2016 Quaker State 400
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The 2016 Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts was a
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on July 9, 2016, at
Kentucky Speedway Kentucky Speedway is a tri-oval speedway in Sparta, Kentucky, which has hosted ARCA, NASCAR and Indy Racing League racing annually since it opened in 2000. The track is currently owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Before 2008 J ...
in Sparta, Kentucky. Contested over 267 laps on the speedway, it was the 18th race of the
2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series The 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was the 68th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 45th modern-era Cup series season. The season began at Daytona International Speedway with the Sprint Unlimited, the Can-Am D ...
. The race had 16 lead changes among 9 different drivers and eleven cautions for 53 laps.


Report


Background

The sixth running of the
Quaker State 400 The Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart, commonly known as simply the Quaker State 400, was a annual NASCAR Cup Series race held at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky. The inaugural event was held on July 9, 2011 and was won by Kyle Busch ...
was held in Sparta, Kentucky at
Kentucky Speedway Kentucky Speedway is a tri-oval speedway in Sparta, Kentucky, which has hosted ARCA, NASCAR and Indy Racing League racing annually since it opened in 2000. The track is currently owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Before 2008 J ...
on July 9, 2016. The track is a tri-oval
speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...
owned by
Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Speedway Motorsports, LLC is an American company that owns and manages auto racing facilities that host races sanctioned by NASCAR, IndyCar Series, NHRA, World of Outlaws and other racing series. The company was founded by Bruton Smith and has i ...
Kentucky Speedway, which has also hosted the ARCA Racing Series,
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...
, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the Indy Racing League, has a grandstand seating capacity of 107,000.


Aero package

During Coca-Cola 600 race weekend, NASCAR announced they would test changes to the aero package at Michigan and Kentucky. In addition to the aero changes used in the
2016 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race The 2016 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (XXXII) was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stoc ...
, there will be a reduction in spoiler size from to , a reduction of the splitter and resizing the deck fin. NASCAR Executive Vice-President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell said that NASCAR looks "at it as a never-ending journey; if we can improve we're going to do that. We wanted to go the direction of low downforce, see how that worked, not kind of go all the way in and hope that we are directionally right. And we are seeing that play out. We've seen some great racing at the beginning of the year. But we also knew that we had some more levers that we could pull if the direction kind of proved out, so we've tried some of those things. We've tested it and what we've also wanted to do is lower some of the corner speeds to allow for even more passing. That was one of the areas where we've seen minimal change, but there are some levers we can pull to really drive that down."


Track changes

The track was completely repaved during the first half of the Sprint Cup Series season, turns 1 and 2 were narrowed from to and the banking was raised from 14 to 17 degrees.


Entry list

The preliminary entry list for the race included forty cars and was released on July 1, 2016, at 3:17 pm ET.


Practice


First practice

Carl Edwards was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 28.962 and a speed of .


Second practice

Denny Hamlin was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 28.680 and a speed of .
Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. A seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, he competes part-time in the series driving for Petty GMS Motorsports. Johnson's seven Cup championships, ...
went to his backup car after slamming the wall exiting turn 4 early in the session.


Qualifying

Kevin Harvick was awarded the pole position after qualifying was rained out.


Starting lineup


Practice (post qualifying)


Third practice

Carl Edwards was the fastest in third practice with a time of 28.627 and a speed of .


Final practice

Carl Edwards was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.808 and a speed of .
Kurt Busch Kurt Thomas Busch (born August 4, 1978) is an American professional auto racing driver. He last competed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD for 23XI Racing. He is the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion and the ...
dropped to the rear of the field after switching to his backup car because of a wreck in the closing minutes of final practice.


