Posted on by Pat DeCola
https://www.nascar.com/drivers/jimmie-johnson/
JimmieJohnson
0
Hendrick Motorsports

By all accounts, Jimmie Johnson could’ve taken the Kansas race off, having won at Charlotte. He didn’t, and continues to show why he’s one of the best ever with a fourth-place finish.

Any questions? When Harvick needs to win, he wins. Considering ‘El Toro’ is the bull to beat at Phoenix (next round), you may as well already pencil him into the Championship 4.

 

MORE: Harvick advances at Kansas

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/kyle-busch/
KyleBusch
1
Joe Gibbs Racing

Busch may have had a chance to battle Kevin Harvick for the win, but was busy battling his teammate, Carl Edwards, for position behind him. He was none too pleased.

 

MORE: Busch on Edwards: ‘That’s racing, I guess’

The polesitter at Kansas faded late, but expect him to lead more laps at Talladega where his 512 laps led are the most among Chase drivers.

Truex’s recent luck seemed to run dry at Kansas — and it nearly made his gas tank do the same, as his crew failed to give him ample fuel on a pit stop. Mistakes like that become more costly as rounds progress.

 

MORE: Fuel problems plague Truex

Edwards once again came up just short of winning at his home track, but his second-place finish will go a long way toward helping him advance.

Logano isn’t quite in must-win mode, but it certainly doesn’t hurt his Chase chances that he comes into Talladega as the defending race winner. Of course, he may still have to figure out how to beat Kevin Harvick.

 

MORE: Logano puzzled at how to stop No. 4

After starting from the rear, Busch put together an above average day and has a good shot to advance, still. His 16.3 average finish at Talladega ranks third among Chase drivers with more than one start.

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/austin-dillon/
AustinDillon
3
Richard Childress Racing

Dillon currently loses the tiebreaker with Joey Logano for the eighth and final Chase spot, but any magic that ‘3’ car has left in it at Talladega would go a long way.

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/brad-keselowski/
BradKeselowski
-8
Team Penske

Keselowski is in a difficult points position and needs to win at Talladega to advance — but we’ve seen him do it before, in 2014. Don’t count him out yet.

 

MORE: Keselowski lands in dire straits 

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/denny-hamlin/
DennyHamlin
-2
Joe Gibbs Racing

After running off nine straight top-10 finishes (including two wins), Hamlin has finishes of 15th, 9th, 30th and 15th. That isn’t going to cut it.

 

MORE: Handling issues derail Hamlin

https://www.nascar.com/drivers/chase-elliott/
ChaseElliott
-5
Hendrick Motorsports

Elliott is just saving his first win for when he needs it most — in a do-or-die situation at Talladega after he had an up and then very down day at Kansas.

 

MORE: Elliott falters from lead

 

There’s still hope that we’ll see some sizzle — and maybe one more win — from Stewart as he closes out his career, but the No. 14 team isn’t quite sniffing Victory Lane right now.

A late run-in with the wall derailed Larson’s day and all of a sudden it seems hard to fathom that the No. 42 team will compete for wins again this season.

McMurray is a relatively recent winner of the fall Talladega race (2013), but it’d be a stretch to see this under-performing team land in Victory Lane.

Buescher has yet to finish in the top 15 in any Chase race, and you shouldn’t expect that to change the rest of the way. That said, Talladega might be the one place it could happen.

