The twists and turns of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval will be the site of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12 finale on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
With Chase Elliott’s electric win at Kansas Speedway, two postseason drivers have officially clinched a Round of 8 berth heading into the Charlotte Roval bout; Ryan Blaney claimed the first at New Hampshire Motor Speedway the weekend prior. Ross Chastain (minus-13), Bubba Wallace (minus-26), Tyler Reddick (minus-29) and Austin Cindric (minus-48) all sit below the provisional playoff line and will need to put on a top-flight performance to avoid elimination following the Round of 12’s conclusion.
Josh Bilicki makes his sixth Cup start of the season this weekend as pilot of the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford. The Wisconsin native raced on Charlotte’s oval configuration in May, finishing 33rd in the crown-jewel Coca-Cola 600.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs Round of 8 begins at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, with the series’ inaugural race on the Queen City’s road course slated for Friday afternoon (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The Charlotte Roval is the first of three Round of 8 contests, with Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway to follow in the coming weeks.
For the second time this season, Xfinity Series regular and road-course magician Connor Zilisch returns to the Truck Series, with the 19-year-old sensation driving the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in a double-duty affair.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports crew ate barbecue ribs in the setting autumn sunshine Sunday at Kansas Speedway. The sauce-slathered delicacy — provided by local purveyor Jack Stack — is a relatively new Victory Lane tradition at the 1.5-mile track, and Chase Elliott and track president Pat Warren shared the first bites as the camera shutters from the press clicked away.
There was plenty to go around, though, after Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400, a race won in dazzling fashion with a captivating 10th-to-first sprint in overtime by the 29-year-old driver that splintered Toyota’s short-lived monopoly on the top five on the final lap. Elliott’s powder-blue Chevrolet sat in front of the winner’s stage, pockmarked by the grit and grime from 400-plus miles on one of NASCAR’s most competitive tracks.
Ribs and champagne might not seem like a tailor-made food pairing, but for No. 9 jackman T.J. Semke, that taste meant everything. The former Kansas University football walk-on grew up in Lee’s Summit, Missouri — 5 o’clock on the dial to downtown Kansas City, and a roughly 40-minute drive to the west-of-town speedway. He has Kansas City’s NFL team logo tattooed on his chest and named his dog Chief, naturally. So the post-race grub that he grew up on was not just celebratory, but also educational for the rest of the No. 9 crew.
“You know, bottles and barbecue is a great combo,” Semke said, just after posing for photos with his brothers in Victory Lane. “But you tell these guys from North Carolina, from wherever they’re from about this Kansas City barbecue, and they … just … don’t … get it. So I was excited that they got to have a big slab of ribs in their face, sauce all over, doing it right in Kansas City.”
The sweet-heat taste was everywhere Sunday, and drivers and teams left the Sunflower State with a grab bag of results and outlooks for the rest of the Cup Series Playoffs spanning both sides of the flavor spectrum. One team had ribs. The others had the bones to pick.
* * *
Bubba Wallace entered Sunday’s race as a former Kansas winner, but one who was left smarting from a 26th-place effort the weekend before at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The finish left him at the bottom of the playoff standings, with 27 points to make up to avoid elimination. Wallace said he stewed on the result for a few hours as he traveled home, but quickly moved past those blighted feelings, and his Saturday demeanor was relaxed but focused.
In past years, Wallace said the stress would have gotten to him. He’s made a 180-degree turn since.
He compared last weekend’s blip to playing a round of golf with a tour-level player, then watching that pro make an unforced error that demonstrates that they’re mortal. That’s the message he had for his 23XI Racing team after New Hampshire. We’re human. We just showed that to the rest of the Cup Series field. “So the next thing we’ve got to do is walk back up to the tee box and get ready to swing again,” Wallace said Saturday. “So today is our tee box.”
Sunday’s effort represented a big swing from Wallace that would have rated high in a long-drive contest. His No. 23 Toyota missed the handle early but came to life late, and Wallace guided it into the scoring pylon’s upper reaches just as the purse was ready to be paid out. A win would make that points deficit mathematically moot. When the field lined up for overtime, Wallace was the control car in the lead. The low-pressure approach he entered the weekend with was about to get a late-race jolt of motivation over the No. 23 team radio.
“You tell that (expletive) I’m talking about MJ from the free-throw line slam.”
“Message delivered.”
“… Take what’s yours.”