Race


First half


Start

Under clear evening
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
skies, Kevin Harvick led the field to the green flag at 7:50. After making contact with the wall in turn 4 the prior lap,
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Richard Lynn Stenhouse Jr. (born October 2, 1987) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 47 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for JTG Daugherty Racing. Stenhouse was the 2010 Nationw ...
cut a tire, slammed the wall and brought out the first caution of the race on lap 11. He went on to finish 40th. The race restarted on lap 15. A scheduled competition caution brought out the second caution of the race on lap 26.
Kurt Busch Kurt Thomas Busch (born August 4, 1978) is an American professional auto racing driver. He last competed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD for 23XI Racing. He is the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion and the ...
opted not to pit and assumed the lead. The race restarted on lap 32. The third caution of the race flew the same lap for a single-car wreck on the frontstretch. Exiting turn 4,
Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. A seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, he competes part-time in the series driving for Petty GMS Motorsports. Johnson's seven Cup championships, ...
made contact with
Ryan Blaney Ryan Michael Blaney (born December 31, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 12 Ford Mustang for Team Penske. He is the son of former NASCAR driver Dave Blaney ...
and sent himself spinning into the wall. The race restarted on lap 37. Harvick passed his teammate exiting turn 2 to retake the lead on lap 38. The fourth caution of the race flew on lap 54 after
Joey Logano Joseph Thomas Logano (born May 24, 1990), is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 22 Ford Mustang for Team Penske, and part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Seri ...
suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall in turn 3. He said afterwards that he "got loose off of four and knocked the right-rear quarter off it and then got real loose. When you get loose you have to slow down more and you use a lot of brake to slow down. Usually, the next thing to go is the right-front tire and that happened. Unfortunately, I put us in a bad spot here. It's not where we want to be and we'll figure out next week." Brad Keselowski opted not to pit and assumed the lead.


Second quarter

The race restarted on lap 60.
Martin Truex Jr. Martin Lee Truex Jr. (born June 29, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. He is the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Serie ...
out-raced Keselowski to the line to take the lead on lap 63. The fifth caution of the race flew on lap 80 for
Matt DiBenedetto Matthew Guido DiBenedetto (born July 27, 1991) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 25 Chevrolet Silverado for Rackley WAR. Racing career Early care ...
after his car slammed the wall in turn 3.
David Ragan David Lee Ragan (born December 24, 1985) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 15 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing, and is also an analyst for NASCAR on Fox ...
opted not to pit and assumed the lead. He eventually pitted and handed the lead back to Harvick. The race restarted on lap 88 and a two-car wreck in turn 3 involving Blaney and Chase Elliott brought out the sixth caution of the race. Blaney said that the "restart was pretty hectic from the beginning with the 78 getting loose and it kind of put everybody in a bad spot, and it wound up with us being in the middle of three-wide into three. It's so hard to get into that corner all night with a car close to behind you and outside of you, and no one lifting either, and it's just an unfortunate spot we got put in and I hate to see two really good cars tore up. We were both very fast tonight (24 and 21) and it's just a really unfortunate deal, but we'll try to get it fixed and get back out there and make some laps." The race restarted on lap 92. A multi-car wreck on the backstretch brought out the seventh caution of the race on lap 94. Exiting turn 2, Brian Scott got loose, saved the car, got turned by
Kyle Larson Kyle Miyata Larson (born July 31, 1992) is an American professional auto racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports. Larson is the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champ ...
and got t-boned by Chris Buescher.
A. J. Allmendinger Anthony James "A. J." Allmendinger (born December 16, 1981) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Kaulig Racing. Allmendinger's professi ...
, Buescher, Ty Dillon, Larson,
Danica Patrick Danica Sue Patrick (; born March 25, 1982) is an American former professional racing driver. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel car racing—her victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only win by a woman ...
,
Regan Smith The family name Regan, along with its cognates O'Regan, O Regan, Reagan, and O'Reagan, is an Anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Riagáin or Ó Ríogáin, from Ua Riagáin. The meaning is likely to have originated in ancient Gaelic ''ri'' " ...
, Scott and Cole Whitt were all collected in the melee. The race restarted on lap 103. A number of cars began hitting pit road on lap 142. Harvick hit pit road on lap 147 and handed the lead to
Austin Dillon Austin Reed Dillon (born April 27, 1990) is an American professional stock car racing driver and reality TV show actor. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing. ...
. He pitted the next lap and handed the lead to Matt Kenseth. He pitted the next lap and handed the lead to
Danica Patrick Danica Sue Patrick (; born March 25, 1982) is an American former professional racing driver. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel car racing—her victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only win by a woman ...
. She pitted the next lap and the lead cycled to Truex just as the eighth caution of the race flew for
Regan Smith The family name Regan, along with its cognates O'Regan, O Regan, Reagan, and O'Reagan, is an Anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Riagáin or Ó Ríogáin, from Ua Riagáin. The meaning is likely to have originated in ancient Gaelic ''ri'' " ...
who suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall in turn 3.


