2016 Duck Commander 500

2016 Duck Commander Majigoud
Race details
Race 7 of 36 in the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Date April 9–10, 2016
Location Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas
Course Permanent racing facility
1.5 mi (2.4 km)
Distance 334 laps, 501 mi (801.6 km)
Weather Mostly cloudy skies with a temperature of 60 °F (16 °C); wind out of the southeast at 6 mph (9.7 km/h)
Average speed 138.355 mph (222.661 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Joe Gibbs Racing
Time 27.748
Most laps led
Driver Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing
Laps 142
Winner
No. 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing
Television in the United States
Network Fox
Announcers Mike Joy, Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip
Radio in the United States
Radio PRN
Booth Announcers Doug Rice, Mark Garrow and Wendy Venturini
Turn Announcers Rob Albright (1 & 2) and Pat Patterson (3 & 4)

The 2016 Duck Commander 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on April 9, 2016, at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Contested over 334 laps on the 1.5-mile (2.4 km) intermediate quad-oval, it was the seventh race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, The race had 17 lead changes among different drivers and 7 cautions for 41 laps.

Report

Background

Texas Motor Speedway, the track where the race will be held.

Texas Motor Speedway is a speedway located in the northernmost portion of the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas – the portion located in Denton County, Texas. The track measures 1.5 miles (2.4 km) around and is banked 24 degrees in the turns, and is of the oval design, where the front straightaway juts outward slightly. The track layout is similar to Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway (formerly Lowe's Motor Speedway). The track is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., the same company that owns Atlanta and Charlotte Motor Speedways, as well as the short-track Bristol Motor Speedway.

Entry list

The entry list for the Duck Commander 500 was released on Monday, April 4 at 10:12 a.m. Eastern time. Forty cars were entered for the race.

No. Driver Team Manufacturer
1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford
3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
4 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford
7 Regan Smith Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet
10 Danica Patrick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
13 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet
14 Brian Vickers Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
15 Clint Bowyer HScott Motorsports Chevrolet
16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford
17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford
18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
20 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
21 Ryan Blaney (R) Wood Brothers Racing Ford
22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford
23 David Ragan BK Racing Toyota
24 Chase Elliott (R) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
30 Josh Wise The Motorsports Group Chevrolet
31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
32 Jeffrey Earnhardt (R) Go FAS Racing Ford
34 Chris Buescher (R) Front Row Motorsports Ford
38 Landon Cassill Front Row Motorsports Ford
41 Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford
44 Brian Scott (R) Richard Petty Motorsports Ford
46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet
47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet
48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
55 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet
78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota
83 Matt DiBenedetto BK Racing Toyota
88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
95 Ty Dillon (i) Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet
98 Cole Whitt Premium Motorsports Chevrolet
Official entry list

First practice

Martin Truex Jr. was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 27.995 and a speed of 192.892 mph (310.430 km/h).

Pos No. Driver Team Manufacturer Time Speed
1 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 27.995 192.892
2 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 28.101 192.164
3 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 28.104 192.143
Official first practice results

Qualifying

Hamelin's car being inspected before the race
Carl Edwards scored the pole position.

Carl Edwards scored the pole for the race with a time of 27.748 and a speed of 194.609 mph (313.193 km/h). He said after the session that he sure does "like it here, I really enjoy Texas. I have a lot of friends here. This is a fun place to race. The tire, I don’t know what the other guys feel, the tire and downforce package for me lets me feel like I can go into the corner and move around and feel the tire underneath me. Even in qualifying, there were times when I got a little sideways and it slid a little bit and I could recover and that’s really fun as a race car driver. Hopefully the race goes well. We have some practice later. I just cannot thank my guys on this Stanley Tools Camry enough, they are unbelievable.” After qualifying second, Joey Logano said that he was "really good in (Turns) 1 and 2. That's where we beating the 19. And then I went in there the last time, and it didn't turn like it was, and I was like, "Oh, no, that's our good area…’ We actually fixed 3 and 4, and we were pretty good down there. But we kind of flip-flopped, and we needed both... Just (with) another run on the tires, it's so hard to go faster at this track."

Qualifying results

Pos No. Driver Team Manufacturer R1 R2 R3
1 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 27.700 27.662 27.748
2 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 27.658 27.733 27.935
3 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 27.736 27.920 27.935
4 24 Chase Elliott (R) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 27.980 27.953 27.974
5 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.050 27.974 27.988
6 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.012 27.963 27.992
7 21 Ryan Blaney (R) Wood Brothers Ford 27.926 27.817 27.996
8 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 27.802 27.722 28.025
9 20 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.008 27.955 28.072
10 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 27.824 27.769 28.074
11 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 27.973 27.985 28.197
12 6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.050 27.992 28.336
13 14 Brian Vickers Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 27.594 27.993
14 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 27.867 28.001
15 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 27.988 28.031
16 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 27.833 28.045
17 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 27.716 28.066
18 1 Jamie McMurry Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.014 28.124
19 31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.009 28.137
20 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 27.969 28.168
21 41 Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 27.942 28.184
22 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.061 28.208
23 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 27.958 28.222
24 43 Aric Amirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 27.883 28.222
25 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.064
26 10 Danica Patrick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.108
27 44 Brian Scott (R) Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 28.127
28 7 Regan Smith Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 28.158
29 83 Matt DiBenedetto BK Racing Toyota 28.158
30 95 Ty Dillon (i) Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet 28.230
31 23 David Ragan BK Racing Toyota 28.235
32 13 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 28.337
33 38 Landon Cassill Front Row Motorsports Ford 28.387
34 34 Chris Buescher (R) Front Row Motorsports Ford 28.403
35 46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 28.516
36 15 Clint Bowyer HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 28.553
37 98 Cole Whitt Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 28.694
38 32 Jeffrey Earnhardt (R) Go FAS Racing Ford 29.107
39 30 Josh Wise The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 29.195
40 55 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 29.737
Official qualifying results

