Chase Elliott emerged the winner from a wild final restart in double overtime at Kansas Speedway, zooming from 10th to first in the final two laps for his second victory of the season.
NASCAR’s seven-time Most Popular Driver advanced to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs by beating Denny Hamlin by 0.069 seconds. Christopher Bell was third, followed by Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace, who led the six laps prior to hitting the wall after taking the white flag.
The last lap began as a scramble with Wallace trying to hold off the three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas of Hamlin, Bell and Briscoe. Wallace managed to keep the lead until the backstretch when Hamlin, who co-owns Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota with Michael Jordan, got position beneath the 23XI Racing driver.
Denny Hamlin came up short of his 60th victory despite leading a race-high 159 laps.
Hamlin squeezed Wallace into the Turn 4 wall, and Elliott swept past both cars off the last corner on the apron to take the checkered flag on Lap 273 (six laps past the scheduled distance).
“Everything worked out perfect for me,” Elliott told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider after ending a 12-race winless drought and delivering Chevrolet its first win of the playoffs. “Had a great push through (turns) 1 and 2. That kind of all started with (Brad Keselowski). Big run off of 2. Seas kind of parted and just was able to keep my momentum up. That was really it.”
Elliott had the benefit of being the only top-five finisher who took four tires on his final stop with 12 laps remaining.
Playoffs at Kansas provide white-knuckle OT finish
Watch the exciting finish to the NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Kansas Speedway that saw Chase Elliott capitalize on Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin battling hard on the final lap.
“Obviously, we still had pretty good tires compared to those guys, but what a crazy finish,” he said. “Hope you all enjoyed that. I certainly did. Really proud of our team.”
Elliott qualified fourth at Kansas and backed it up with his first win since June 28 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The Hendrick Motorsports star led twice for 24 laps in the No. 9 Chevy for his 21st career victory.
“Had a really solid weekend, win or no win,” he said. “Really nice to qualify really well. We’ll certainly enjoy this, man. This is pretty cool. Just never take this stuff for granted because they’re hard to come by. Learned that the hard way. Always enjoy it. Always appreciate it.”
NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver went from 10th to first on the final restart to beat Denny Hamlin.
Hamlin led a race-high 159 laps and came up just short of claiming his 60th career victory despite battling a power steering problem for about the last 60 laps.
The JGR star lost control of the race during his stop on the Lap 255 as his jack man struggled to lift the car on a two-tire pit stop. Hamlin dropped from first to sixth for the first of three restarts in the final 14 laps.
“Just super disappointing,” Hamlin told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “I wanted it bad. It would have been 60 (wins) for me. The team just did an amazing job with the car, just really, really fast. Gave me everything I needed. Got the restart I needed. Just couldn’t finish it there on the last corner. Obviously got really, really tight with (Wallace), and it just got real tight, and we let (Elliott) win.
Chase Elliott beat Denny Hamlin by .069 seconds at Kansas Speedway.
“Yeah, just mechanical failures and different things have really hindered us in years past, and we had no power steering that last run. Low voltage. Just a lot of things and just disappointing because I don’t think I’ve ever had a car that good to the competition. Man, I wanted it for my dad. I wanted it for everybody. Just wanted it a little too hard.”
Wallace led 13 of the final 15 laps as Toyotas paced all but 39 laps Sunday at Kansas. At the halfway mark of the 10-race playoffs, Toyota has led 1,124 of the 1,681 laps (Ford is ranked second among manufacturers with 386 laps led).
“To even have a shot at the win with the way we started, you could have fooled me,” he told NBC Sports’ Kim Coon. “We were not good. We missed it on the fire-off speed. I just really appreciate the team. Two years ago, I’d probably say something dumb (about Hamlin like), ‘He’s a dumbass for that move. I don’t care if he’s my boss or not.’ But we’re going for the win. I hate that we gave it to Chevrolet there.
“Toyotas were super fast and proud to be driving one. I thought it was meant to be, and then it wasn’t.”
Despite his best finish since winning at the Brickyard 400 in July, Wallace still heads into the Oct. 5 second-round finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in danger of elimination. He is ranked 10th, 26 points below the cutline (and behind Ross Chastain, who trails the cutline by 13 points).
Tyler Reddick, Wallace’s 23XI Racing teammate, is ranked 29 points below the cutline despite a seventh at Kansas.
Though Ryan Blaney is locked into advancing by his win at New Hampshire, Team Penske’s other two playoff drivers aren’t safe. Defending series champion Joey Logano finished 21st and is 13 points above the cutline. Austin Cindric is in must-win territory at the Roval after finishing 30th and falling 45 points behind.
Chastain, Logano and Cindric were all collected in a nine-car wreck on a Lap 217 restart.
Stage 1 winner: Hamlin
Stage 2 winner: Hamlin
Next: Sunday, Oct. 5, 3 p.m. ET at Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on USA
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