BRISTOL, Tenn.

After four rain delays and 11 extra laps, Matt Kenseth finally drove to victory lane.

It took him nine hours to get there Sunday at a water-logged Bristol Motor Speedway.

Kenseth snapped a 51-race losing streak by holding off Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson on one final restart in NASCAR’s determined effort to stage a complete race.

Kenseth, a seven-race winner in his 2013 debut season with Joe Gibbs Racing, was winless all last year.

The final stoppage came when the race had already surpassed the scheduled 500 laps, but a quick rain shower had stalled NASCAR’s attempt to race to the checkered flag following an accident with eight laps remaining.

Kenseth, the pole-sitter, got a terrific jump on the restart. He wasn’t challenged in part because Gordon had a poor restart.

Johnson slid past Gordon to take second place, and Gordon finished third.

The race had a series of hiccups unrelated to the rain stoppages: Austin Dillon ran out of gas while running third because of the lengthy final caution, Denny Hamlin didn’t get back in his car after the first rain break because of a kink in his neck, and the two Team Penske drivers wrecked each other just 20 laps after the start.

Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch were in contention until they wrecked following a restart eight laps from the scheduled finish, and Busch put together his strong run with an interim crew chief because Tony Gibson couldn’t leave his motorhome due to pain from a kidney stone.

Kyle Larson, while leading, had a miscue with a pair of cars a lap down and the chaos it created sent Landon Cassill hard into the wall.

Hamlin, meanwhile, said he felt something strain in his neck 12 laps into the race. The race was stopped for rain on Lap 22, and Hamlin went to his motorhome to see if he could get his neck to feel better. Instead, it stiffened and he was hardly able to turn his head when NASCAR summoned drivers back to their cars.

Because Hamlin won last month at Martinsville, he’s already earned a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship and didn’t see the point in getting back into his No. 11 if he wasn’t going to be competitive.