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Nearly a month ago, Kyle Busch walked away from Michigan International Speedway with a 43rd place finish. His chances of achieving Chase eligibility looked quite grim.

Fast forward three weeks and Busch's season has done a complete 180-degree turn.

Busch dominated in Saturday night's Quaker State 400 from Kentucky Speedway, leading 163 laps on his way to capturing the checkered flag. Busch now has two victories in just seven races since returning from injuries sustained at Daytona in Xfinity series competition earlier this season. In addition to Busch's now two wins, he also must remain in the top 30 in the points standings to become Chase eligible at the end of the season.

Saturday night's race also marked the first race with a new, revised rules package mainly pertaining to aerodynamics. Busch believes it went a long way to making the racing better but doesn't think the sample size is large enough to get an accurate reading.

"Obviously the night went real well for us but in general," Busch said. "It was really, really good to get out there and race like that tonight and to run up front and put on a good show I hope for the fans that were here in Kentucky Speedway and on TV but most importantly I can't say enough about Adam Stevens, my team, everyone that did such a great job for me and gave me a great race car to go out there and perform like I did and just to be able to put it all together throughout 400 miles like that's was really good.

"To come back from a couple late restarts there where everybody was battling so hard and cars were everywhere and not knowing where to go, what to do to get myself moving in the right direction and then to finally get up towards the front and get that win, that feels really, really good. So to pass Joey like we did at the end of the race there, it certainly means a lot more to come up through there and pass the guy late in the going to take the win."

The win is now the 31st on Kyle Busch's career and his second career victory at Kentucky Speedway.

Joey Logano held the lead on the race's final restart but could not hold off Busch late in the run. Logano, however, still managed to walk away with a second place finish, his 13th top ten finish of the 2015 season.

Logano hasn't won since this February's Daytona 500 and believes the changes NASCAR made improved the quality of the racing for the better.

"I thought the racing was good, I thought we were closer than what we were," Logano said. "The cars were definitely sliding around a lot especially on restarts. This track is a bumpy track and we have a hard tire for what we want to have here but I thought it was an improvement. I felt like we could enter behind each other and be effective. Being behind a car wasn't as big, so I think that's big. You're never going to get rid of that completely, we're going too fast. I think directionally it was correct.."

On top of Kyle Busch's victory, Joe Gibbs Racing enjoyed arguably its most successful race of its existence by placing all four team drivers inside the top five.  

Team owner Joe Gibbs was pleased with his team's improvements on intermediate tracks and the results under the new rules package. Gibbs hopes it's an indication of future success on mile and a half race tracks.

"If you follow this sport, you know for about a year and a half we've had a tough time on mile and a half, intermediate tracks," Gibbs said. "So I think a lot of credit goes to all the guys back home. The aero department, the engineering group, the fab shop and all those guys working so hard and we have been hard paced trying to catch up. I think we've worked extremely hard and hopefully tonight's a sign that we've caught back up with everybody at intermediate tracks. I'm thrilled for us."

JGR mainstay Denny Hamlin was able to overcome a pit road speeding penalty early to drive his No. 11 FedEx Toyota to a third place finish. Hamlin believes there will be differing opinions of NASCAR's mid season rules adjustments but he thinks it created a much better on track product.

"You're going to hear both sides of this story," Hamlin explained. "You're going to hear guys in the front say they like it and guys in the back say they don't. But I came from two laps down and passed a ton of cars throughout the day and there was a pass for the lead with under 15 or 20 laps to go, so can't really complain a whole lot about that especially since this is a pretty tough racetrack to pass on anyways and like Joey (Logano) talked about, we don't even have a tire honed in for this racetrack yet."

Carl Edwards finished in fourth place while Matt Kenseth snagged a fifth place finish.

Brad Keselowski led 62 laps in the race but lost a number of positions following a uncontrolled tire penalty during a round of pit stops. Despite the pit road misfortune, Keselowski grabbed a sixth place finish.

Jeff Gordon finished in seventh place in his final start at Kentucky Speedway, the only track which he hasn't won at in his storied Sprint Cup career.