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RELATED: Full race results | Series standings | Chase Grid

Breaking down the full field for the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

1. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. As we said after Harvick’s win three weeks ago at New Hampshire: Fear the 4. Grade: A+

2. Carl Edwards, No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Hard To Believe Fact No. 1: This was Edwards’ first top five in the second half of the season. He had seven, including two wins, in the first 18 races. Grade: A

3. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske. Logano bounced back nicely after his 36th-place finish at Charlotte. Grade: A

4. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Hard To Believe Fact No. 2: Johnson’s finish gave him back-to-back top-five finishes for only the second time this season (Races 2 and 3). Grade: A

5. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Feel free to ask Busch about having the longest active top-10 streak at six races. Just don’t ask him about how it went racing against teammate Carl Edwards during Sunday’s final green-flag run. Grade: A

RELATED: ‘Rowdy’: That’s racing, I guess

6. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. The No. 3 team’s two-tire call resulted in a huge wreck on a late restart last week at Charlotte. Not so this week, and Dillon grabbed his second top 10 in the past three races. Grade: A

7. Alex Bowman, No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Dale who? (Just kidding.) Bowman posted the best finish of his career (77 starts) and second top 10 in six starts in place of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Grade: A

8. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG Daugherty Racing. Not even a pit-road speeding penalty could hold back Allmendinger, who turned in his sixth top 10 of the season, his most since a career-high 10 in 2011. Grade: A

9. Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Kenseth led a race-high 116 laps, all in the first 125 laps. But his car wasn’t the same after he hit the wall on Lap 137, a move that made Kenseth feel “dumb and disappointed” after the race. Keep your chin up, Matt: You’re heading into Talladega second in the standings and 29 points above the Chase cut line. Grade: A

10. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Kahne continues to churn out top 10s. His sixth top 10 in the past seven races gives him a 7.8 average finish in that stretch, the fourth best in that seven-race span. Grade: A

11. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Toyota, Furniture Row Racing. Truex’s 400th Cup start was an adventure because of fueling issues and repeated problems with a right-rear tire rub. Despite all that, he finished just outside the top 10. If Truex survives Talladega, a duel with Kevin Harvick for the title could be epic. Grade: B

12. Ryan Newman, No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Newman closed out his big week — RCR and Newman agreed to a multiyear extension early in the week — with a solid finish. Grade: B

13. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Busch had to start in the rear of the field (backup car) but held his ground in the Chase standings (fifth place). Grade: B

14. Ryan Blaney, No. 21 Ford, Wood Brothers Racing. Blaney’s run of top-10 finishes at Kansas ends at two. Grade: B

15. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin fell two spots in the Chase standings to 10th, but it could have been much worse. He had major problems early with his splitter and then ran into the back of Brad Keselowski on Lap 190 that spelled the end of his chances for a top-10 finish. Grade: B

16. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Stewart finished 12th and 16th in his final races at Kansas, his best combined finishes at the track since he finished 13th and fifth in 2012. Grade: B

17. Trevor Bayne, No. 6 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Bayne ran 15 laps in the top 15 Sunday. And you’re probably thinking, “So?” In the previous four races, he turned a total of six laps in the top 15. Grade: B-

18. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Patrick followed up last week’s season-best 11th with another top-20 finish, marking the third time this season she has posted back-to-back top-20 finishes. Grade: B-

19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Stenhouse’s average finish this season is 19.1, and he nailed it Sunday. Grade: B-

20. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Menard’s career average finish is 22.7, and he nearly nailed it Sunday. Grade: C

21. Chris Buescher, No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. The nailing stops with Buescher. However, he finished in the top 25 for the third consecutive race, a first for the rookie. Grade: B-

22. Michael McDowell, No. 95 Chevrolet, Circle Sport-Leavine Family. McDowell posted his best finish at Kansas in 11 starts. His previous best was 28th in the May race. Grade: B

23. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing. Mears led five laps during green-flag pit stops, topping his totals in each of the past two seasons — four laps in 2015 and four in 2014. The last time Mears led more laps in a race was the fall race at Talladega in 2012 (10 laps). Grade: C+

24. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing. When you’re a small fish in a big pond, you take your triumphs where you can find them. DiBenedetto’s finishes in his past six starts: 37th, 30th, 28th, 27th, 25th, 24th. And his five consecutive top-30 finishes extends his personal best. Grade: B

25. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Then there’s Biffle and RFR, once among the biggest of fishes. Unless Biffle closes out the season strong, 2016 will go down as his worst in 15 seasons (14 full time). Grade: C-

26. Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Bowyer didn’t have the showing he would have preferred at his home track –unlike Missourian Carl Edwards, Bowyer is actually from Kansas (Emporia). Wait ’til next year. Grade: C-

27. Landon Cassill, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Cassill fell one lap short of finishing on the lead lap. He has eight lead-lap finishes this season, one short of his personal best set last season. Grade: C

28. Brian Scott, No. 44 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Scott had two pit-road speeding penalties and was a factor in the wreck on Lap 36 that claimed teammate Aric Almirola. Not the best of days. Grade: C-

29. Regan Smith, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing. Smith had to start in the rear of the field for a transmission change and later brought out the eighth caution when he hit the wall. Grade: C-

30. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. Larson brought out the fifth caution when he hit the wall on Lap 177 and went on to post his worst finish in more than five months — since crashing out of the May race at Kansas (35th). Grade: D

31. Chase Elliott, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott was running with the leaders until tire problems struck on Lap 175. It was all downhill from there. The rest of the race featured more tire rubs and multiple meetings with the wall. He is last in the Chase standings and needs a lot to go his way at Talladega to advance to the next round. Grade: D

32. Michael Annett, No. 46 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Annett finished three laps off the pace, his fewest from a lead-lap finish since he completed 137 of 138 laps of the rain-shortened Pocono race in August. Grade: D

33. Cole Whitt, No. 55 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. Driving the No. 55 for the first time since the 15th race of the season (at Michigan, also named for a casino), Whitt finished five laps back. No word if Whitt ran to a roulette wheel at Hollywood Casino behind Turn 2 and placed a tower of chips on the No. 5 before heading home. Grade: D

34. Reed Sorenson, No. 98 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. Sunday’s race marked the third time this season — all in the past four races — teammates Sorenson and Cole Whitt have finished next to each other. Grade: D

35. Joey Gase, No. 32 Ford, GO FAS Racing. Gase finished seven laps back in his fifth start of the season. Grade: D

36. David Ragan, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing. When Aric Almirola slowed as he approached teammate Brian Scott, Ragan ran into the back of Almirola. Despite major damage, the No. 23 was able to return to the track and complete all but nine laps. Grade: C-

37. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. Contact with Alex Bowman resulted in a flat tire and the No. 1 hitting the wall. That brought out the third caution and began a frustrating day for the No. 1 team. Grade: D

38. Brad Keselowski , No. 2 Ford, Team Penske. Speaking of frustrating days … Keselowski got loose on Lap 190 and drifted high and right into the path of Denny Hamlin, who sent the No. 2 for a damaging spin into the grass. Keselowski also brought out the seventh caution on Lap 221 when his car started smoking soon after he returned to the track. He dropped to 11th in the Chase standings. Buoying the team’s hopes to advance is that Keselowski has four wins at Talladega. Grade: F

39. Josh Wise, No. 30 Chevrolet, The Motorsports Group. Wise took the No. 30 straight to the garage after he brought out the fourth caution when he hit the wall on Lap 116. Grade: F

40. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. When Almirola was unable to slip under teammate Brian Scott and checked up, David Ragan hit the No. 43 from behind. Almirola’s 36 laps completed are his fourth fewest in 210 Sprint Cup starts. Grade: F

Posted on by Staff Report

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said in the latest edition of the Dale Jr. Download podcast released Monday that his rehabilitation from a concussion is “going along as planned” and that he has been driving a simulator but still misses competing in a race car most.

Earnhardt Jr. talked for about eight minutes at the start of the podcast, praising the efforts of his substitute driver Alex Bowman, who finished seventh at the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Junior added, however, that he wished he could have been the one driving the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“We’ve been running around and trying to do everything we’re supposed to be doing outside the car while we’re not able to drive just yet,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Boy, today (Sunday) was a day where I would have liked to have been in there for sure running that high side. That’s really enjoyable.”

