Chase Elliott settled into the outside lane going to the line behind several cars for the final restart in the Hollywood Casino 400 NASCAR Cup Series race on Sept. 28 in Kansas City, Kansas.
The No. 9 Chevrolet had run near the front for most of the day, but took four tires on the final pit stop with less than 15 laps to go, while others took two tires in front of him.
After a couple of quick restarts followed by cautions, Elliott settled into 10th for the final restart, utilized the outside lane at the top through Turns 1 and 2 to make a couple of passes, then passed Chase Briscoe inside the top five as the two crossed the line to take the white flag.
Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin were primed for a last-lap battle for the lead in front of him, with Christopher Bell also pushing for more.
As Wallace and Hamlin leaned on each into Turn 3 on the final lap, Elliott took to the bottom lane, ensured that he could make the car stick and drove off the final corner at full throttle.
Elliott won the drag race to the finish line and locked into the Round of 8 in what has to be the finish of the season.
And it’s no surprise it came at Kansas, which has featured the best racing of the Next Gen era.
Here are the winners and losers from the NASCAR Kansas race:
NASCAR Kansas winners and losers: Chase Elliott takes advantage of Toyota’s blunder to win at Kansas
Elliott was a surprise winner, but not because he wasn’t among the contenders all day. In fact, the No. 9 led for a chunk of time early in the final stage before ceding the top spot with a car better in the short run than a long one.
With the late caution at about 15 laps to go, crew chief Alan Gustafson (a winner for the second straight week) opted to put four fresh tires on during the final pit stop while others took two.
Elliott played the final half-mile perfectly, scraping past Hamlin while Wallace tried not to wreck coming off the final corner. For a driver who had been consistent for most of the season but not necessarily a consistent contender, Elliott sure looked like he knew what to do to get the checkered flag.
In the next round, Talladega is always a tricky one and a place where Ryan Blaney and the Penske team have been very good recently. But Elliott should be competitive at Las Vegas and Martinsville, and he already has won a championship race at Phoenix in his career.
Blaney is still the championship favorite, but Elliott has a clear path to Phoenix.
Joey Logano had an eventful weekend that featured a bad practice day Sept. 27 and qualifying and an unsatisfying 21st-place finish.
But the No. 22 took full advantage of stage points in Stage 1 and 2 to keep above the playoff cutline heading to the Charlotte Roval.
Logano started 35th after a slow qualifying lap following an issue in practice, then drove up to 7th in the first stage and matching the result in the second stage.
Those eight points are likely to loom large next week. Logano and teammate/playoff driver Austin Cindric were involved in a multi-car crash with 52 laps to go on a chaotic restart.
The No. 22 Ford didn’t have too much damage, but Logano was forced to pit and work through the back half of the lead pack in the final 45 laps. He never returned to the top 10.
Logano is eighth in points going into next week’s elimination race, 13 points ahead of Ross Chastain. Logano has work to do, but he did enough at Kansas to maximize what could have been a miserable weekend.
While the Elliott maneuvering produced the biggest result of the day, the top story was in the Toyota camp between Hamlin and Wallace.
Going into the final overtime finish, it would have been surprising to see a non-Toyota threaten for the victory, much less take the trophy. But the Toyotas helped out the competition.
Hamlin and Wallace could have stayed off of one another instead of going door-to-door through the final turns, leaving it to whomever had the faster corner to win the race. That would have given one Toyota a win and the other a runner-up finish and a solid points day. Hamlin was going to victory lane either way, given he co-owns Wallace’s No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota.
But the physical racing opened the door for Elliott. Hamlin should be OK on points for advancement into the Round of 8, but this was a big missed opportunity. And you could hear Hamlin’s disappointment during his postrace interview.
Had the two drivers been able to pause the race at the final lap, get on the radio and talk it out, surely both Hamlin and Wallace would have agreed that the best result for both would be a clean finish — and a bonus would have been a Wallace victory.
Yes, it’s difficult to see a veteran like Hamlin not going 100% for a victory, but the Kansas finish was not smart racing from either driver.
The result most harmed Wallace’s playoff points dynamic. A win would have locked Wallace into the Round of 8; he now has a 26-point deficit to the cutline with one race (Charlotte Roval) remaining in the current round before elimination.
And Wallace’s road-course history doesn’t fill one with confidence that he can make those points up next week.
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