Defending Sprint Cup champion and current Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick finished in eighth place with Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch rounding out the race's top ten finishers.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race Number 18
Unofficial Race Results for the 5Th Annual Quaker State 400  Presented
By Advance Auto Parts - Saturday, July 11, 2015
Kentucky Speedway - Sparta, KY - 1.5 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 267 Laps - 400.5 Miles - Purse: $5,104,114
Leader
Fin    Str    Car    Driver    Team    Laps    Pts    Bns    Driver Rating    Winnings    Status    Tms    Laps
1    9    18    Kyle Busch    M&M's Crispy Toyota    267    48    5    148.4    $209,316    Running    4    163
2    4    22    Joey Logano    Shell Pennzoil/AutoTrader Ford    267    43    1    123.3    $161,118    Running    1    23
3    8    11    Denny Hamlin    FedEx Office Toyota    267    42    1    117.1    $125,335    Running    2    13
4    20    19    Carl Edwards    Comcast/Minions Toyota    267    41    1    112.6    $124,295    Running    1    1
5    16    20    Matt Kenseth    Dollar General Toyota    267    39        104.9    $142,111    Running        
6    2    2    Brad Keselowski    Miller Lite Ford    267    39    1    124.6    $140,656    Running    2    62
7    3    24    Jeff Gordon    AARP Member Advantages Chevrolet    267    37        101.7    $135,176    Running        
8    15    4    Kevin Harvick    Budweiser/Jimmy John's Chevrolet    267    36        104.6    $137,640    Running        
9    6    48    Jimmie Johnson    Lowe's Pro Services Chevrolet    267    35        93.0    $132,151    Running        
10    13    41    Kurt Busch    Haas Automation Chevrolet    267    34        92.7    $102,715    Running        
11    17    17    Ricky Stenhouse Jr.    Fifth Third Bank Ford    267    33        74.4    $95,890    Running        
12    12    43    Aric Almirola    Smithfield Ford    267    32        88.3    $123,951    Running        
13    28    6    Trevor Bayne    AdvoCare Ford    267    31        81.2    $126,790    Running        
14    7    1    Jamie McMurray    Cessna Chevrolet    267    30        83.2    $116,156    Running        
15    14    27    Paul Menard    Quaker State/Menards Chevrolet    267    29        73.5    $93,915    Running        
16    27    16    Greg Biffle    Ortho Ford    267    28        69.2    $116,523    Running        
17    5    78    Martin Truex Jr.    Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet    267    27        90.1    $111,035    Running        
18    25    55    David Ragan    Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota    267    26        82.3    $111,479    Running        
19    30    15    Clint Bowyer    Hughes General Contractors/Casey's Toyota    267    25        70.5    $118,123    Running        
20    26    31    Ryan Newman    Caterpillar Chevrolet    267    25    1    74.3    $121,290    Running    1    2
21    10    88    Dale Earnhardt Jr.    Nationwide Chevrolet    267    23        63.6    $99,365    Running        
22    18    9    Sam Hornish Jr.    Advanced Auto Speed Perks Ford    267    22        68.7    $109,660    Running        
23    21    13    Casey Mears    GEICO Chevrolet    267    21        54.2    $109,248    Running        
24    32    51    Justin Allgaier    Fraternal Order of Eagles Chevrolet    267    20        55.3    $106,998    Running        
25    11    3    Austin Dillon    DOW Styrofoam Chevrolet    267    19        69.0    $119,526    Running        
26    24    47    AJ Allmendinger    Kroger/Scott Products Chevrolet    267    18        59.0    $111,423    Running        
27    19    5    Kasey Kahne    LiftMaster Chevrolet    266    17        74.3    $97,090    Running        
28    36    40    Landon Cassill(i)    CRC Brakleen Chevrolet    266    0        49.3    $82,065    Running        
29    34    38    David Gilliland    Love's Travel Stops Ford    266    15        45.2    $101,523    Running        
