2020 Quaker State 400

The 2020 Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on July 12, 2020 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky. Contested over 267 laps on the 1.5 mi speedway, it was the 17th race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.

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 1.5 mi tri-oval speedway owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc.. Kentucky Speedway, which has also hosted the ARCA Menards Series, NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the Indy Racing League, has a grandstand seating capacity of 107,000.

Entry list

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

Qualifying
Kyle Busch was awarded the pole for the race as determined by a random draw.

Stage 1
Aric Almirola gave Kyle Busch a big push into Turn 1 and the pair quickly stepped away from the rest of the field. Almirola took the lead on Lap 10, followed by Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, and Brad Keselowski.

The competition caution scheduled for Lap 25 brought the field to pit road, Almirola retained the lead and will restart next to Logano. Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott will line up behind them on row two.

This time, Elliott pushed Almirola to the lead, followed by the Ford Mustangs of Logano, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, and Matt DeBenedetto. Kyle Busch dropped to 10th on the restart.

With no more cautions and nothing but clean air in front of him, Almirola took the Stage 1 win easily. Six Ford Mustangs earned points finishing in the Stage’s top 10.

Stage 2
It will again be Aric Almirola leading the field to the green on the restart, after Stage ending pit stops. Logano, Elliott, Matt DeBenedetto, and Bowman will follow.

Stage 2 looked to be a repeat of Stage 1 as Almirola dominated. Until Ryan Blaney used a lap car to trap Almirola on the bottom of the track and drove by with 22 laps to go in the Stage. Earlier in the race, Blaney had his car jump out of gear going through Turn 1. He held onto the gear shifter for a few corners, but the issue did not re-occur.

Green flag pit stops began with around 15 laps to go in the Stage. Matt Kenseth cut down a tire seven laps before the end of the stage during pit stops and shuffled the standings. The race restarted with 1 lap to go, Keselowski and Blaney on the front row. They raced side-by-side to the green and white checkered, with Keselowski picking up the stage win.

The Final Stage
At the restart, Keselowski led Blaney, Truex, and Logano to the green flag. Almirola restarted in 11th. Kyle Busch was complaining of a rear suspension issue and claimed it was almost undrivable. This sent a crew member to the garage to retrieve a new shock absorber.

With 87 laps to go, Truex took the lead. With 59 laps to go, Jimmie Johnson was the first of the leaders to make his final pit stop. Almirola came to pit road with 50 laps to go. Truex gave up the lead when he pitted with 47 to go and Keselowski inherited the top spot. Brad pitted with 44 to go.

Brennan Poole cut down a tire with 39 laps to go and again the caution waved in the middle of green-flag pit stops. Austin Dillon spun trying to avoid pit road as the caution appeared to prevent be caught there and going a lap down. Several cars ended up taking the waive-around during the caution to get back on the lead lap.

Truex and Blaney lead the field to the restart, Kurt Busch and Keselowski follow them in row 2. The caution was another bad break for Almirola who will restart in the 19th position when the green flag drops. The big mover when the race restarted was Jimmie Johnson, going from 9th to the 3rd spot.

The caution came out again when John Hunter Nemechek hit the wall with 23 laps to go. Most of the leaders stayed out, Kyle Busch pitted from 9th and several cars further back took advantage of the caution to get fresh tires.

Now its Truex, Blaney, Harvick, and Johnson to the restart. Keselowski dove low to pass Johnson and Jimmie was slow to block. The two collided and Johnson spun out.

Now it will be Blaney, Truex, Harvick, and Kurt Busch, with Keselowski starting 5th with 13 laps to go. Harvick took the leaders 3-wide into Turn 1 and came onto the backstretch with the lead. Truex was the only car able to stay close with Harvick as they pulled away at the front. Ryan Newman tapped Matt Kenseth and sent him spinning with 7 laps to go, setting up a sprint to the finish.

The Finish
Apparently it’s anyone race to win if you are willing to push and shove your way to the front. Harvick, Truex, Blaney, Keselowski, and Kurt Busch the top 5 as the green waves with 2 laps to go. Three-wide down to the white flag, when Cole Custer, Harvick’s teammate, gets a great run and makes it 4-wide across the line.

As Harvick gets his fender banged by Blaney, he starts trailing smoke. Truex, looking to avoid trouble pulls up and pushes Custer. But, once in clean air, Custer is never going to get caught. He comes around for the checkered flag.

The win, the first for a rookie since 2016, puts him in the playoffs. Custer entered the race 25th in the points. It also places him in the All-Star race Wednesday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Playoff Point Standings
Clearly, Custer’s win took away a point qualifying position in the Playoff Standings. After today’s race, he was 91 points out of the final spot and very unlikely to qualify. This really puts the pressure on Austin Dillon as it pushed him 24 points out of 16th, the final playoff spot. It also cost Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones as they sit 41 and 42 points behind respectively.

Aric Almirola, who dominated today early and then finished 8th, is the highest-ranked non-winning driver in 10th with 504 points. Kurt Busch is also sitting pretty in 11th, up 104 points on the cut line. Jimmie Johnson lost 12 points to the cut line and now sits on the bubble, he finished 18th today.

Stage Results
Stage One Laps: 80

Stage Two Laps: 80

Final Stage Results
Stage Three Laps: 107

Race statistics

 * Lead changes: 13 among 9 different drivers
 * Cautions/Laps: 8 for 42
 * Red flags: 0
 * Time of race: 2 hours, 59 minutes and 49 seconds
 * Average speed: 133.636 mph

Television
Fox Sports televised the race in the United States on FS1. Mike Joy and Jeff Gordon will cover the race from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte. Jamie Little handled the pit road duties. Larry McReynolds provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.

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, Brett McMillan and Wendy Venturini called the duties on pit lane.

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Manufacturers' Championship standings


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