He added that he’s “still working on all my rehabilitation and doing all the stuff the doctors have been asking me to do. All of that is going along as planned, no setbacks.”

The simulator work is part of the “outside the car” activities that have kept him busy in recent weeks, along with sponsor appearances and a visit to Martinsville Speedway last week to help unveil the track’s new lights.

RELATED: Martinsville to add lights

“I’ve been doing that (simulator), which has been a lot of fun,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

Still, it’s no substitute for actually taking the wheel of a race car. Earnhardt Jr. said he will be at Talladega Superspeedway Friday through Sunday, and it will be difficult to simply watch; Bowman again will fill in for Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88.

“There’ll be a part of me each lap wanting to be in there making decisions as far as what’s going on in the draft,” Junior said.

The full podcast can be found here.

Posted on by Staff Report

The streak lives on — an Earnhardt will drive at Talladega.

 

BK Racing announced Monday that Jeffrey Earnhardt will drive the No. 83 Starter Toyota Camry at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday. Earnhardt will be one of three BK Racing cars on track for the Alabama 500 as he joins teammates David Ragan and Matt DiBenedetto.

 

It extends one of the sport’s great streaks that was in serious jeopardy. An Earnhardt has started every race at Talladega since 1980, with Dale Earnhardt and son Dale Earnhardt Jr. collecting 16 total wins at the 2.66-mile track during their respective careers (10 for Earnhardt, six for Earnhardt Jr.)

 

Earnhardt Jr. will not drive in Sunday’s race as he continues to recover from the effects of a concussion suffered earlier this season. Enter Jeffrey Earnhardt, Earnhardt’s grandson and Earnhardt Jr.’s nephew. By putting him in the No. 83, BK Racing ensured Earnhardt will start in the 40-car field (43 cars are on the entry list) because the No. 83 team has a Charter.


“I’m really excited to drive the No. 83 Starter Toyota Camry for the fall race at Talladega,” Earnhardt said in a team release. “It’s my first Cup Series race at Talladega, my first race with BK Racing, the first time anyone from our family competes in a Toyota and it’s the 25th anniversary of my grandfather’s victory at Talladega. Having this opportunity with an iconic American partner like Starter is an incredible honor. I can’t remember being so pumped up for a race and sincerely appreciate our friends at Starter for their support.”

 

Doug Richert, who was crew chief for Earnhardt Sr. during the ‘Intimidator’s’ first title in 1980, will serve as Jeffrey Earnhardt‘s crew chief.

 

“I’m looking forward to once again returning to the track as crew chief with an Earnhardt behind the wheel,” Richert said. “The Earnhardt family has played such an important part in my racing career; starting in 1978 with Dale Sr. and then winning a championship with him in 1980, it’s very cool to work with the fourth generation of the family.”

 

The Earnhardt streak since 1980 totals 73 races. Sunday’s race will be 74 in a row.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Busch gets awesome fan reaction on the road

Kyle Busch met a pair of special VIP guests Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, both of whom were fresh from a Homecoming Dance where the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champ played a role in making it an unforgettable moment.

Auburn (Alabama) High School students Holman Head and Taylor Johnson celebrated last weekend at homecoming after Johnson asked her longtime friend to the dance earlier this month with a NASCAR-themed proposal. Johnson decorated her car with Busch’s No. 18 and a makeshift M&M’s paint scheme, asking Head, “Will you race to homecoming with me?”

Busch got wind of their special date and Head’s status as a dedicated fan in a story first broadcast by WTVM in Columbus, Georgia. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver arranged for a chauffeured ride to homecoming in an Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, and surprised the couple in a personal video message.

With both students already overjoyed, Busch sweetened the gift.

“I also think that since we are racing Talladega in a couple of weeks, you two should come out and join us for the race weekend,” Busch said at the time, making plans to meet the two this weekend before the sixth of 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.