Final practice

Martin Truex Jr. was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.068 and a speed of 192.390 mph (309.622 km/h).

Pos No. Driver Team Manufacturer Time Speed
1 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 28.068 192.390
2 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.384 190.248
3 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.495 189.507
Official final practice results

Race

First half

Start

Kyle Busch won the race.

Because of rain during the day, the race started under a green/yellow condition (the race started under caution, but the laps began counting) at 9:35 p.m. The race began under the first caution of the night. Carl Edwards led the field to the green flag on lap 6. Martin Truex Jr., who was running second after six laps, fell back to third after his grille was covered by a piece of debris. He tried to pull up to the rear of Joey Logano, but the debris remained. He then fell behind Denny Hamlin and managed to get the debris off. The second caution of the race flew on lap 29. This was a scheduled competition caution due to rain. On pit road, Jimmie Johnson slammed into the rear of Kyle Busch and partly caved in the nose of his car. David Ragan opted not to pit and assumed the race lead. He would eventually pit and hand the lead back to Edwards.

The race restarted on lap 34. Truex passed Edwards exiting turn 4 to take the lead on lap 60. A number of cars began pitting under green on lap 73. Truex gave up the lead to pit on lap 74 and handed the lead to Matt Kenseth. He pitted the next lap and handed the lead to Chase Elliott, who was also making his pit stop. The lead cycled back to Truex.

Second quarter

Truex continued to pull away from the field as he pulled to a five-second lead by lap 100. A number of cars began pitting under green on lap 111. Truex ducked onto pit road on lap 112 and handed the lead to Busch. Brian Vickers, in what ended up being his last ever NASCAR start, spun out trying to enter pit road. He continued on and the race remained green. Unfortunately, he and Josh Wise were tagged for a commitment line violation and were forced to serve a pass-through penalty. Busch pitted the next lap and the lead cycled back to Truex.

Paul Menard was black-flagged for the corner panel being pulled out and was forced to pit to fix it on lap 128. Brad Keselowski made an unscheduled stop the next lap for a loose wheel. Debris in turn 4 brought out the third caution of the race on lap 134. Edwards exited pit road with the race lead.

The race restarted on lap 142. Truex ducked onto pit road on lap 177 and handed the lead to Busch. He pitted the next lap and handed the lead to Elliott. He pitted the next lap and the lead cycled back to Edwards.

Second half

Halfway

Truex drove under Edwards to retake the lead on lap 208. The fourth caution of the race flew on lap 210 for a single-car wreck in turn 4. Rounding turn 3, Wise suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall. He would go on to finish 40th. Kenseth opted not to pit under the caution and assumed the lead. Kevin Harvick was tagged for speeding and an uncontrolled tire and restarted the race from the tail-end of the field.

The race restarted on lap 222. Edwards, who restarted second, made an unscheduled stop the next lap for a loose wheel. He rejoined the race in 19th one lap down. Truex passed Kenseth going into turn 3 to retake the lead on lap 236. A number of cars began hitting pit road with 78 laps to go. Truex pitted with 76 laps to go and handed the lead to Trevor Bayne. He tried to extend his fuel run, but was chased down and passed by Truex for the lead.

Fourth quarter

Debris on the front stretch brought out the fifth caution of the race with 58 laps to go.

The race restarted with 50 laps to go. The sixth caution of the race flew with 47 laps to go for a single-car wreck in turn 2. Rounding turn 1, Kasey Kahne tapped the left-rear corner of Greg Biffle, got him loose and sent him into the wall.

The race restarted with 42 laps to go. The seventh caution of the race flew with 41 laps to go for a multi-car wreck on the backstretch. Exiting turn 2, Johnson made contact with the rear-end of Austin Dillon and sent him sliding into the wall. Dillon overcorrected and hit the outside wall with the right-front of his car. His car turned down the track, was clipped by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., slid down and tapped the inside wall. With a number of cars trying to avoid the spinning No. 3 car, an accordion-effect led to more cars being caught up in the melee. A total of 13 cars sustained damage in the wreck. Dillon said afterwards that being on older tires, he "was trying to get all I could there. It’s part of trying to win a race. We put ourselves in a position to be out front, thinking that two laps wouldn’t mean much, but it did. That’s part of it. The good Lord kept me safe tonight and gave me a good race car. You have to be gracious in defeat. We’ll come back next week with another fast car and hopefully we can do the same thing we did today, and that’s run up front."