But then, here we go again. A version of the New Hampshire race’s intrasquad schism that pitted Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs in opposite corners a week ago flared anew in Kansas. This time, the drama again had Hamlin as a protagonist in the No. 11 he drives for JGR, but against the No. 23 Toyota he co-owns with famed free-throw-line dunker Michael Jordan, with Wallace behind the wheel of the friendly opposition in an allied 23XI Racing entry. That “how do you race your teammate” story line burbled all week. But now, Toyotas occupied all of the top five positions in relative harmony, and the team brass wanted to keep it that way.
Wallace had the upper hand for most of the two-lap dash to the end, parrying challenges by Toyota mates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe while Hamlin moved close enough to strike. Hamlin crossed Wallace over for the final set of corners, then carried his employee up to the limits of the Turn 3 wall. As they made contact, the high-side momentum for both slowed while Elliott steamed forward in the low lane. Broadside contact with Hamlin’s No. 11 couldn’t keep Elliott from getting to the line first. For the fourth straight Kansas race, a Chevrolet team had dinner reservations for ribs in the center of the track. “That’s what’s frustrating the most,” said Wallace, who was last of the Toyota drivers placing second through fifth.
“We race hard every week. Toyota drivers race really hard every week, but we respect each other,” Wallace said, “and there’s a fine line that sometimes gets crossed, and you have to understand that.”
There appeared to be at least some understanding in the immediate aftermath. Wallace and Hamlin both leaned on their cars after unbuckling post-race, decompressing without any measure of confrontation. After a cooling-off period and a round or two with the media, Wallace walked over and told Hamlin “good job” with a brief embrace, clapping his hand on his back.
Hamlin had his own aspirations, a task made far more difficult with the loss of nearly all of the power steering on his No. 11 Toyota in the final stage and a slight misstep on his final pit stop. Playoff advancement would be a big-picture bonus, but foremost on the list of goals was a milestone 60th win at the track where he made his Cup Series debut in 2005. Balancing the outcomes of the team he drives for versus the team he owns was the fine line he stepped over, but Hamlin maximized his performance as he has so many times in his 20th big-league season with 59 victories so far.
“If the 23 knocks him out, if the 23 wins, Joe Gibbs Racing is in a lot worse points scenario, let alone the 11. There’s a 20-some-point swing there, and Joe Gibbs Racing built his legacy as a driver,” said JGR competition director Chris Gabehart, Hamlin’s former crew chief. “And so I’m just … I hate it for the 23, but I’m so proud of Denny for giving it all he had. I think he’s in a tough spot here as the owner and driver on every given Sunday, because that microscope’s on him, and today he passed the test. I don’t know how else you look at it. As a driver of our cars — set aside the emotions of an alliance — as a driver of our cars, I don’t want anything less than what I just saw.”
* * *
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Pit stall 41 at Kansas Speedway is the last of the bunch by number, but the first one that drivers approach on their pit-road entry as they peel off Turn 4. The unimpeded path it provides for pit-stop service makes it an attractive choice, but the No. 9 crew had other reasons for wanting it.
A fourth-place qualifying effort by Elliott on Saturday afternoon afforded crew chief Alan Gustafson that luxury when it came time to pick.
“Coming here in the spring, we were in the same exact pit stall,” Semke said. “We had a bad stop that ultimately cost us the race, and I told Alan earlier this week, if we get a chance to get that same stall, I want some redemption. We got the exact same stall, got what we wanted, we laid down a great race and came out with the victory. So, damn it feels good.”
Redemption came in the form of consistent stops in the nine-second range, a rinse-repeat efficiency that gave the No. 9 crew the day’s top ranking and solidified its season-long No. 1 perch, according to NASCAR Insights analytics. But it also took shape thanks to a clever call from Gustafson to set Elliott up for overtime success. The final pit cycle landed under caution on Lap 255 — 12 laps to go in regulation and with two overtimes yet to come.
Gustafson opted for four fresh Goodyear tires while other front-runners took two. Elliott entered the pits in fourth place and exited in eighth, a drop in position chalked up to the extra time required for full service. The No. 9 was the first car to leave pit road on that strategy, and the redemption arc that the over-the-wall group so dearly wanted was then in Elliott’s hands.
