| Race details[1][2] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 17 of 36 in the2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series | |||
 The 2013 Quaker State 400 program cover, with artwork bySam Bass. The painting is called "Kentucky Moonlight". | |||
| Date | June 29, 2013 (2013-06-29) June 30, 2013 (2013-06-30) (Postponed) | ||
| Location | Kentucky Speedway,Sparta,Kentucky,United States | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 1.5 miles (2.4 km) | ||
| Distance | 267 laps, 400.5 mi (644.542 km) | ||
| Weather | Temperatures reaching up to 69.1 °F (20.6 °C); wind speeds approaching 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 131.948 mph (212.350 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Hendrick Motorsports | ||
| Time | 29.406 seconds | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Jimmie Johnson | Hendrick Motorsports | |
| Laps | 182 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 20 | Matt Kenseth | Joe Gibbs Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | TNT | ||
| Announcers | Adam Alexander,Wally Dallenbach Jr. andKyle Petty | ||
| Nielsen ratings | 2.6 (3.984 million viewers) | ||
The2013 Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts was aNASCARSprint Cup Series stock carrace scheduled to be held on June 29, 2013, atKentucky Speedway inSparta,Kentucky,United States, but was postponed to June 30 due to persistent rain. Contested over 267 laps on the 1.5-mile (2.4 km)tri-oval, it was the seventeenth race of the2013 Sprint Cup Series championship.Matt Kenseth ofJoe Gibbs Racing won the race, his fourth win of the 2013 season, whileJamie McMurray finished second.Clint Bowyer,Joey Logano, andKyle Busch rounded out the top five.
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(R) - Denotes rookie driver.
(i) - Denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.
Two practice sessions were held on June 28 in preparation for the race. The first session was 60 minutes in duration, while the second session was 90 minutes long.[3]
During the first practice session,Kevin Harvick, for theRichard Childress Racing team, was quickest ahead ofJimmie Johnson in second andBrad Keselowski in third.[4]Kurt Busch scored fourth andJeff Gordon managed fifth.[4]Kyle Busch,Brian Vickers,Juan Pablo Montoya,Paul Menard, andRicky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top ten quickest drivers in the session.[4] In the final practice session for the race, Johnson was quickest with a time of 29.819 seconds.[5]Carl Edwards followed in second ahead of Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon in third and fourth.[5]Jeff Burton, who was twelfth quickest in second practice,[4] managed fifth.[5]
During qualifying,Dale Earnhardt Jr. clinched his twelfth careerpole position,[6] with a record lap time of 29.406 seconds and a speed of 183.636 miles per hour (295.533 km/h).[7] After his qualifying run, Earnhardt Jr. said, "We thought we had a top-five car in practice, and we got some good cloud cover about six or seven cars in front of us before we went to qualify, and that brought the track temp down to give us a good advantage," Earnhardt said. "It gave us a good opportunity to run a bit quicker lap than maybe what the car had in it."[6] He was joined on the front row of thegrid by Edwards.[7] Johnson qualified third, Kyle Busch took fourth, andMarcos Ambrose started fifth.[7]Denny Hamlin,Ryan Newman,Brad Keselowski,Brian Vickers, andJuan Pablo Montoya completed the first ten positions on the grid.[7]
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The race was scheduled to start on the Saturday at 8:00 p.m., but was delayed until the following afternoon due to rain, with the new start time set at 12:00 p.m. E.T. This change in schedule prompted NASCAR to impose a competition caution on lap 30 ahead of the race to allow teams to check their tire wear and make adjustments.
Carl Edwards led lap 1. The race ran without incident until the scheduled competition caution was brought out on lap 29, and ended on lap 36. The second caution of the race was issued for a tire blowout on lap 39 and lasted until lap 48. The third caution occurred on lap 49 for a multi-car wreck includingBrad Keselowski,Greg Biffle,Kurt Busch, and others. It started withBrad Keselowski spinning in the grass, taking out multiple cars in the process. The wreck caused the red flag to be displayed withJimmie Johnson as the race leader. The fourth caution came out on lap 89 for debris on the track.
David Gilliland blew a tireKasey Kahne won the free pass, and the race restarted on lap 94. The fifth caution of the race came out on lap 149;Jeff Gordon won the free pass under caution, and the race restarted on lap 154.Jimmie Johnson took the lead, and then the next caution was on lap 241 for a tire blowout.
The race restarted on lap 243, and on 246, the sixth caution came out. The race restarted on lap 250, andMatt Kenseth won his first race at Kentucky.
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| Previous race: 2013 Toyota/Save Mart 350 | Sprint Cup Series 2013 season | Next race: 2013 Coke Zero 400 |
