^[21]

The race restarted on lap 129. Harvick edged out Busch on the backstretch and took the lead. The third caution of the race flew on lap 130 when Dillon blew his right-front tire out and slammed the wall in turn 2.^[22] He would go on to finish 43rd 69–laps down.^[22]

Halfway

The race restarted on lap 135. Harvick spun the tires on the restart and lost the lead to Kyle Busch. Joey Logano hit the rear of Jimmie Johnson's car and forced him onto the apron.^[23] Johnson then made contact with Harvick and damaged his left-rear fender.^[23] His left-rear tire blew out and sent his car backwards into the turn 3 wall, bringing out the fourth caution on lap 137.^[24] “I got a pretty good restart and obviously (Joey Logano) and (Johnson) got a run. I just held my line and (Johnson) just slammed into the side of my door,” Harvick explained. "That was pretty much it.”^[25] “He didn’t leave me any space,” Johnson explained after the race. “He was pinning me down, and I had to get back up on the track. I wouldn’t say that what he did was any different than other situations I’ve been in like that. When you are in his position, you want to get the inside car in a bad angle so they have to lift. I was fine with lifting, but I had to get back on the race track, so I worked my way back up on the track.”^[26]

The race restarted on lap 145. Busch spun the tires on the start and lost the lead to Jeff Gordon. It was the first restart that prompted a review by NASCAR and they found that it was a clean restart.^[27] He was the first to hit pit road on lap 184 and handed the lead to Kurt Busch. Kurt pitted the next lap and give the lead to brother Kyle Busch. Kyle pitted the next lap and handed the lead to Kyle Larson. Larson pitted two laps later and handed the lead to Carl Edwards. Debris in turn 4 brought out the fifth caution of the race on lap 191. Kyle Busch opted not to pit and assumed the lead.^[21]

Fourth quarter

Denny Hamlin, seen here at the 2015 Daytona 500, scored his 26th career victory at Chicagoland Speedway.

The race restarted with 71 laps to go. After drag racing through the front stretch, Kurt Busch passed his brother for the lead with 46 laps to go. Edwards began the final cycle of pit stops with 29 laps to go. Kurt Busch pitted with 28 laps to go and handed the lead to Hamlin. Hamlin pitted with 24 laps to go and handed the lead to teammate Matt Kenseth. Kenseth hit pit road with 23 laps to go and the lead cycled back to Kurt Busch. Allmendinger was tagged for speeding on pit road and was forced to serve a drive-through penalty. Debris in turn 2 brought out the sixth caution of the race with 10 laps to go. The debris were pieces of a brake rotor that came from the No. 83 car of Matt DiBenedetto. "Did the yellow even need to come out? I don't even know," Kurt Busch said after the race.^[28] He, Gordon and Hamlin opted to stay out while the rest of the lead lap cars opted to pit.^[21]

The race restarted with five laps to go. Gordon got a good start on Kurt, but he was passed underneath by Hamlin, forced up the track and ultimately finished 14th.^[29] Denny drove on to score his 26th career victory.^[30]

Driver comments

“This team doesn’t give up, that’s a perfect example today,” Hamlin said. “Fast race cars are what we have and that was why we were able to come back and win today from that early trouble.”^[31]

"I'll tell you what, my guys just do a great job on pit road, they really do," Edwards said. "Darian never loses his cool ever. He played the game perfectly with pit strategy. Then at the end, truly, once we got into Turn 1 on the final restart, I was like, I got this thing. I got better tires than all these guys. Kurt (Busch) was unbelievable on old tires. Then I thought, Denny is mine, he's a sitting duck. He drove the wheels off of that thing. He really hung on with those tires that he had."^[32]

“...overall, I’m really proud of this team and everybody at Haas Automation and Stewart Haas Racing,” Kurt Busch said. “This Chevy was fast. It was fast enough to win. When the caution came out there at the end, I thought we had the right strategy, but we didn’t. But this is a point’s day. This is a long journey through these next 10 weeks. We weren’t given a hall pass now, through Loudon and through Dover. We’ve just got to work hard as a team and saddle-up. This isn’t just a win and take a couple of weeks off, but we had a winning car today. It’s kind of a shame. We had a good run at Fontana earlier this year and it kind of ended up the same way.”^[33]

“We had a really good car. We were good most of the race and then that one caution came out after we pitted we went a lap down,” Ryan Newman said after a fourth-place finish. “The next restart we had a bad restart and it looked like we were done and that was it.”^[34]

“I didn’t choose the right direction to go,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said after a 12th-place finish. “I thought we would all jump to the top and go around those guys, and we’d be good. But Jeff slid up in front of us and we all had to stop and everybody was going by us on the bottom. Those late restarts with those guys up there on used tires are just going to be bad. You just have to get lucky and we didn’t get lucky. Not anything there about skill, it is all luck. … We had a good day going and … cautions throw all that work out the window.”^[35]