“I think the key is we just all stick together and work through it, and those guys are performing at a super, super high level,” Gustafson said of the No. 9 pit crew. “… Yeah, do I think it was in the back of everybody’s mind that we wanted to atone for that? Sure. But I think the bigger picture, we’re focusing on the bigger picture and we want to try to win every week. Yeah, super proud of those guys. They deserve a lot of credit. They don’t get the credit they deserve. They’ve done an amazing job.
“I don’t know where they rank — everybody’s got a different metric — but they’re really high on the sheet every week, and I’m proud of them. They were, in my opinion, the best crew on pit road all day today and a huge part of our win.”
In the end, Elliott delivered on at least two things he discussed during media day a month ago before the playoffs began. “Consistency’s great,” he said Aug. 27, “but it’s not the end goal by any stretch.” That rang true in one of his radio exchanges with Gustafson before the last restart. When the veteran crew chief talked over the potential playoff implications of a Wallace win and how it might alter the elimination line, Elliott shot back to say forget the bubble. A win, even lined up at the back end of the top 10, was within reach.
Elliott also reiterated verbatim a pre-playoffs point he’d made five weeks ago: “A lot can happen in 10 weeks.” He noted that the length of the postseason allows for teams to have surges of success and cold patches, with enough time for the performance to undulate between each extreme. After a sweep of the opening three-race round, it appeared Toyota might boat-race the playoff field. Two-thirds through the Round of 12 and exactly halfway through the full 10-race bracket, that manufacturer balance has had some leveling.
Elliott caught one of those warming swells just right Sunday, earning another three races of playoff eligibility in the next round.
“What did I tell you? Playoffs is a long time. A lot can happen in 10 weeks,” Elliott said. “That can be the difference in somebody being mediocre to potentially getting on a hot streak or even a team collectively getting better throughout that course of time. So it’s all about buying yourself more time. If you’re not where you want to be, you’re just trying to buy yourself more time. Fortunately, we bought ourself three more weeks, and we’ll fight like hell until they tell us to not.”
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Hendrick Motorsports arrived in the Heartland with speed and determination to counter the dominance Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske have shown through the first four NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs races.
Chase Elliott’s late victory and Kyle Larson’s steady sixth-place finish proved the organization had plenty of firepower up front. But the bigger storyline may have been William Byron, the 2025 Regular Season Champion, who finished ninth after never truly being a factor on a track that should have suited his strengths.
Byron voiced his frustration all afternoon on a track that he and crew chief Rudy Fugle felt should’ve played into their hands.
“I just have no speed. … I’m just super-slow. I don’t know what to do,” Byron said over the No. 24’s radio at the end of Stage 2, adding later: “We clearly are missing something bad.”
“I know, just keep fighting here,” Fugle responded after he called for wholesale adjustments that brought Byron within the top 15 in the final stage.
“We struggled there at the beginning,” Byron said post-race. “We missed something, but we made a bunch of changes and came to life there in the final stage. I’m not sure … It was really confusing, honestly.”
Confusing is one way to put it. For much of the race, Byron hovered outside the top 20, failing to score stage points and visibly lacking the speed that defined his regular-season consistency. In the last true intermediate race — the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway — Byron was dominant as he swept all three stages and finished second in the crown-jewel event.
Yet, on a day when his teammates were showing signs of returning to championship form, Byron was left searching for answers.
“It sucks that we’re having to throw Hail Marys this time of year … we don’t want to do that,” Byron said. “But this team is resilient. We weren’t going to give up. The fact of the matter was that we had to fix it and work on it. We just had to try a bunch of stuff, and we got the car going in the right direction. I could carry speed and do the things we needed to do there at the end.”
That resilience salvaged a decent finish, but it didn’t erase the mystery. Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports’ vice chairman and Hall of Fame driver who once piloted the No. 24, was candid in his assessment.
“The 24 was the one that was kind of the eye opener today. They were pretty far off,” Gordon said. “They come out of here with a top 10 because they didn’t give up either. That one’s got (us) scratching our heads, and we’ll go back and diagnose what they went through and why they were in that position.”
Gordon’s concern is warranted. In the last eight races, Byron has only three top-10 finishes and five laps led. However, Kansas was supposed to be a momentum builder, not a setback, instead uncovering more concerns about whether Byron can return to the Championship 4 for a third consecutive year.
“This late in the season, this stage and round in the playoffs, it’s so important to get some things to go your way,” Gordon said, “to give you that extra incentive or just extra motivation to go win a championship and believe that you can do it.”
