Kenseth clinches Chase berth; Bowyer falls out of Grid with one race to go - MotorSportsTalk

Kasey Kahne wasn’t the only driver that clinched a Chase berth Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Matt Kenseth was vanquished by Kahne in the second green-white-checkered attempt, but the runner-up performance was more than enough to punch his own ticket to the 2014 post-season.

Kenseth put himself at the front of the field with a two-tire stop going into the first GWC attempt. However, that ended with a multi-car incident that involved the dominant driver of the night, Kevin Harvick (led 195 laps, finished 19th).

That brought about the second attempt, where Kahne charged from third at the green flag and pulled alongside Kenseth on the outside before clearing him.

“I had a really good restart on the first time,” Kenseth said to ESPN afterwards. “I was hoping it went green there because Paul [Menard] was in there and I think the 5 [Kahne] and the 4 [Kevin Harvick] were stuck on the top. But that didn’t work out.

“The second one was OK – it wasn’t as good. I just spun the left rear a little bit and the 5 got up the middle there. I was able to get through [Turns] 1 and 2 wide open, and I had him cleared and somehow, he had enough momentum to get back up alongside me. We did all we could.”

As for the rest of the Chase hopefuls, Ryan Newman narrowly missed being the third driver to clinch Sunday at Atlanta. His seventh-place finish was not enough to do the job, but he is still a healthy 42 points over the cutoff going into next Saturday’s regular season finale at Richmond International Raceway.

Greg Biffle finished 10th for the third race in a row and also netted his fifth consecutive Top-10 result. He stays in the 16th and final Chase Grid position at 23 points over the cutoff.

But beyond the Grid, things changed dramatically for Clint Bowyer and definitely not in a good way.

Bowyer entered Sunday with a 31-point cushion, but a broken shifter during the first half of the race sent him to the garage for a period and ultimately relegated him to a 38th-place finish.

The disastrous result sent him from 15th and in the Grid to 17th and behind Biffle by 23 points. Now, he potentially could be the biggest story going at Richmond, where in the same event one year ago, he played a critical role in Michael Waltrip Racing’s race manipulation scandal.

Kyle Larson will also be in the pressure cooker at Richmond, too. He finished eighth in Atlanta, but his points gain on Biffle was minimal. The Cup rookie will be 24 points back for next Saturday’s final battle.

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Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

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The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

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Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

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