Kyle Busch is set to announce his NASCAR Cup Series plans for the 2023 season on Tuesday morning, and you can watch live on NASCAR.com and NASCAR’s social media platforms.
RELATED: Watch Tuesday’s live stream here
Bookmark the link above and come back at 10 a.m. ET as Busch addresses the media from the NASCAR Hall of Fame, detailing his future plans.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — For Alex Bowman and Greg Ives, their final playoff run as a driver-crew chief tandem is off to a convincing start.
After a respectable run at Darlington Raceway in the playoff opener, Bowman came out the gates swinging again at Kansas Speedway, passing Joey Logano for control of the race on Lap 3. Bowman went on to lead a race-high 107 laps, trouncing his total for the previous 27 races combined and dominating Stage 2.
But as the afternoon went on, a pit-road miscue and waning speed left the No. 48 in fourth at the checkered flag.
RELATED: Official results | Photos from the weekend
“We had a fast car all day,” Ives told NASCAR.com after the race. “Short-run speed was really good for us. But after about 35 laps, we tended to fall off a little bit. That’s where I felt like the Gibbs cars were a little bit better than us on those longer runs. That final stage staying green kinda hurt us.”
Bowman held on for fourth place, securing his first top-five result since Dover Motor Speedway in May. It’s clear the No. 48 team has flipped the switch, cranking up the intensity after a so-so summer.
“[The playoffs] are when you need to turn it on if you’re gonna do it,” Bowman said. “While I want to run like this all year long and have more consistency than we’ve had this year, it’s definitely good to be on it when it counts.”
Entering the playoffs just two spots above the Round of 16 cutline, Bowman has improved his standing to sixth in just two weeks.
But he has more on his mind than just his playoff performance, wanting to go out on a high note with the seasoned leader atop his box since he joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2018.
“Regardless of how the playoffs go, I wanna have fun with Greg these next eight weeks,” Bowman said after the race. “He deserves that. He’s a heck of a crew chief and it’s a very bittersweet thing not having him next year. So just trying to make the most of it and we’ve had good race cars the last couple of weeks and finally we’re finishing where we deserve.
ICYMI: Greg Ives stepping down after 2022
Nonetheless, Ives and company remain hungry to improve on the little things happening on the race track in pursuit of their first title — and they know they’re capable of peaking at the right time.
“Alex is doing a great job and the team is coming together well,” Ives said. “Minus two hiccups [on pit road], I think we would have had a pretty good Stage 1 as well. So, all in all a good day, we just always want more.”
Their next chance for more comes in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), a crucial elimination race to set the Round of 12.
Which channels have NASCAR programming this week? We answer that and give the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.
Note: All times are ET.
MORE: How to find USA Network | How to find FS1 | Get FOX Sports App | Watch on USA Network | Get the NBC Sports App | Watch on Peacock | FloRacing | How to watch NASCAR International
Monday, Sept. 12
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., NASCAR America Motormouths, Peacock
7 p.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 2007 Food City 500 (re-air), FS1
10 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Radioactive — Bristol (re-air), FS1
Tuesday, Sept. 13
2 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Kansas Lottery 200 (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
10:08 p.m., Race for the Championship: David v. Goliath (re-air), USA Network
11 p.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 2007 Food City 500 (re-air), FS2
Wednesday, Sept. 14
10 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Kansas Lottery 200 (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR America Motormouths, Peacock
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
Thursday, Sept. 15
7 a.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics (re-air), FS2
4:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Practice/Qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway, FS1
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, Peacock
6:30 p.m., ARCA Menards Series: Bush’s Beans 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway, FS1
8:30 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: Camping World Truck Series at Kansas Speedway, FS1
9 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway, FS1
10 p.m., Race for the Championship: Old School Versus New School, USA Network
Friday, Sept. 16
12:01 a.m., Race for the Championship: David v. Goliath (re-air), USA Network