Momentum is everything in the playoffs. The back-to-back Daytona 500 champion knows that better than anyone. But Sunday’s race felt like a missed opportunity — not just for points, but for confidence to close out the Round of 12.
Now, the pressure shifts to the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), a road course where Byron has shown flashes of brilliance. A strong run there is essential, not just to advance but to reset the tone heading into Las Vegas Motor Speedway — another 1.5-mile track that looms large to open the Round of 8.
There’s no panic in the 24 camp, but there is urgency, the kind that comes when a championship-caliber team finds itself off-kilter at the worst possible time. Kansas didn’t break Byron’s playoff hopes as he sits above the cutline with a 40-point cushion, but it does make this weekend’s Roval race important not to let one troublesome weekend turn into two.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s fall trip to Riverhead Raceway has carried plenty of sentimental value over the past few seasons.
Riverhead’s longtime co-owner Eddie Partridge passed away in 2021 shortly after his team won a Modified Tour race at Richmond Raceway with Ryan Preece. To honor his memory, the fall Tour event at Riverhead was renamed the Eddie Partridge 256, all while a replica of Partridge’s car remains suspended over the track.
During his time overseeing the speedway, Partridge built upon everything that made Riverhead successful since it opened in 1951. Partridge’s legacy lives on through the current owners in his widow Connie Partridge and Tom Gatz, as Riverhead remains a staple of motorsports culture in the northeast with two Modified Tour events a year.
Many talented names like Mike Stefanik, Richie Evans, Donny Lia, Ted Christopher and others have won at Riverhead over the years. Saturday’s race will feature an even mix of Modified Tour regulars and local Riverhead heroes, all of whom look to secure a victory in honor of Partridge.
Below is everything to know ahead of the 14th race of the 2025 Modified Tour schedule.
Since 2022, the fall NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at Riverhead Raceway has been named after the track’s late co-owner, Eddie Partridge. (Photo: Mike Lawrence/NASCAR)
Eddie Partridge 256 at Riverhead Raceway
No NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour competitor has earned more victories at Riverhead than four-time series champion Justin Bonsignore.
Riverhead was the site of Bonsignore’s debut on the Modified Tour in 2007, when he finished fourth out of 28 cars. Since that day, Bonsignore has found Victory Lane at Riverhead on 12 different occasions. In June, he broke the previous record of 11 held by Mike Ewanitsko.
Following a runner-up finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway two weekends ago, Bonsignore is now just seven points behind Austin Beers in the battle for the 2025 championship. A 13th Riverhead win would be a huge boost to his championship hopes.
Among the drivers expected to stand in the way of Bonsignore on Saturday night is his long-time Modified Tour rival Ron Silk. A three-time Riverhead winner, Silk has engaged in numerous clashes with Bonsignore at the facility, including last year’s Eddie Partridge 256 when Silk prevailed after late contact with his rival.
Beers enters Saturday’s Eddie Partridge 256 with a narrow seven-point advantage over Bonsignore in the Modified Tour standings. Although Beers struggled at Riverhead during the early days of his career, he has improved at the facility in recent years with three top-five finishes, including a runner-up result in 2024.
Craig Lutz, Matt Hirschman and Patrick Emerling enter Saturday’s race in a dog fight over third in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings. All three are still in the race for the championship and a win by any of them could significantly close the gap to Beers and Bonsignore.
Speaking of Hirschman, the 10-time series winner will make his 150th career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start on Saturday night.
The complete entry list for the Eddie Partridge 256 is available here.
Everyone at Riverhead Raceway will be chasing Justin Bonsignore on Saturday evening as he pursues a 13th NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win at the facility. (Photo: Mike Lawrence/NASCAR)
SCHEDULE: Saturday, Oct. 4; Practice from 3:30 – 3:55 p.m. ET … Final practice from 4:05 – 4:35 p.m. ET … Qualifying at 6:15 p.m. ET … Start of the Eddie Partridge 256 at 8 p.m. ET.
RE-DRAW: The fastest qualifier will spin the wheel to determined the number of drivers that will re-draw for their starting positions: 4, 6, 8, or 10 positions will re-draw. Once the fastest qualifier spins the wheel, NASCAR will have the various buckets ready to immediately start the re-draw procedure. Driver will re-draw in their qualifying order after qualifying has been completed (1 through 10, or however many are applicable). The pole position and/or any bonus point(s), if applicable, will be awarded to the fastest qualifier and will be the pole of record. If, due to adverse conditions, qualifying is canceled, the field will be set in accordance with the 2025 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Rule Book.