30    29    46    Michael Annett    Pilot/Flying J Chevrolet    266    14        46.3    $83,290    Running        
31    31    7    Alex Bowman    Advance Auto Parts/Quaker State Chevrolet    266    14    1    44.2    $90,772    Running    1    2
32    38    34    Brett Moffitt #    Dockside Logistics Ford    266    12        40.1    $80,115    Running        
33    22    14    Tony Stewart    Rush Truck Centers Chevrolet    265    11        54.5    $105,779    Running        
34    23    10    Danica Patrick    GoDaddy Chevrolet    265    10        51.6    $86,515    Running        
35    1    42    Kyle Larson    Target Chevrolet    265    9        74.7    $112,373    Running        
36    42    62    Reed Sorenson    Chevrolet    264    9    1    33.6    $78,410    Running    1    1
37    33    35    Cole Whitt    Kentucky Fried Chicken Ford    264    7        36.7    $78,352    Running        
38    40    32    Will Kimmel III    CorvetteParts.net Ford    263    6        29.9    $73,752    Running        
39    41    23    JJ Yeley(i)    TraqGear/Coolshirt Toyota    260    0        30.4    $69,680    Running        
40    43    33    Alex Kennedy #    Chevrolet    247    4        25.4    $65,680    Running        
41    35    26    Jeb Burton #    Maxim Fantasy Sports Toyota    175    3        35.0    $61,680    Suspension        
42    39    83    Matt DiBenedetto #    Anest Iwata Toyota    145    2        30.5    $57,680    Accident        
43    37    98    Josh Wise    Big Red Ford    17    1        24.2    $54,180    Accident        
 Race Comments:    Kyle Busch won the Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts, his 31st career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. Prior to the start of the race, no cars dropped to the rear of the field.
 Failed to Qualify:    (3) 21, 95, 30.
 Time of Race:    3 Hrs, 05 Mins, 42 Secs.    Average Speed:    129.402 MPH    Margin of Victory:    1.594 Seconds
 Caution Flags:    11 for 49 laps: Laps: 20-23 (#23, 98 accident turns 3 & 4 [32]); 32-35 (Competition [33]); 82-86 (Debris turn 4 [None]); 100-104 (#41 spin turn 4 [6]); 123-128 (#23 accident turn 4 [11]); 137-140 (#88 accident turn 3 [51]); 144-146 (#14,17, 26, 83 accident turn 2 [13]); 153-156 (Debris turn 4 [62]); 187-191 (Debris turn 3 [34]); 208-212 (#10 accident turn 4 [46]); 221-224 (#42 accident turn 2 [None]).
 Lead Changes:    13 among 8 drivers:  0; B. Keselowski 1-32; R. Sorenson 33; Kyle Busch 34-94; B. Keselowski 95-124; Kyle Busch 125-188; R. Newman 189-190; Kyle Busch 191-208; A. Bowman 209-210; D. Hamlin 211-212; C. Edwards 213; D. Hamlin 214-224; J. Logano 225-247; Kyle Busch 248-267.
Chase Grid Outlook:     1.J. Johnson 624 (4 wins);2.K. Harvick 692 (2);3.D. Earnhardt Jr. 616 (2);4.J. Logano 624 (1);5.M. Truex Jr. 596 (1);6.B. Keselowski 559 (1);7.M. Kenseth 540 (1);8.D. Hamlin 522 (1);9.C. Edwards 449 (1);10.J. Mcmurray 556 (0);11.J. Gordon 537 (0);12.K. Kahne 513 (0);13.P. Menard 509 (0);14.R. Newman 497 (0);15.C. Bowyer 490 (0);16.A. Almirola 473 (0).
3M Lap Leader    : Kyle Busch, #18 163 Laps    American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award    : Carl Edwards, #19
Coors Light Pole Award    : Kyle Larson, #42 0 mph    Coors Light Pole Award    : Not Awarded, #
Duralast Brakes "Brake in the Race"    : Brad Keselowski, #2     Freescale "Wide Open"    : Matt Kenseth, #20
Ingersoll Rand Power Move    : Ryan Newman, #31 3 positions    Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race    : Toyota Racing Development (TRD), #18
Mobil 1 Driver of the Race    : Kyle Busch, #18     Moog Chassis Parts Problem Solver of the Race    : Carl Edwards, #19 D. Grubb, .302 sec
Sherwin-Williams Fastest Lap    : Carl Edwards, #19     Sunoco Rookie of the Race    : Brett Moffitt, #34
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race:    Jul. 19, 2015 - New Hampshire Motor Speedway
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