1 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway (re-air), FS1
1:01 a.m., Race for the Championship: Old School Versus New School (re-air), USA Network
3:30 a.m., ARCA Auto Racing (re-air), FS2
8:30 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Radioactive: Trucks (re-air), FS2
9 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway (re-air), FS1
12 p.m., NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (re-air), USA Network
1 p.m., ARCA Menards Series West at Portland International Raceway (re-air), USA Network
2:30 p.m, NASCAR Xfinity Series: Qualifying, NBC Sports App
5 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway, USA Network
7 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Countdown to Green at Bristol Motor Speedway, USA Network
7:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway, USA Network
10 p.m., Race for the Championship: Dawn of a New Era (re-air), USA Network
10:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway (re-air), FS1
11 p.m., Race for the Championship: David v. Goliath (re-air), USA Network
On PRN:
7 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway
Saturday, Sept. 17
12:30 a.m., ARCA Menards Series: Sioux Chief Showdown 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway (re-air), FS1
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Countdown to Green at Bristol Motor Speedway, USA Network
7:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, USA Network
11 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Post-Race Show, USA Network
11:30 p.m., Race for the Championship: Old School Versus New School (re-air), USA Network
On PRN:
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway
Sunday, Sept. 18
1:30 a.m., Austin Dillon’s Life in the Fast Lane, V-Day Do-Over (re-air), USA Network
6 p.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 2010 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS1
After the second race of the Round of 16 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs at Kansas Speedway, here’s a look at the updated playoff picture. There is one race remaining in the Round of 16 before the field is whittled to 12, with four drivers eliminated from the postseason following the Sept. 17 race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Winner
Bubba Wallace. For the second straight week, a driver outside of the playoffs took the checkered flag. This time it was Wallace, who won for the second time in his career and the second time for 23XI Racing. Wallace became the 18th different winner of the 2022 season as he drove the No. 45 Toyota to Victory Lane at Kansas. Kurt Busch drove the No. 45 to a win earlier this season at Kansas. With Busch out injured, Wallace switched from the No. 23 to the No. 45 in an effort to give that car a better chance to compete for the owners’ championship.
RELATED: Unofficial results | At-track photos
Who’s hot
Christopher Bell. Bell won Stage 1 and finished second in Stage 2 en route to a third-place finish and a big points day at Kansas. Bell clinched a spot in the Round of 12 and leads the playoff standings after a third-place run at Kansas and a fifth-place finish at Darlington.
Denny Hamlin. Hamlin has opened the playoffs with consecutive runner-up finishes, but this one has to feel a little bit better than first. That’s because as the co-owner of 23XI Racing, Hamlin at least got to see his team get the win even if he didn’t.
Who’s not
Kevin Harvick. Harvick was running in tight quarters with Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace in Stage 1 at Kansas when his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford got loose and hit the wall. Harvick brought the car to pit road but was unable to continue because the right-front wheel was unrepairable. Harvick’s last-place finish at Kansas basically puts him in a must-win situation next weekend at Bristol.
Tyler Reddick. Reddick smacked the outside retaining wall with his No. 8 Richard Childress Chevrolet in Stage 1 at Kansas and could not continue after that. The pole winner led 38 laps but could complete only 67 of the scheduled 267 laps for a 35th-place finish. The Midwestern misfortune will put Reddick on the hot seat heading into Bristol.
BUBBLE WATCH
| Rank | Driver | Cutoff |
| 9. | Ross Chastain | +26 |
| 10. | Daniel Suárez | +6 |
| 11. | Tyler Reddick | +2 |
| 12. | Austin Cindric | +2 |
| ——– | ELIMINATION LINE | ———- |
| 13. | Kyle Busch | -2 |
| 14. | Austin Dillon | -3 |
| 15. | Chase Briscoe | -9 |
| 16. | Kevin Harvick | -35 |
Next race
The NASCAR Cup Series travels to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bass Pro Night Race on Sept. 17 (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). This will be the second race at the 0.533-mile track this season but the first on Bristol’s concrete surface after there was a dirt race there in the spring.