QUALIFYING: Two consecutive qualifying laps. (EIRI) Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for The Eddie Partridge 256 is limited to 26 starters including Provisional Positions.
TIRE ALLOTMENT: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is eight (8) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is one (1) tire per stop. Maximum of three (3) crew members are permitted in the car servicing area during a pit stop.
The intensity of the Cup Series Playoffs doesn’t get any better, and there will be drama leading in and throughout elimination weekend as the circuit returns to North Carolina with the Round of 12 elimination race next Sunday at the Charlotte Roval (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). From a dominant performance that went for naught to a thrilling overtime finish, let’s take a closer look at playoff drivers who improved their footing at Kansas Speedway and who will need to rally before the Roval.
WINNER
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. One of the prime examples of ‘where did he come from?’ After taking four tires on the final stop, the 2020 series champion found himself in the latter half of the top 10. It was already a great points day for the No. 9 team, but they were given a gift as another yellow forced double OT and Elliott sliced through four Toyotas, contacting Denny Hamlin off Turn 4 to score his second win of 2025. Elliott joins Ryan Blaney in the Round of 8, and both can just sit back and watch the chaos unfold on the left- and right-turn Charlotte course next Sunday.
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. On paper, it was a near-perfect day for the No. 11 team. They led a race-high 159 laps and swept both stages. However, multiple drivers took the fight for the lead from Hamlin all race long, and Hamlin reported steering issues as the race wound down. Pit-road demons also reared their ugly head, but through it all, the 44-year-old put himself in a position to take the checkered flag on the final lap. A tight car in the middle of Turns 3 and 4 resulted in Hamlin putting his co-owned No. 23 car into the wall, and Elliott had the momentum to side swipe the No. 11 and pass Hamlin at the checkered flag with a narrow 0.069-second victory.
Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota. Kansas is going to be a what-could-have-been for Wallace as a victory slipped through his grasp on the final corner. An ill-handling race car from the jump mired Wallace outside the top 15 for most of Stage 1, but the No. 23 pit crew worked on the car throughout the race to put Wallace in a position to score points in Stage 2, and ultimately, a shot at a ticket to the Round of 8. Despite the top-five result, Wallace only gained a point on the cutline, and a 26-point deficit ahead of the Roval is going to be near must-win territory.
WHO’S NOT?
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. A ninth-place finish rarely gets you down here, but Byron had a miserable Sunday at Kansas, minus what the end result says. The Regular Season Champion ran outside the top 20 and was nowhere close to competitive at the 1.5-mile oval, nearly falling a lap down on multiple occasions. However, a handful of late cautions put Byron in a position to maximize the result and hold a 40-point cushion heading to the Roval, where he’s scored consecutive top-five results.
Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford. A disastrous Saturday looked like it would be a setup for failure during the race, but a special from crew chief Paul Wolfe to put on two tires for a late Stage 1 restart gave Logano second life as he took four points in the first two stages. However, Logano was collected in a multicar incident on Lap 218 that knocked his result down to 21st. Logano has just a 13-point cushion on Ross Chastain at the playoff cutline, but the three-time champ’s Roval numbers are pretty stout with an 8.6 average finish.
BUBBLE WATCH
RANK
DRIVER
+/-
4
Denny Hamlin
+48
5
Christopher Bell
+44
6
William Byron
+40
7
Chase Briscoe
+21
8
Joey Logano
+13
CUTLINE
9
Ross Chastain
-13
10
Bubba Wallace
-26
11
Tyler Reddick
-29
12
Austin Cindric
-48
NASCAR INSIGHTS
Thirty-fifth place. According to NASCAR Insights, Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 pit crew had the third-worst day at Kansas, which found Reddick restarting at the rear of the field on multiple occasions. Reddick still managed to finish seventh, but goes to an elimination race minus-29 to the cutline, where he may need a victory to advance. If Reddick is to win at the Roval, he’ll need his pit crew to pick up the slack and have better communication on who’s pitting around him to avoid the same mistakes from Sunday.
