2016 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400

2016 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400
Race details
Race 27 of 36 in the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Date September 18, 2016 (2016-09-18)
Location Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois
Course Permanent racing facility
1.5 mi (2.4 km)
Distance 270 laps, 405 mi (648 km)
Scheduled Distance 267 laps, 400.5 mi (640.8 km)
Average speed 145.161 mph (233.614 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Joe Gibbs Racing
Time N/A
Most laps led
Driver Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports
Laps 118
Winner
No. 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing
Television in the United States
Network NBCSN
Announcers Rick Allen, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte
Nielsen Ratings 1.5/3 (Overnight)
1.6/3 (Final)
2.7 million viewers
Radio in the United States
Radio MRN
Booth Announcers Joe Moore, Jeff Striegle and Rusty Wallace
Turn Announcers Dave Moody (1 & 2) and Mike Bagley (3 & 4)

The 2016 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on September 18, 2016, at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. Contested over 270 laps on the 1.5-mile (2.4 km) intermediate speedway, it was the 27th race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, first race of the Chase and first race of the Round of 16, Furniture Row Racing's Martin Truex Jr. won his first career race in Chicagoland and third race of the 2016 season, to advance to the second round of the Chase.

Joey Logano made his way to a second-place finish, the race had nine lead changes among different drivers and four cautions for 22 laps.

Report

Background

Chicagoland Speedway, the track where the race was held.

Chicagoland Speedway is a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) tri-oval speedway in Joliet, Illinois, southwest of Chicago. The speedway opened in 2001 and currently hosts NASCAR racing including the opening event in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Until 2011, the speedway also hosted the IndyCar Series, recording numerous close finishes including the closest finish in IndyCar history. The speedway is owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation and located adjacent to Route 66 Raceway.

Entry list

The preliminary entry list for the race included 40 cars and was released on September 12, 2016, at 11:36 a.m. Eastern time.

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 Tony Stewart 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 Joey Gase (i) 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 Alex Bowman (i) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
95 Michael McDowell Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet
98 Cole Whitt Premium Motorsports Chevrolet
Official entry list

Qualifying

Qualifying for Friday was cancelled due to rain. Kyle Busch was awarded the pole position as a result.

Starting lineup

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

Practice

First practice

Jimmie Johnson was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 29.383 and a speed of 183.780 mph (295.765 km/h).

Pos No. Driver Team Manufacturer Time Speed
1 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.383 183.780
2 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 29.460 183.299
3 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 29.520 182.927
Official first practice results

Second practice

Kyle Larson was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 29.033 and a speed of 185.995 mph (299.330 km/h).

Pos No. Driver Team Manufacturer Time Speed
1 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 29.033 185.995
2 41 Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 29.067 185.778
3 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Toyota 29.156 185.211
Official second practice results

Final practice

Kyle Larson was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 29.460 and a speed of 183.299 mph (294.991 km/h).

Pos No. Driver Team Manufacturer Time Speed
1 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 29.460 183.299
2 24 Chase Elliott (R) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 29.527 182.883
3 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 29.536 182.828
Official final practice results

Race

First half

Martin Truex Jr. won the race.

Under clear blue Illinois skies, Kyle Busch led the field to the green flag at 2:49 p.m. He led the first 22 laps before Martin Truex Jr. powered by on the outside exiting turn 2 to take the lead on lap 23. Green flag stops commenced on lap 48, and a tire that came from the stall of Aric Almirola and came to a stop in the frontstretch grass area brought out the first caution of the race on lap 49. Jimmie Johnson, who made it across the start/finish line on pit road before Truex crossed the line on the track, remained on the lead lap and assumed the lead after he opted to stay out when Truex pitted. Kevin Harvick, who worked his way up to eighth after starting the race from the rear end of the field for an unapproved adjustment, didn't beat Truex back to the line and was trapped a lap down for much of the race.

The race restarted on lap 56. Truex, who was running second, made an unscheduled stop on lap 70 for a flat right-rear tire. He rejoined the race in 21st one lap down. Green flag stops started again on lap 103. Johnson hit pit road the next lap and handed the lead to Brad Keselowski. He pitted the next lap and the lead cycled back to Johnson. Casey Mears was issued a pass through penalty for speeding on pit road and then was issued a stop and go penalty for speeding on his pass through.

The second caution of the race flew on lap 119 for Brian Scott getting loose and spinning out in turn 4. Matt Kenseth was sent to the tail end of the field on the ensuing restart for speeding on pit road.

Second half

The race restarted on lap 126. This run was much like the second run in which the field settled into a rhythm of green flag racing. During this run, Harvick came up and hit the 78 car. Truex said after the race in his media availability that "nothing led up to it. We hadn't been around each other all day, really. I passed him once earlier. I had fresh tires, he was lapped and that was after I had my flat (so) I was racing to get my lap back." The next round of green flag stops began on lap 172. Johnson pitted from the lead the same lap and handed the lead to Keselowski. He pitted on lap 174 and the lead cycled back to Johnson. Busch was issued a pass through penalty for speeding on pit road.

Busch worked his back onto the lead lap by driving around race leader Johnson on lap 182. That same lap, teammate Chase Elliott passed him for the lead exiting turn 4. Debris on the backstretch brought out the third caution of the race on lap 193.

The race restarted on lap 199. Not much happened until the final round of green flag pit stops with 33 laps to go. Elliott pitted with 32 to go and handed the lead to Denny Hamlin. He pitted with 30 to go and handed the lead to Ryan Blaney. He pitted with 25 to go and handed the lead to Alex Bowman. He pitted with 19 to go and the lead cycled back to Elliott. During the pit cycle, Johnson was issued a pass through penalty for speeding. He said after the race that he "just can’t believe I got in trouble down there leaving the pits. I feel terrible for these guys. It should have been a top-five day, but I will back down on pit road even more and try not to make that mistake. Hats off to the team for our fast Lowe’s Chevrolet, I just screwed up.”