Who it favors
Kyle Busch. Busch has eight wins at Bristol, the most of any active driver. His last victory there came in the spring of 2019. This will be the first race for the Next Gen car on the concrete, so it will be difficult to predict whether past performance will be a good indicator of things to come.
Who it hurts
Alex Bowman. Bowman finished fifth in this race last year, but his overall body of work at the track isn’t favorable. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has finished 15th or worse in eight of his 11 career Cup Series starts at Bristol.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Driving the same car number that carried teammate Kurt Busch to victory in the May race at Kansas Speedway, Bubba Wallace claimed a dramatic win at the same track in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400, the second event in the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Wallace regained the lead on Lap 225 after the final cycle of green-flag pit stops at the 1.5-mile track and stayed out front for the final 43 circuits as his car owner, Denny Hamlin, chased him to no avail.
RELATED: Official results | At-track photos
Wallace crossed the stripe exactly one second ahead of Hamlin, as a driver not competing for the drivers’ championship won for the second straight week. Hamlin finished second for the second straight playoff race, having trailed Erik Jones to the line last Sunday at Darlington.
“Man, just so proud of this team, so proud of the effort that they put in each and every week,” said Wallace, who won for the first time this season and the second time in his Cup career. “Just thankful for the opportunity, right? Took this jump from an idea two years ago from a text from Denny before it all even happened. He was ready to get the deal done…
“Just so proud. Pit crew was awesome today. We had one loose wheel. Just thankful. Thanks for the opportunity, and thankful to shut the hell up for a lot of people.”
Wallace is competing for the Cup Series owners’ championship in the car Kurt Busch drove for the first 20 races of the season before suffering lingering symptoms from a concussion after a wreck in qualifying at Pocono. With his win, Wallace qualified for the next round in the owners’ competition.
Christopher Bell, who ran third, is the first driver to lock himself into the Playoffs’ Round of 12 on points. The other 15 championship contenders will have to establish their positions in the final 12 — or suffer elimination — next Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
During the final run, Hamlin passed Bell for the second position on Lap 252 of 267. With 10 laps left, Hamlin trailed by 2.066 seconds but could get no closer than the final one-second deficit the rest of the way.
Hamlin clearly had mixed feeling about his pursuit of the No. 45 23XI Toyota he co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan.
“It’s been a good overall day,” said Hamlin, who recovered from an equipment interference penalty — his 34th pit road infraction of the season — on Lap 27 under a competition caution. “Still frustrated about the first half of the race. We just aren’t executing all that well. …
“Really happy for our 11 Toyota team. They fought hard. They really stepped up that last half. We made the car quite a bit better. Just really happy about the outcome and really happy for that 45 team and Bubba Wallace and (crew chief) Bootie (Barker). Bubba has just really worked hard on his craft, and we’ve just given him fast race cars, and now he is showing what he has got.”
Alex Bowman led a race-high 107 laps and finished fourth, followed by non-playoff driver Martin Truex Jr. Championship contenders William Byron, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suárez completed the top 10.
MORE: Analysis: Cup Series Playoffs field
Other playoff drivers weren’t as fortunate.
A sudden disaster knocked Kevin Harvick out of the race before the end of Stage 1. Racing side-by-side, Chastain and Wallace steered up the track in front of Harvick’s No. 4 Ford as the cars sped through Turn 4.
Harvick’s Mustang snapped loose and the right-front of his car pounded the outside wall. With damage too severe to repair, Harvick retired from the race in last (36th) place.
“When those two cars came up in front of me, I just got super tight,” Harvick said after a visit to the infield care center. “When I lifted, it grabbed and got loose. I just wasn’t expecting them to come up and my car getting that tight.”