QUOTABLE
“Just mechanical failures and different things have really hindered us in years past. We had no power steering on the last run and low voltage, just a lot of things. I’m just disappointed because I’ve never had a car that good to the competition. I wanted it for my dad, I wanted it for everybody. I wanted it a little too hard.” — Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, on the difficulty of solving Kansas.
NEXT RACE
It’s time to cut four more drivers and build out the semifinal round of the 2025 Cup Series Playoffs. The Charlotte Roval has produced its fair share of drama and walk-off winners from beneath the cutline. Coming off a Kansas top 10, Shane van Gisbergen will no doubt be a favorite to play spoiler, while 2023 Roval winner AJ Allmendinger will look to do the same. Of the playoff drivers not locked into the Round of 8 just yet, only Kyle Larson and Bell own victories at the road course/oval hybrid.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Denny Hamlin had only one thing on his mind during the final lap at Kansas Speedway: “Winning 60.”
That dictated how he handled the final restart in NASCAR Overtime. But when the checkered flag waved, it was Hamlin falling short to Chase Elliott by a mere 0.069 seconds in the middle race of the Round of 12 after last-corner contact with Bubba Wallace foiled any chance he had of cementing his name alongside Kevin Harvick for 10th on the all-time Cup Series wins list.
Hamlin flat-out dominated Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 by leading a race-high 159 laps, sweeping the stages and scoring the fastest lap. But the driver of the No. 11 Toyota reported to his team he lost power steering on Lap 214 and told reporters he had to muscle out a runner-up finish with 10-20% power steering remaining over the final 50 laps, which not only added more postseason peril but produced another layer to his attack in the waning laps.
After restarting sixth on the final two-lap shootout, Hamlin charged to the back bumper of race-leader Wallace on the back straightaway. Hamlin dove left of Wallace entering Turn 3, but the move backfired. Wallace was shoved into the wall and both Toyotas lost momentum upon contact. That was all Elliott needed as he joined the scene late after restarting 10th and stole the victory, punching his ticket to the Round of 8.
“I got really close to the 23,” Hamlin said. “If I had to do it all over again, I think I’d run a little bit lower to allow a space between us so I don’t get so tight and then try to turn the wheel more.”
The clash between Hamlin and Wallace, who simultaneously played the role of competitor and employee to Hamlin, highlighted the dynamics that come with Hamlin co-owning a race team and driving with his own agenda. A win for either Hamlin or Wallace would have propelled either to the Round of 8 with a guarantee. Instead, Hamlin leaves 48 points above the provisional cutline and Wallace exits 26 points below.
“I would have raced everyone the same way,” Hamlin said. “No one will ever accuse me of laying over for anyone for a win. To win a championship, we’ve gotta figure out a way to move on. And I would have loved for me and the 23 to battle it out, but obviously I couldn’t turn the car well enough that last corner and got him.”
What perhaps could have been a day of celebration for Hamlin instead resulted in disappointment.
“We were the best car,” Hamlin said. “Had a bad pit stop, restart sixth. One (lap) to go, I’m thinking, ‘Find a way to get 60.’ And obviously, not having power steering there was not ideal.”
After leading both overtime restarts but leaving with a fifth-place finish, Wallace showed elation with his crew members after an adversity-filled day and gave Hamlin a friendly pat on the side. But the 23XI racer was still sour about how his boss raced him on the final lap and seeing his ticket to the Round of 8 evaporate in the Kansas heat.
“Can’t talk to him,” Wallace said of Hamlin.
“I’ve always been big on how you race me is how I race you,” he added. “No matter who you are, what it is — we race hard. … I mean, you guys (have) seen it. It’s unfortunate. You know, I was excited to race Denny for the win, and we ended up fifth and gave the 9 (Elliott) a win. So that’s what’s frustrating the most. We couldn’t get Toyota to Victory Lane.”
Wallace fought an ill-handling car all day, an early sign of the gremlins 23XI Racing faced the prior three Kansas races that could possibly drop Wallace into a deeper points hole. But after a call from No. 23 crew chief Charles Denike to bring Wallace down pit road first in Stage 1, the tables started to turn in their favor as the team slowly chipped away to finally crack the top five in the middle frame.
“Every stint that went by, my smile got bigger and bigger because we were getting back up to the front,” Wallace said. “It was nice to see everybody sticking together. Intensity ramps up, the emotions ramp up and I’m vocal, like, we need to fix our car immediately. And they kept their heads down, gave me the appropriate adjustments, and we made it work and we had a shot for the win.”
