2019 Quaker State 400 Explained

Type:	NASME
Race Name:	Quaker State 400
Details Ref:	^[1] ^[2] ^[3] ^[4] ^[5] ^[6] ^[7] ^[8]
Year:	2019
Race No:	19
Season No:	36
Location:	Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky
Course Mi:	1.5
Course Km:	2.4
Distance Laps:	269
Distance Mi:	403.5
Distance Km:	645.6
Scheduled Laps:	267
Scheduled Mi:	400.5
Scheduled Km:	640.8
Avg:	141.07mph
Pole Driver:	Daniel Suárez
Pole Team:	Stewart-Haas Racing
Pole Time:	29.254
Most Driver:	Kyle Busch
Most Team:	Joe Gibbs Racing
Most Laps:	72
Car:	1
First Driver:	Kurt Busch
First Team:	Chip Ganassi Racing
Network:	NBCSN
Announcers:	Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Ratings:	2.075 million^[9]
Radio:	PRN
Booth Ann:	Doug Rice and Mark Garrow
Turn Ann:	Doug Turnbull (1 & 2) and Pat Patterson (3 & 4)

The 2019 Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race held on July 13, 2019 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky. Contested over 269 laps—extended from 267 laps due to an overtime finish, on the 1.5miles speedway, it was the 19th race of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. The race saw an amazing finish between brothers Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch as Kurt would hold off his younger brother to win the race.

Report

Background

The sixth running of the Quaker State 400 was held in Sparta, Kentucky at Kentucky Speedway on July 9, 2016. The track is a 1.5miles tri-oval speedway owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Kentucky Speedway, which has also hosted the ARCA Racing Series, NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the Indy Racing League, has a grandstand seating capacity of 107,000.

Entry list

(i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.
(R) denotes rookie driver.

	Driver	Manufacturer
00	Landon Cassill (i)	Chevrolet
1		Chevrolet
2		Ford
3		Chevrolet
4		Ford
6		Ford
8	Daniel Hemric (R)	Chevrolet
9		Chevrolet
10		Ford
11		Toyota
12		Ford
13		Chevrolet
14		Ford
15	Ross Chastain (i)	Chevrolet
17		Ford
18		Toyota
19		Toyota
20		Toyota
21		Ford
22		Ford
24		Chevrolet
32		Ford
34		Ford
36	Matt Tifft (R)	Ford
37		Chevrolet
38		Ford
41		Ford
42		Chevrolet
43		Chevrolet
47	Ryan Preece (R)	Chevrolet
48		Chevrolet
51	Bayley Currey (i)	Ford
52	B. J. McLeod (i)	Chevrolet
77		Chevrolet
88		Chevrolet
95		Toyota
Official entry list

Practice

First practice

Kurt Busch was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 29.389 seconds and a speed of 183.742mph.^[10]

Pos		Time
1	1	29.389	183.742
2	10	29.421	183.542
3	41	29.492	183.101
Official first practice results

Final practice

Brad Keselowski was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 29.621 seconds and a speed of 182.303mph.^[11]

Pos		Time
1	2	29.621	182.303
2	4	29.704	181.794
3	11	29.709	181.763
Official final practice results

Qualifying

Daniel Suárez scored the pole for the race with a time of 29.254 and a speed of 184.59mph.^[12]

Qualifying results

Pos		Driver	Manufacturer	Time
1	41		Ford	29.254
2	10		Ford	29.380
3	2		Ford	29.437
4	1		Chevrolet	29.451
5	4		Ford	29.458
6	8	Daniel Hemric (R)	Chevrolet	29.526
7	14		Ford	29.535
8	19		Toyota	29.575
9	3		Chevrolet	29.580
10	18		Toyota	29.601
11	22		Ford	29.620
12	24		Chevrolet	29.625
13	48		Chevrolet	29.646
14	21		Ford	29.667
15	12		Ford	29.671
16	17		Ford	29.686
17	34		Ford	29.752
18	11		Toyota	29.763
19	42		Chevrolet	29.776
20	9		Chevrolet	29.779
21	20		Toyota	29.821
22	88		Chevrolet	29.874
23	6		Ford	29.887
24	95		Toyota	29.914
25	38		Ford	29.948
26	37		Chevrolet	29.954
27	13		Chevrolet	29.985
28	43		Chevrolet	30.008
29	32		Ford	30.014
30	47	Ryan Preece (R)	Chevrolet	30.023
31	36	Matt Tifft (R)	Ford	30.172
32	51	Bayley Currey (i)	Ford	30.387
33	15	Ross Chastain (i)	Chevrolet	30.421
34	00	Landon Cassill (i)	Chevrolet	30.533
35	52	B. J. McLeod (i)	Chevrolet	30.964
36	77		Chevrolet	31.031
Official qualifying results

Note: Ryan Newman and Quin Houff had their times disallowed and started at the back due to failing inspection

Race

Stage results

Stage OneLaps: 80

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	10
2	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	9
3	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	8
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	7
5	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	6
6	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	5
7	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	4
8	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	3
9	8	Daniel Hemric (R)	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	2
10	21	Paul Menard	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	1
Official stage one results