Harvick entered the race 16th in the playoff standings. The last-place result puts him in a must-win situation next Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“Yeah, it is what it is,” Harvick said. “We were racing to win anyway today, so that’s what we will do again next week.”
Harvick wasn’t the only casualty of the first stage. Pole winner Tyler Reddick blew a right-rear tire while leading on Lap 65 and slammed into the outside wall in Turn 2. He brought his No. 8 Chevrolet to pit road, but attempts to repair the car proved futile, and Reddick was eliminated in 35th place.
“The right-rear tire just blew like we’ve had a few times,” said Reddick, who fell to 11th in the playoff standings. “At Fontana (Auto Club Speedway), I was able to save it. But here, it snapped at the worst possible point, and we just killed the wall.
“It broke the control arm on the right-front, so our day was over. We leave here with not a lot of points, so we’ll have to fight hard at Bristol.”
Troubles continued for playoff drivers when Kyle Busch, whose team already had incurred two equipment interference penalties on pit road, spun off Turn 4 on Lap 137. Busch’s right-side tires went flat as he skidded toward the infield grass, and Busch lost a lap as he nursed his wounded car to pit road.
Busch got his lap back as the beneficiary under caution at the end of Stage 2, but he lost two laps during the final 96-lap green-flag run. His 26th-place finish dropped him two points below the current cut line for the Round of 8, trailing Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric by that margin.
Joining Busch and Harvick in the bottom four are Austin Dillon (14th Sunday) and Chase Briscoe (13th). The playoff field will be cut from 16 to 12 drivers after next Saturday’s race (7:30 p.m. ET, USA, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM) at Thunder Valley.
NOTE: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming Wallace as the winner of the event.
Pole-starter Tyler Reddick dropped out early from Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, absorbing the impact of a Stage 1 wreck that placed a dent in his playoff hopes.
Reddick’s No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet had led for 38 laps after an early competition caution, but he smacked the outside retaining wall exiting Turn 2 at the 1.5-mile track, damaging the car’s right side.
RELATED: Official results | At-track photos
“The right-rear tire just blew like we’ve had a few times,” Reddick said after a check at the infield care center. “At Fontana, I was able to save it. But here, it snapped at the worst possible point and we just killed the wall. It broke the control arm on the right-front, so our day was over.
“We leave here with not a lot of points, so we’ll have to fight hard at Bristol.”
Reddick completed just 67 of the 267 scheduled laps in the Hollywood Casino 400. He placed 35th in the 36-car field, with only Kevin Harvick — a fellow playoff contender and the race’s first retiree — finishing worse.
Reddick finished third in the playoff opener last weekend at Darlington Raceway, offsetting some of the negative effects of his Kansas crash. He sits two points above the cut line, tied with rookie Austin Cindric for 11th place in the postseason standings.
The four lowest-ranked drivers among the 16 playoff contenders will be eliminated after Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, USA, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM) at Bristol Motor Speedway.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Kevin Harvick needed a good run during Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Early on, it looked like he was heading in that direction.
Entering Kansas, Harvick sat 13 points below the cutline after his No. 4 car caught ablaze in the playoff opener at Darlington Raceway. That dropped him to last on the playoff grid.
In practice on Saturday at Kansas, Harvick’s car looked average, ranking 10th on long-run speed. Harvick took the green flag from 14th starting position. But it didn’t take long for the No. 4 car to rocket up the leaderboard, getting as high as fifth.
RELATED: Official results | At-track photos
Shortly after a restart following the Lap 25 competition caution, Harvick was battling with Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain in a close contest for third. When attempting to drop in behind the duo off Turn 4 on Lap 32, his car’s front end broke loose and it pounded the outside wall. Harvick regrouped and hit it again further down the frontstretch, further disabling his car.
Limping around the track, Harvick brought his car to pit road for the Rodney Childers-led crew to assess the damage. It wasn’t good. The crew chief said over the radio that every piece of suspension from front to back was broken.