The race restarted with 33 laps to go. Busch drove by him on the backstretch to take the lead with 32 laps to go and drove on to score the victory.

Post-race

Driver comments

Busch said after the race that life is "pretty darn good, I’ll tell you that. I’ve got a great wife, a great son and I’m having a blast, living the dream with Adam Stevens (crew chief) and these guys, and Joe (Gibbs, JGR owner) and JD (Gibbs, JGR co-chairman), thinking about you guys back at home and of course Coy (Gibbs, JGR COO) is here with us. Everybody back at the shop has been building great race cars, they’ve been doing a great job for us. The crew chiefs here have been really working together, gelling together and putting everything together. It’s just fun, right now it’s all clicking and going together.”

After a runner-up finish, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that "we need a win. We'd love to get a win. I know our fans want a win real bad. Trust me, man, we're all working real hard. We're running great every week. So at least that's hopefully fun to watch for you guys. I had a blast inside the car, lot of sliding around, sideways -- good, hard racing. We'll go to the next one, I guess, and try again."

After finishing third, Logano said he was "proud of what my race team did. This Shell/Pennzoil team executed perfectly today. We may not have had the fastest car, we obviously didn’t have the fastest car, but we executed into a top-three finish, and I’m very proud of my team for that. We had great pit stops and great calls, so everything worked out well. Everyone did their job. That’s kind of been our weak point this year is that we haven’t had the speed, but we haven’t been executing perfectly. Now it seemed like we executed right and we’ve got to work on our speed now.”

Not satisfied with a career best fifth-place finish, Elliott said that running in "fifth isn't a contender. You've got to be running higher. We'll keep working on it."

After leading 142 of the 334 laps, Truex described finishing sixth as "frustrating." He also added that the way it turned out "hurts a little bit and move on and we'll take the positives out of tonight."

Race results

Pos Grid No. Driver Team Manufacturer Laps Points
1 15 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 334 44
2 16 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 334 39
3 2 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 334 38
4 11 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 334 37
5 4 24 Chase Elliott (R) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 334 37
6 3 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 334 37
7 1 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 334 35
8 17 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 334 33
9 21 41 Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 334 32
10 22 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 334 32
11 9 20 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 334 31
12 6 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 334 29
13 18 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 334 28
14 20 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 334 27
15 12 6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 334 27
16 5 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 334 25
17 19 31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 333 24
18 8 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 332 23
19 10 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 332 22
20 30 95 Ty Dillon Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet 332 0
21 26 10 Danica Patrick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 332 20
22 23 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 332 19
23 32 13 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 332 18
24 24 43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 331 17
25 33 38 Landon Cassill Front Row Motorsports Ford 330 16
26 25 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 330 15
27 27 44 Brian Scott (R) Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 330 14
28 34 34 Chris Buescher (R) Front Row Motorsports Ford 330 13
29 7 21 Ryan Blaney (R) Wood Brothers Ford 330 12
30 37 98 Cole Whitt Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 329 11
31 28 7 Regan Smith Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 329 10
32 35 46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 329 9
33 31 23 David Ragan BK Racing Toyota 328 9
34 29 83 Matt DiBenedetto BK Racing Toyota 327 7
35 38 32 Jeffrey Earnhardt (R) Go FAS Racing Ford 323 6
36 40 55 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 315 5
37 13 14 Brian Vickers Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 290 4
38 36 15 Clint Bowyer HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 289 3
39 14 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 286 2
40 39 30 Josh Wise The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 178 1
Official race results

Race summary

  • Lead changes: 17
  • Cautions/Laps: 7 for 41
  • Red flags: 0
  • Time of race: 3 hours, 37 minutes and 16 seconds
  • Average speed: 138.355 miles per hour (222.661 km/h)

Media

Television

Fox Sports covered their 16th race at the Texas Motor Speedway. Mike Joy, 2009 race winner Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip had the call in the booth for the race. Jamie Little, Vince Welch and Matt Yocum handled the pit road duties for the television side.

Fox Television
Booth announcers Pit reporters
Lap-by-lap: Mike Joy
Color-commentator: Jeff Gordon
Color commentator: Darrell Waltrip
Jamie Little
Vince Welch
Matt Yocum

Radio

The race was broadcast on radio by the Performance Racing Network and simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice, Mark Garrow and Wendy Venturini called the race from the booth when the field raced down the front stretch. Rob Albright called the race from atop a billboard outside of turn 2 when the field raced through turns 1 and 2. Pat Patterson called the race from a billboard outside of turn 3 when the field raced through turns 3 and 4. On pit road, PRN was manned by Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan, Jim Noble and Steve Richards.

PRN
Booth announcers Turn announcers Pit reporters
Lead announcer: Doug Rice
Announcer: Mark Garrow
Announcer: Wendy Venturini
Turns 1 & 2: Rob Albright
Turns 3 & 4: Pat Patterson
Brad Gillie
Brett McMillan
Jim Noble
Steve Richards

Standings after the race

Note

  1. ^ Chase Elliott started from the rear of the field after changing transmissions.

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