 

“When I saw the video I cried,” Taylor’s mom told WTVM. “I just want to say thank you to Kyle Busch for making their dream come true.”

 

Busch met the two Sunday morning, tweeting out this photo:

 

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LAS VEGAS, October 13, 2016 – As the Official Credit Card of NASCAR and one of the fastest growing credit card issuers in the United States, Credit One Bank is offering race fans a chance to win the Ultimate Race Weekend.

 

The Credit One Bank Ultimate Race Weekend sweepstakes runs through December 31, 2016, and the winner will receive:

• Two (2) tickets to a 2017 NASCAR Cup Series race of his or her choice from February through May

• VIP experience and a behind-the-scenes tour

• Roundtrip airfare from and to nearest major city, and hotel accommodations

• $1,000 spending money

 

“NASCAR races provide unbeatable entertainment, but going behind the scenes is something that most fans only dream about,” said Laura Faulkner, vice president of marketing communications, Credit One Bank. “We want to give NASCAR fans the opportunity to have the Ultimate Race Weekend while learning more about the benefits and rewards of the Official Credit Card of NASCAR from Credit One Bank.”

 

NASCAR fans can enter the Credit One Bank Ultimate Race Weekend sweepstakes by visiting CreditOneBank.com/NASCAR to see if they pre-qualify for the Official Credit Card of NASCAR. Existing Credit One Bank NASCAR Visa primary card members will automatically receive one (1) entry into the sweepstakes.

 

“This sweepstakes is an opportunity to introduce more fans to the Official Credit Card of NASCAR and reward them simply for seeing if they pre-qualify for the card,” continued Faulkner. “Plus, we’re able to thank all of our existing NASCAR Visa card members for their loyalty by providing them with an automatic entry for a chance to win.”

 

The Credit One Bank NASCAR credit card offers 1 percent cash back on eligible purchases and 2 percent cash back on purchases made at NASCAR.com. Card members also benefit from exclusive discounts from retail partners such as Fanatics and the NASCAR Racing Experience.

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Full race results | Chase Grid 

 

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Forget El Toro. The Closer? That’s so yesterday.

More like Houdini.

Kevin Harvick, the master escape artist.

Back to the wall? No way out? Done?

To quote John “Bluto” Blutarsky, “Nothing is over until we decide it is!”

Harvick and his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team pulled another rabbit out of the hat here Sunday, winning the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway and earning an automatic berth into NASCAR’s Round of 8. Championship dreams haven’t been extinguished.

He and Jimmie Johnson, last week’s winner at Charlotte, will sleep soundly. There will be no Talladega nightmares in the coming week.

The 2014 champions have made a habit of survival in NASCAR’s Chase elimination format since its debut two years ago.

In ’15, it was a must-win situation at Dover; Harvick went out and dominated to stay alive. In ’14, same scenario, different round; he won at Phoenix to stave off elimination and move into the Championship Round, then went to Homestead to win the race and the title.

This year has been no different.

A 20th-place finish in the first round at Chicago dropped the team outside the top 12 in the 16-team field; Harvick won the next week at New Hampshire.

A 38th-place result last week at Charlotte — in the opening race of the second round — dropped him to 12th, with anything-can-happen Talladega ahead and only the top eight moving on.

He won at Kansas.

If some teams wilt under pressure, this one seems to step up. Challenges surface, but they’re met and overcome.

Harvick led 74 laps of the 267-lap race Sunday, including the final 30.

“If you can’t win, you won’t win one of these championships,” Harvick, now a four-time winner this season, said afterward. “You’ll get to Homestead and you may point (race) your way in, but there will be a car that shows up there that’s going to win the race and win the championship.”

Points and points racing hold no interest for Harvick, thanks to Rodney Childers, the man who oversees everything concerning the No. 4 team and how it operates.

“He didn’t want to hear anything about points before we started this deal,” Harvick said of his crew chief. “I’m like, ‘OK, well, that’s a new approach for me.’ Usually you go home, you look at the points standings, that was a pretty good week.”