Both shot-callers for Hamlin and Wallace had comparable sentiments that their respective drivers shared and wore similar emotions, too.
“Obviously, the restarts weren’t great when you got to send it early there, and he was able to still hang on to it after his arms were mushed,” an equally deflated Chris Gayle, No. 11 crew chief, told NASCAR.com. “Really proud of him for doing that and the effort he showed all day. Hate it for him. We felt like we had a car to win and I hate that he wasn’t able to secure that win.”
Though Denike would have preferred to stand in Victory Lane alongside Wallace, he kept it glass-half full with how his driver fought back and never got discouraged.
“Huge result and resiliency,” Denike told NASCAR.com. “He did a great job sticking with it and and just fighting through one stint at a time. We clawed our way back to where we needed to be, and then felt like we were able to maintain good control. Really proud of what Bubba did this race. All you can ask for is a shot to win at the end, and we certainly had that multiple times.”
The Round of 12 closer at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on Oct. 5 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) presents a wild card, and Hamlin and Wallace enter on opposite sides of the cutline. Four drivers will be eliminated from championship contention after next week’s race, and despite Wallace’s strong showing in the Heartland, he’s back where he started before Sunday’s showing.
Zane Smith was involved in a multicar crash in overtime during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, sending his No. 38 Ford onto its left side and tumbling upside down at the exit of Turn 4.
Smith barrel-rolled twice down the banking before landing right-side-up and exited the vehicle under his own power.
Smith was running the high lane entering Turn 3 side-by-side with Front Row Motorsports teammate Todd Gilliland when John Hunter Nemechek charged to Smith’s back bumper. Nemechek contacted Smith’s left-rear quarter panel and slid the No. 38 Ford high and into the retaining SAFER barrier. Nemechek’s No. 42 Toyota slid further into Smith and squeezed Smith’s car against the wall, forcing Smith’s car onto its driver side, on which it slid for a number of yards. The car eventually turned onto its roof, triggering two full rotations before the car landed on all four tires, allowing Smith to climb from the vehicle.
“It was a wild ride, no doubt,” Smith told NBC Sports after being evaluated and released from the infield care center. “I had a decent restart going and I just get wrecked by the 42. He just drives through me and then I was sliding on the wall. I was just mad at that point from how our day was going and this just pissed me off even more because that’s what really hurt was just flipping down the track.
“It was violent, no doubt, but we had such a fast Speedy Cash Ford today. It’s just a bummer. Right before that caution came out, we were gonna have a top-10 day, racing up inside the top 10 a majority of the day and it’s a shame that it has to come to an end that way.”
After Nemechek’s last contact with Smith, his Legacy Motor Club Toyota came down the track and spun both Ty Gibbs and Josh Berry. Gibbs continued on but Nemechek and Berry incurred too much damage and were unable to keep racing.
Berry and Nemechek were also evaluated and released from the infield care center after their incidents. Berry, the runner-up last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, blamed the incident on the intensity of late-race restarts.
“It looked like Zane and the 42 had got together obviously and Zane was up on his side,” Berry said. “I just tried to go by on the bottom and the 42 spun down and clipped us in the right rear and we wrecked, so it’s just part of being back there. It’s an overtime restart and everybody has to make up for how bad they ran all day and try to pass everybody in one corner.”
Smith, Nemechek and Berry finished 31st, 32nd and 33rd, respectively, in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN Bet. The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs continue with the Round of 12’s conclusion at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on Oct. 5 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — In the last few feet of race track in the second overtime Sunday afternoon, Chase Elliott came from oblivion to steal the Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN Bet and earn a berth in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
As his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sped wide open through the final corner on Lap 273 at Kansas Speedway, Elliott’s car bounced off the side of Denny Hamlin’s Toyota on the way to the finish line.
Elliott, who restarted eighth for the final two-lap shootout, got to the stripe 0.069 seconds ahead of Hamlin, who led 159 laps and drove the final stretch of the second Round of 12 playoff race without benefit of power steering.
“Everything worked out perfect for me,” said Elliott, who picked up his second win of the season, his second at Kansas and the 21st of his career. “Had a great push through (Turns) 1 and 2. That kind of all started with the 6 (Brad Keselowski). Big run off of 2. Seas kind of parted and just was able to keep my momentum up. That was really it …
“I wasn’t going to lift, so I didn’t know what was going to happen. I figured at the end of the day, it was what it was at that point. We were both wide open corner exit. Wherever I ended up, I ended up. At that point, we were all committed.”