Second half


Halfway

The race restarted with 110 laps to go. The ninth caution of the race flew with 108 laps to go for a single-car spin in turn 3 involving Clint Bowyer. The race restarted with 102 laps to go. The 10th caution of the race flew with 96 laps to go for a single-car wreck on the frontstretch involving
A. J. Allmendinger Anthony James "A. J." Allmendinger (born December 16, 1981) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Kaulig Racing. Allmendinger's professi ...
. The race restarted with 91 laps to go. Harvick passed Truex in turn 3 to retake the lead with 90 laps to go. The 11th caution of the race flew with 74 laps to go after
Landon Cassill Landon Douglas Cassill (born July 7, 1989) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 10 Chevrolet Camaro for Kaulig Racing. Early career Cassill was born in Cedar Rapi ...
slammed the wall in turn 2. Truex was forced to serve a pass-through penalty for passing Harvick on entry to pit road. He said after the race that he "did the same thing guys do every week. You get to your timing line, you step on the gas and you head straight towards your pit. So obviously I turned left and came up next to arvickas I did it, as I was driving to my pit which guys do every week. I don't know why it was different today. I would think that if they didn't want us to do that any more they'd tell us in the driver meeting. But hell, it's every week. I've been passed on pit road 15 times this year the same exact way. I didn't see it get penalized. I guess when you're doing it for a win it's different circumstances or something." "Everybody does it," a visibly disappointed Truex added on pit road. "I've had people pass me the same way at Bristol and Martinsville. They'll drive right by you through the pit. Everybody does it, so I don't know why all of a sudden they're making an example out of me. It's frustrating when you don't win. I feel like I've had a lot not go the right way the last couple years, especially. It is what it is. We'll move on."


Fourth quarter

The race restarted with 68 laps to go. Keselowski took the lead with 67 laps to go. In the final 10 laps, a number of cars began pitting so to have enough fuel to make the finish. Kenseth briefly took the lead from Keselowski before he pitted with four laps to go and handed the lead back to Keselowski. Keselowski decreased his speed dramatically to conserve fuel. This allowed Carl Edwards to pull to within a car-length with one lap remaining. He blocked Edwards's advance as he re-fired his engine and drove on to score the victory.


Post-race


Driver comments

Keselowski said in victory lane that he felt "terrible that I couldn't do a burnout for the fans. I didn't have enough gas," Keselowski said after going the final 71 laps on fuel. Yeah, this is our best stretch and I'm really, really proud of that. We've got to keep it going through the fall, that's really important, but this is great. I'm just so proud of my guys. I feel terrible for the fans because I didn't get to do a burnout. I didn't have any gas. The car wouldn't run, but we're back here in Victory Lane and what a great Saturday night." After a runner-up finish, Edwards said he "thought I had him, too. He played it perfectly and he did it – he won at the absolute slowest possible speed he could. I thought he was out of fuel and that was that. I just appreciate the crowd coming out here, it's always neat to come to Kentucky. It's the site of my first win 13 years ago and it's a special place…That's a tough one to be that close. We were getting such good fuel mileage with our TRD (Toyota Racing Development) engine, I think we might have had a little extra there. That's going to be the hard part, going to bed knowing you could have gone a little faster." He added that he thought Keselowski "was out of fuel, and he wasn't. He played it perfectly. He let me get to him and then stood on it. We had a shot at it, we just weren't able to do it. Saved a little too much."


Race results


Race summary

* Lead changes: 16 among 9 drivers * Cautions: 11 for 53 laps * Red flags: none * Time of race: 3 hours, 6 minutes and 55 seconds * Average speed:


Media


Television

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...
covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen,
Jeff Burton Jeffrey Tyler Burton (born June 29, 1967), nicknamed The Mayor, is an American former professional stock car racing driver and current racing commentator. He scored 21 career victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, including two Coca-Cola 600s in ...
and Steve Letarte had the call in the booth for the race. Dave Burns,
Mike Massaro Michael Massaro (born 1970) is an American sportscaster and journalist who covers auto racing as a pit reporter for MAVTV's ARCA Menards Series coverage. He was previously a studio host and pit reporter for NASCAR on ESPN and NASCAR on NBC. He ...
, 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.


Standings after the race

*Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.
. – Driver has clinched a position in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quaker State 400, 2016 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2016 in sports in Kentucky 2016 Quaker State 400 July 2016 sports events in the United States