Truex was gaining ground on Elliott in the closing laps of the race, but not enough to catch him with the laps remaining. Unfortunately for Elliott, a shredded right-front tire from the No. 95 car of Michael McDowell brought out the fourth caution of the race with five laps to go and forced overtime. Three drivers: Blaney, who assumed the lead, Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards, opted to stay out while the rest of the lead lap cars pitted. Truex exited pit road ahead of Elliott.

Overtime

The race restarted with two laps to go. Blaney was no match on old tires against Truex on new tires. Truex passed him on the backstretch with two to go and drove on to score the victory.

Post-race

Driver comments

“The racing gods want to make it difficult on us,” Truex said in victory lane. “Man, this feels good. I’m a lucky guy to be able to drive this black 78. (Crew chief) Cole Pearn, Jazzy (Team Engineer Jeff Curtis), everybody on this team, the pit crew, Barney (Team Owner Visser) for giving us everything we need. This is the way we wanted to start the Chase. It feels awesome.” “On one hand the bad luck was going to bite us and on the other we had a lot of time to battle back,” he added. “We’re lucky it happened early and we were able to have an awesome racecar all day.”

Truex's car failed post-race LIS (Laser Inspection Station) after the race. The failure was not considered "encumbered" and he was allowed to keep the benefits of his win.

Joey Logano, who finished runner-up, said his day saw "awesome execution by the 22 team. From every angle. We had a very fast race car and were awesome on pit road. You want to talk about pressure, not just Chase pressure, but coming down at the end of the race to try to win, they executed and had an awesome pit stop and beat the 11 out and ultimately gives us a second place finish. I couldn’t be more proud of the team and the way we executed and attacked today. We will take this momentum and run with it the next nine weeks.”

Elliott, who was leading the race with five to go and finished third, said he "felt like we did a good job as a team today trying to control the things that we could control. And you can't control when a caution is going to come out. Granted, you can expect one a lot of the time, but you can't control when it's going to happen, and you certainly can't control how many guys are going to stay out on tires and try to make something happen at the end of a race. That's just a part of life, part of racing." He added that he was "proud of that (speed his car showed); we are proud of the run we had today,” he said. “Obviously, hate to come up short, but that is part of life some days. We were fast and I think that is something to be happy about and we can move forward to Loudon (next week) with some motivation.”

“You know, it was a long day for us for sure,” said Blaney. “We passed a lot of cars. We didn’t start good. We started 22nd. Worked on our car all day and got it better and better each run. There was maybe only one run where I thought we went backwards. We fixed it right away and started going back forward again. That was promising. I think we were seventh before that last caution. Decided to stay out. “We initially decided if we could get to the front two rows, we were going to stay out. Then you kind of had a shot. But then everyone came. We decided to stay out anyway. That put us in the best position possible being able to restart the race. Knew it was going to be tough when only a couple cars stayed out with us. We needed about two or three more for it to be a realistic shot.”

Race results

Pos Grid No. Driver Team Manufacturer Laps Points
1 6 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 270 44
2 9 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 270 40
3 14 24 Chase Elliott (R) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 270 39
4 22 21 Ryan Blaney (R) Wood Brothers Racing Ford 270 38
5 2 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 270 37
6 3 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 270 36
7 19 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 270 34
8 1 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 270 34
9 7 20 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 270 32
10 17 88 Alex Bowman (i) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 270 0
11 16 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 270 30
12 8 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 270 31
13 12 41 Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 270 28
14 15 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 270 27
15 5 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 270 26
16 11 14 Tony Stewart Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 270 25
17 21 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 270 24
18 10 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 269 23
19 18 31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 269 22
20 4 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 269 21
21 26 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 269 20
22 28 15 Clint Bowyer HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 269 19
23 20 6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 269 18
24 25 10 Danica Patrick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 269 17
25 23 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 268 16
26 24 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 268 15
27 33 7 Ty Dillon (i) Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 268 0
28 13 34 Chris Buescher (R) Front Row Motorsports Ford 268 13
29 31 38 Landon Cassill Front Row Motorsports Ford 267 12
30 35 83 Matt DiBenedetto BK Racing Toyota 267 11
31 34 44 Brian Scott (R) Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 266 10
32 27 43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 266 9
33 37 46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 265 8
34 29 13 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 265 7
35 32 23 David Ragan BK Racing Toyota 265 6
36 36 98 Cole Whitt Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 263 5
37 30 95 Michael McDowell Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet 262 4
38 40 30 Josh Wise The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 260 3
39 39 55 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 257 2
40 38 32 Joey Gase (i) Go FAS Racing Ford 254 0
Official race results

Race summary

  • Lead changes: 9 among different drivers
  • Cautions/Laps: 4 for 22
  • Red flags: 0
  • Time of race: 2 hours, 47 minutes and 24 seconds
  • Average speed: 145.161 miles per hour (233.614 km/h)

Media

Television

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

NBCSN
Booth announcers Pit reporters
Lap-by-lap: Rick Allen
Color-commentator: Jeff Burton
Color-commentator: Steve Letarte
Dave Burns
Mike Massaro
Marty Snider
Kelli Stavast

Radio

The Motor Racing Network had the radio call for the race, which was simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

MRN
Booth announcers Turn announcers Pit reporters
Lead announcer: Joe Moore
Announcer: Jeff Striegle
Announcer: Rusty Wallace
Turns 1 & 2: Dave Moody
Turns 3 & 4: Mike Bagley
Alex Hayden
Winston Kelley
Steve Post

Standings after the race


This page was last updated at 2024-02-11 04:34 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari