Denny Hamlin won Sunday’s running of the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Rookie Daniel Hemric began the day on the pole after scoring his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole of his career. As Kyle Larson moved to the front of the field two chase hopefuls were left dealing with damage to their cars in the early laps of the race as both Alex Bowman and Joey Logano both had early incidents.
An accident involving teammates Ryan Newman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. brought out a late stage caution which allowed Joey Logano to stay out on old tires and score 10 points for winning the stage.
Martin Truex assumed the lead for stage two with a caution coming out near the halfway point when Joey Gase spun in front of Larson. A throttle problem on Kyle Busch’s car would interject some conern about his ability to advance on in the playoffs. Denny Hamlin would go onto win the second stage of the race.
Ryan Blaney reemerged as a threat climbing to second on lap 171 of the race. Busch would move up to second passing Blaney on lap 192 while others began to question how many points they needed to advance. One driver who was feeling pressure for points was Brad Keselowski who found himself sliding back in the field before losing a lap to the leaders on lap 39. Subsequently Alex Bowman would lose a lap adding to Keselowski’s frustration on the day.
Busch began to inch closer to Hamlin and with 20 to go it became clear the checkered flag would not be handed out before he had a say in who won the race. As Hamlin clicked off laps, Elliott was unable to wheel anyone in to make up ground in the standings.
Blaney would hit the wall with 16 to go and as his tire came apart the caution flag came out to the advantage of Elliott with decisions to be made for the rest of the field as well. Elliott would get four tires while Keselowski was forced to take the wave around as the other lapped cars ahead of him stayed out. Elliott would move up making some passes on the ensuing restart while Keselowski struggled to stay ahead of other lapped cars. Elliott would take second and then pressure Hamlin for the win before a caution came out with four to go. The race went to overtime as Keselowski made up ground on points in the pits. Elliott fell to third on the restart as a caution came out before the white flag came out resulting in damage to Logano who now suddenly found himself in risk of missing the playoffs.
Hamlin would win the race but Keselowski lost multiple positions and ended up outside the top 8 in points giving Elliott a playoff berth.
With wins in earlier races in the round of 12, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney ensured themselves of moving into the Round of 8. Joining them is Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano.
Failing to move onto the next round are Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Clint Bowyer and William Byron.
NASCAR Cup Series Kansas Speedway Results
- Denny Hamlin
- Chase Elliott
- Kyle Busch
- Kurt Busch
- William Byron
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Erik Jones
- Clint Bowyer
- Kevin Harvick
- Jimmie Johnson
- Alex Bowman
- Ryan Preece
- Chris Buescher
- Kyle Larson
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Joey Logano
- Paul Menard
- Brad Keselowski
- Austin Dillon
- Ryan Blaney
- Ty Dillon
- Aric Almirola
- Michael McDowell
- Matt Tifft
- David Ragan
- Ross Chastain
- Corey LaJoie
- Parker Kligerman
- JJ Yeley
- Daniel Hemric
- Daniel Suarez
- Reed Sorenson
- Bubba Wallace
- Garrett Smithley
- Josh Bilicki
- Landon Cassill
- Joey Gase
- Timmy Hill
- Ryan Newman