Now?

“If we don’t win, it’s not a good week,” Harvick said.

Harvick credits Childers, Childers returns the favor, saying it’s his driver’s confidence and drive that “feeds down through him” to the team.

“We’re just fortunate to have a lot of guys that won’t quit,” Childers explained. “They don’t take no for an answer. They don’t care how many hours they work. They don’t care what they have to do. They just try to make it happen.

“It’s cool to be in that environment and be around people like that. It’s something that we all hope that we can do sometime in our lifetime.”

Maybe there were better cars Sunday, maybe there were faster cars. But NASCAR is often a game of opportunity; Harvick and his crew seized this one.

“Do I feel like we had the best car today? Probably not,” Harvick said. “Did we have the best car at (New Hampshire)? Probably not. But guess what, we kept ourselves in it all day. … It’s good to feel like you probably didn’t have the fastest car and win the race because I felt like, we felt like, a lot of times we’ve had the fastest car and didn’t win the race. So it’s good to get a few of those back.”

The team’s ability to step up isn’t lost on the competition. Others have been there to see it play out all too often.

“When it comes to these situations, they usually find a little more speed somewhere in their cars,” said third-place finisher Joey Logano (Team Penske). “I don’t know how, but when they are in must-win situations, they find more speed, which is always interesting to me that they have a little left in the tank.”

Said runner-up Carl Edwards (Joe Gibbs Racing): “I don’t think they had the fastest car (but) they made it happen. So congrats to them.”

Only Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing), a solid sixth in the final rundown, seemed to have an idea of how to curtail Harvick’s comeback combativeness, suggesting others “get together and block … in elimination races or just pull for something because he’s tough to beat in those final races.

“There’s no doubt about it, he steps up when the pressure’s there,” Dillon said. “That team does a good job.”

No matter the situation, the team knows it can perform. It has proven it time and time again. So much so, Harvick said, that it’s “not something we really even talk about because we’ve already done all that.”

Add Sunday’s victory to the list. It may not have been magic, but it was magical just the same.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Race results | Series standings | Updated Chase Grid
SHOP: Chase gear

The middle event in the three-race Round of 12 for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs had a tough act to follow after a frantic race the previous week at Charlotte. But Kansas Speedway made the most of its billing for intensity Sunday with late-race pressure in the Hollywood Casino 400.


Former Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski and top rookie contender Chase Elliott absorbed the hardest hits in the Chase standings, slipping into a precarious perch with the always unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway next on the schedule.


Jimmie Johnson earned a pass to the next round with his victory last weekend, and Kevin Harvick prevailed Sunday at Kansas to join this round’s immunity list. The field will be chopped from 12 to just eight title-eligible drivers after next weekend’s visit to the Alabama track.


Before the pressure ratchets up again at Talladega, let’s take a look at what the Chase picture holds after Sunday’s race at Kansas.


Who’s hot: Harvick has turned this Chase playoff format — now in its third year — into his personal playground. He’s still never been eliminated before the championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and now he’s 2-for-2 in winning the middle event in each three-race round this season.


Kyle Busch, who struggled to get a handle on Kansas early in his career, sewed up a fifth-place finish to rank fourth on the Chase Grid. His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards took the runner-up position, finding himself in fifth on the provisional Chase grid.


And Joey Logano‘s third-place run at Kansas offset the sour taste of a 36th-place result last weekend, barely lifting him out of the bottom four. He sits tied with Austin Dillon in points, but has a tiebreaker edge for the eighth and final transfer spot on the provisional Chase grid because of Sunday’s higher finish.


Who’s not: Keselowski was saddled with the worst finish of the remaining 12 Chasers, his Team Penske No. 2 Ford sliding into the infield grass and emerging with heavy front-end damage after contact with Denny Hamlin. Keselowski wound up 38th in the 40-car field, with Hamlin salvaging a 15th-place effort.