Stage TwoLaps: 80

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	10
2	20	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	9
3	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	8
4	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	7
5	14	Clint Bowyer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	6
6	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	5
7	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	4
8	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	3
9	21	Paul Menard	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	2
10	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	1
Official stage two results

Final stage results

Stage ThreeLaps: 107

Pos	Grid		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	4	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	269	54
2	10	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	269	53
3	21	20	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	269	43
4	19	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	269	38
5	18	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	269	39
6	7	14	Clint Bowyer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	269	37
7	11	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	269	46
8	1	41	Daniel Suárez	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	269	29
9	35	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	269	28
10	25	37	Chris Buescher	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	269	27
11	14	21	Paul Menard	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	269	29
12	16	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	269	29
13	15	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	269	27
14	2	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	269	30
15	20	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	269	22
16	23	95	Matt DiBenedetto	Leavine Family Racing	Toyota	269	21
17	22	88	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	268	20
18	12	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	268	19
19	8	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	268	21
20	3	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	268	17
21	29	47	Ryan Preece (R)	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	268	16
22	5	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	268	20
23	27	43	Bubba Wallace	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	14
24	6	8	Daniel Hemric (R)	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	267	15
25	17	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	267	12
26	26	13	Ty Dillon	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	267	11
27	30	36	Matt Tifft (R)	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	267	10
28	28	32	Corey LaJoie	Go Fas Racing	Ford	266	9
29	24	38	David Ragan	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	266	8
30	13	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	266	7
31	32	15	Ross Chastain (i)	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	264	0
32	33	00	Landon Cassill (i)	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	263	0
33	31	51	Bayley Currey (i)	Petty Ware Racing	Ford	262	0
34	36	77	Quin Houff	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	3
35	9	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	238	10
36	34	52	B. J. McLeod (i)	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	110	0
Official race results

Race statistics

Lead changes: 15 among 10 different drivers
Cautions/Laps: 7 for 35
Red flags: 0
Time of race: 2 hours, 51 minutes and 37 seconds
Average speed: 141.07mph

Media

Television

NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the call in the booth for the race. Dave Burns, Parker Kligerman, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast reported from pit lane during the race.

Radio

PRN had the radio call for the race, which was simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice and Mark Garrow called the action from the booth when the field raced down the front straightaway. Doug Turnbull called the action from turns 1 & 2 and Pat Patterson called the action from turns 3 & 4. Brad Gillie, Wendy Venturini, Steve Richards, and Brett McMillan called the duties on pit lane.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Joey Logano	746
	2	Kyle Busch	735 (–11)
	3	Kevin Harvick	645 (–101)
	4	Brad Keselowski	630 (–116)
1	5	Denny Hamlin	627 (–119)
1	6	Martin Truex Jr.	618 (–128)
1	7	Kurt Busch	618 (–128)
1	8	Chase Elliott	607 (–139)
	9	Alex Bowman	554 (–192)
	10	Aric Almirola	542 (–204)
	11	Ryan Blaney	535 (–211)
	12	William Byron	517 (–229)
1	13	Kyle Larson	511 (–235)
1	14	Clint Bowyer	481 (–265)
2	15	Jimmie Johnson	481 (–265)
2	16	Erik Jones	473 (–273)
Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings

Pos	Manufacturer	Points
1	Toyota	692
2	Ford	673 (–19)
3	Chevrolet	650 (–42)

Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

. – Driver has clinched a position in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Notes and References

Web site: 2019 schedule. NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC.. June 9, 2019. May 5, 2018.
Web site: Kentucky Speedway. NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC.. June 9, 2019. January 3, 2013. April 28, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170428042510/http://www.nascar.com/en_us/nascar-tracks/kentucky-speedway.html. dead.
Web site: Entry List. MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. July 9, 2019. July 9, 2019.
Web site: First Practice Results. MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. July 12, 2019. July 12, 2019.
Web site: Final Practice Results. MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. July 12, 2019. July 12, 2019.
Web site: Starting Lineup. MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. July 12, 2019. July 12, 2019.
Web site: Quaker State 400 Results. MRN.com. Motor Racing Network. July 13, 2019. July 13, 2019.
Web site: Points standings. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. July 13, 2019. July 13, 2019.
Web site: Quaker State 400 ratings. https://web.archive.org/web/20190716142042/http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/skedball-weekly-sports-tv-ratings-7-8-7-14-2019.html. dead. 16 July 2019. ShowBuzzDaily. Mitch Metcalf. 16 July 2019.
Web site: Utter. Jim. Kurt Busch tops Friday's first Cup practice at Kentucky. Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. July 12, 2019. Sparta, Kentucky. July 12, 2019.
Web site: DeGroot. Nick. Brad Keselowski leads final practice at Kentucky. Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. July 12, 2019. Sparta, Kentucky. July 12, 2019.
Web site: Utter. Jim. Daniel Suarez tops SHR teammate Almirola for Kentucky pole. Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. July 12, 2019. Sparta, Kentucky. July 12, 2019.