"I knew we were going to have a tough time not spinning the tires," Gordon said about the final restart after a 14th-place finish in his record-tying 788th consecutive career start.^[36] "Especially when you're on the front row. So, I was just trying to hold pace with Kurt. I knew that Denny was behind me on older tires as well, so I was somewhat encouraged by that."^[37]

"I'm just really proud of everybody on our...team for not giving up and doing all the things they had to do to get the car back on the track," Harvick said after a disappointing 42nd-place finish. "...we've just got to go win one of these [next two] races."^[38]

Confrontation

Following the race, Jimmie Johnson went to Kevin Harvick's motorhome in the driver's lot to talk the incident over with the driver of the No. 4 Chevrolet.^[40] But when he got to Harvick's motorhome, he was greeted with a punch to the chest.^[40] The situation had to be diffused by Harvick's business manager Josh Jones and wife DeLana.^[40] They escorted him to a waiting white SUV and drove off from the race track.^[40]

Afterwards, Johnson said that he "assume[d] he would try to find it [as] my fault. I just simply needed the lane to get back on the racetrack. By no means was I trying to do anything different. I've seen him on the flat working his way back up looking for a racing lane. That is what I was doing. I was on the bottom trying to get back up on the racing surface, and he was trying to pin me down and I had to get back up or else it would have been a hell of a mess."^[41]

Joey Logano, who appeared to make contact with No. 48 Chevrolet, said that he never touched him or forced him down onto the apron going into turn 1. "I don't know. I was a little behind it," said Logano, who finished sixth in the Chase opener. "I just saw the 48 go three-wide bottom, and I was just trying to protect my position and figure out what lane I wanted to go in from there."^[42]

In his weekly appearance on the Sirius XM NASCAR Radio program The Morning Drive, NASCAR Executive Vice–President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell told Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone that “there won’t be any penalties ” issued for the confrontation and explained the sanctioning body's reason behind the decision.^[39]

Penalties

On the Wednesday following the race, NASCAR issued penalties to the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing team and No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing team.^[43]

• The No. 10 team was penalized for an infraction that occurred during pre-qualifying inspection on September 18. This is a P2 level penalty (Sections 12.1 and 20.4b and 20.4.2a of the NASCAR rule book). The right side quarter panel behind the rear wheel/tire was modified during pre-qualifying inspection. Crew chief Daniel Knost was placed on NASCAR probation through December 31, 2015. Car chief Pete White was placed on NASCAR probation through December 31.^[43]
• The No. 15 team was penalized for an infraction that occurred on opening day inspection September 18. This is a P4 level penalty (Section 12.1, 20. 14.c, 20.14.2.1.k, 12.5.3.4.d, 12.5.3.4.1.d & f, 12.5.3.4.2 of the NASCAR rule book). Crew chief Billy Scott was fined 75–thousand dollars, suspended for the next three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship events and placed on NASCAR probation for six months following the issue of suspension. Driver Clint Bowyer has been penalized 25–points. Car owner Rob Kauffman has been penalized 25 owner points.^[43]

Michael Waltrip Racing released a statement saying that it "respectfully disagrees" with the penalties and would immediately appeal.^[44] "MWR has made mistakes in the past, but we feel we are correct in this instance," the team said. "We look forward to the opportunity to present our case to the appeals committee and have no further public comment until the process is completed."^[44]

NASCAR requested to the Appeals Administrator of the National Motorsports Appeals Panel that the appeals process described in the rule book be expedited.^[44]

On Wednesday, September 30, the National Motorsports Appeal Panel upheld the penalty levied against the team.^[45] The team decided not to make a final appeal and released a statement that said they were "disappointed with the outcome of today’s ruling and still feel our interpretation is within the guidelines. Rather than continue the appeals process, MWR is ready to focus 100 percent of our company’s resources on winning at Dover and trying to advance to the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup."^[46]

Race awards

• Coors Light Pole Award: No winner
• 3M Lap Leader: Kyle Busch (121 laps)
• American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award: Kyle Busch
• Duralast Brakes "Bake In The Race" Award: Kevin Harvick
• Freescale "Wide Open": Kurt Busch
• Ingersoll Rand Power Move: Ryan Newman (5 positions)
• MAHLE Clevite Engine Builder of the Race: Toyota Racing Development, #11
• Mobil 1 Driver of the Race: Kyle Busch (130.6 driver rating)
• Moog Steering and Suspension Problem Solver of The Race: Kurt Busch (crew chief Tony Gibson (0.519 seconds))
• NASCAR Sprint Cup Leader Bonus: No winner: rolls over to $240,000 at next event
• Sherwin-Williams Fastest Lap: Kyle Busch (Lap 136, 29.572, 182.605 mph (293.874 km/h))
• Sunoco Rookie of The Race: Brett Moffitt