The only driver below Keselowski and Hamlin in the standings is Elliott, who endured a pair of tire rubs and multiple scrapes of the wall for a 31st-place finish, three laps down. The Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate sits a substantial 25 points off the cut-off point heading to Talladega.

Four in, four out: Here’s a look at the Chase bubble, with four drivers being eliminated after the third race of this round, Oct. 23 at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Chase Bubble Watch

Standing Driver Points Differential from Cut-off
5. Carl Edwards +24
6. Kurt Busch +17
7. Martin Truex Jr. +13
8. Joey Logano +0
———— CUT-OFF LINE ————
9. Austin Dillon -0
10. Denny Hamlin -6
11. Brad Keselowski -7
12. Chase Elliott -25

Up next: Alabama 500, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2 p.m. ET, Talladega Superspeedway (NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

 

Who it favors
Most wins: Brad Keselowski 4 (15 races); Jimmie Johnson, 2 (29 races).
Best driver rating: Chase Elliott 101.3 (1 race); Matt Kenseth 89.2 (33 races); Jimmie Johnson 88.6 (29 races).
Best average finish: Chase Elliott, 5.0 (1 race); Brad Keselowski 13.9 (15 races); Kevin Harvick 15.3 (31 races).

Who it hurts
Worst percentage of top 10s: Austin Dillon, 16.7 percent (1 in 6 races); Carl Edwards, 25 percent (6 in 24 races); Kyle Busch, 27.3 percent (6 in 22 races).
Worst driver rating: Carl Edwards, 66.4 (24 races); Austin Dillon 73.8 (6 races); Martin Truex Jr. 79.1 (23 races).
Worst average finish: Carl Edwards, 21.4 (24 races); Kyle Busch, 20.9 (22 races); Denny Hamlin, 20.0 (21 races).

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Harvick closes out Kansas win


Alex Bowman secured his career-best finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on Sunday, pushing to a seventh-place run as Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s substitute in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet. And he did so while battling a severe stomach bug made the feat all the more remarkable.


Earnhardt posted a picture to his Twitter account Sunday after the Hollywood Casino 400, showing his interim driver on a gurney in Kansas Speedway‘s infield care center — an intravenous drip hung over his head and a cold compress on his forehead.


Bowman, who said last weekend that he currently doesn’t have any 2017 plans in place, gave it his all Sunday, ending the 400-miler as the top finisher outside the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs. It’s just his second top-10 result in 77 career starts.


While he wasn’t dicing amongst the victory contenders after an early brush with the wall, his gutsy performance on a sunny Sunday afternoon made a lasting impression.

Posted on by Staff Report

Losing the lead to Carl Edwards as he headed to pit road, Chase Elliott‘s strong run at Kansas Speedway quickly took a turn with tire issues hindering the performance of his No. 24 Chevrolet. 


The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup contender pitted just past the halfway mark on Lap 173 as a cycle of green-flag stops unfolded. Elliott then pitted for a second time on Lap 175 to fix a left-rear tire rub on his race car. 


A caution then came out Lap 176 with Kyle Larson scraping the wall in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevy. 


None of the leaders pitted during the caution, putting the Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate a lap down — a stark contrast from his strong run during the event’s first half. Elliott restarted 26th.


“We’ll run her until she breaks,” Elliott told his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team.


Trouble hit again for the No. 24 team on Lap 245 with a flat tire. Elliott, off the pace, brought his limping Chevy back to pit road. The race remained under the green flag.


Elliott returned from pit road three laps down and in 32nd-place.


The 20-year-old finished the day 31st and heads to next week’s Talladega Superspeedway race on the bottom of the Chase Grid — 25 points behind Joey Logano, who holds the final provisional transfer spot to the Round of 8 as he sits eighth on the grid. 


“(We will) just go there and race our hearts out and try to win, I guess,” Elliott said, post race, of his team’s deficit. “That’s all you can do.”