Hamlin was spent after man-handling his car around the 1.5-mile track in the closing laps of the race.
“Just super disappointing,” said Hamlin, who swept the first and second stages. “I wanted it bad. It would have been 60 (career victories) 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.”
The good news for Hamlin is that he increased his margin over the current playoff cut line to 48 points entering next Sunday’s Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. Barring disaster, Hamlin is all but assured of advancing to the Round of 8.
Christopher Bell finished third, followed by pole winner Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace, who led the field to green for the final overtime restart but faded to fifth after battling side-by-side with Hamlin on the final lap.
Wallace was leading as he approached the white flag in the first overtime, but a violent four-car collision in Turn 3 on Lap 267 necessitated a caution that slowed the field before Wallace could reach the flagstand.
“Two years ago, I’d probably say something dumb,” said Wallace, who drives for the 23XI Racing team Hamlin co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan. “He’s a dumbass for that move (on the final lap). 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 the fifth-place finish, Wallace leaves Kansas 10th in the standings, 26 points below the elimination line for the next round.
He was tantalizingly close to his second win of the season before John Hunter Nemechek knocked the Ford of Zane Smith into the outside wall in Turn 3 in the first overtime.
The impact from Nemechek’s Toyota turned Smith’s Ford sideways against the outside wall, with Smith’s car sliding on the driver’s side through the corner before barrel-rolling down the banking and coming to rest upright on four wheels.
“It was a wild ride, no doubt,” Smith said. “Before I knew it, I had a decent restart going and I just get wrecked by the 42 (Nemechek). He just drives through me and then I was sliding on the wall.
“I was just mad at that point from how our day was going, and this just pissed me off even more, because that’s what really hurt was just flipping down the track. It was violent, no doubt, but we had such a fast Speedy Cash Ford today. It’s just a bummer.”
Playoff driver Austin Cindric was collected in an 11-car wreck in Turn 1 on Lap 217 and heads to the Charlotte Roval 48 points below the elimination line and almost certainly needing a victory to advance.
Playoff drivers Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick ran sixth and seventh on Sunday but head to Charlotte in very different positions. Larson is 54 points ahead of ninth-place Ross Chastain, while Reddick is 11th in the standings, 29 points below the cutline.
Keselowski finished eighth at Kansas, followed by playoff driver William Byron, who fought an ill-handling car until his No. 24 Chevrolet came to life in the final run.
Despite a pass-through penalty on the first lap for an inspection failure, New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen followed Byron, posting his first career top-10 finish on a NASCAR oval.
Note: Post-race inspection was clear, confirming Elliott as the winner. No cars were designated to return to the NASCAR R&D Center.
Kansas Speedway has become a favorite among fans in the Next Gen era.
The combination of a surface that wears tires with a multi-groove track helps negate the massive clean-air advantage we see at most other tracks, allowing drivers with faster cars to make passes throughout the field.
This skillset falls right into the hands of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) favorites, which include Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and William Byron based on live NASCAR odds for Kansas.
However, I’m pivoting away from outright bets and heavy-hitters in favor of a driver matchup that appears to be mispriced due to breaking NASCAR news.
As a result, crew chief Stephen Doran was ejected for today’s race. Still, the more significant consequences for our purposes are that van Gisbergen will lose his pit stall selection (meaning he’ll have one of the worst stalls in the field), will have to start the race at the rear of the field and then a stop-and-go penalty after the race goes green.
This puts van Gisbergen at a huge disadvantage to start the race and, barring a very early caution, will likely put the No. 88 a lap down early.
In addition, Michael McDowell is also serving the same penalty, which could make van Gisbergen’s chances of grabbing the lucky dog from an early caution difficult since it’s likely that McDowell will be faster today at Kansas and ahead of van Gisbergen.
Because of the penalty,
I’m taking Ty Dillon in a driver matchup over van Gisbergen at +100 odds (DraftKings).
This is more of a van Gisbergen fade than a bet on Dillon, per se, but I’m having a hard time passing up a Kaulig Racing driver as an underdog to a driver that already struggles on large ovals and will start the race in a big early hole.
NASCAR Pick: Ty Dillon (+100) over Shane van Gisbergen — DraftKings