Just 32 laps in, Harvick — who is tied with Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano as the all-time wins leader at Kansas — was done for the day. He earned just one point.
“When those two cars came up in front of me, I just got super tight,” Harvick said from outside the infield care center. “When I lifted, it grabbed and got loose. I just wasn’t expecting them to come up and my car getting that tight.”
Dating back to the regular season finale, Harvick has three consecutive DNFs for the first time in his career. Before this streak, he had consecutive DNFs just once before (2004) in 782 Cup Series starts.
Looking ahead to Bristol, Harvick lost 22 points to the cutline at Kansas and is now sitting 35 markers below the cutline, which is currently a tie between Tyler Reddick (who blew a tire while leading and finished 35th) and Austin Cindric. He’s likely going to need to win at Bristol in order to advance to the Round of 12, a track he’s won at three times in the past.
“Yeah, it is what it is,” he said. “We were racing to win anyway today, so that is what we will do again next week.”
Of his Bristol outlook, Harvick said simply, “Go win.”
Harvick has top-two finishes in each of the last two races at Bristol on the concrete. He has multiple walk-off wins in the past, including a Dover stomping, where he led 355 of 400 laps in the opening round of the playoffs in 2015.
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Well, not many of us, except for the Action Network’s Nick Giffen, saw that coming.
Erik Jones, a non-playoff driver, won the first race of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs last weekend at Darlington. Meanwhile, a handful of championship contenders found trouble.
NASCAR now heads to Kansas Speedway for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM), the second race of the Cup Series’ postseason.
Teams will run a new tire combination in Sunday’s race — one that wasn’t used when NASCAR visited Kansas back in May — so we opted to wait until Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions finished to ensure we had as much data as possible.
So, with those now in the books, here are our two favorite bets for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas.
RELATED: Updated race-day odds for Kansas
*Odds as of Sunday morning
In his past 10 NASCAR Cup Series races at Kansas, Elliott has one win and seven top-six finishes. His worst result over that span was a 29th-place finish at this track back in May.
On the periphery, that seems bad considering it was the only race held at this track in the Next Gen car. However, that finish is a bit deceiving.
After starting 14th, Elliott drove to a third-place finish in Stage 1, then backed that up with a fifth-place finish in Stage 2.
Unfortunately for the driver of the No. 9 Chevy, Elliott blew a left rear tire while running in sixth place with 71 laps to go, confirming that this car was much faster than his 29th-place result.
In addition, I checked in with Giffen, who mentioned that his NASCAR at Kansas betting model gives Elliott a 43.7% chance to score a top-five finish, easily beating the 33.3% probability that 2-1 odds at DraftKings imply.
Neither of the Roush Fenway Keselowski cars made the playoffs, and it’s highly likely they are experimenting during these playoff races.
It appears the experiment has paid off.
Buescher was the fastest Ford driver over five consecutive laps in practice. Over 10 and 15 laps, Buescher was less than 1/10 of a second slower than Blaney for top Ford honors in those metrics.
Earlier this year at Kansas, Buescher was fast in practice again, placing sixth overall in five-lap average. However, he didn’t make a qualifying lap and was relegated to a 35th-place starting position.
In the race, Buescher showed speed moving through the field. Unfortunately, he got into the wall just past the halfway mark, which caused his speed to plummet.
Those looking at his 26th-place green flag speed will be misled.
Instead, my FLAGS metric positions him as the 18th fastest, despite his lack of track position throughout the race. It’s likely he had an even faster car than that.
We’re looking at a repeat scenario and by removing the fast Toyota and Chevy drivers it helps narrow the drivers Buescher needs to beat.
DraftKings is giving us Buescher at 25-1 to finish as the top Ford driver.
My model pegs him at 6.8% to do so, well above his 3.8% implied odds.
Kansas Speedway put on a thrilling Cup Series race in May. Based on practice, many drivers believe that will be the case again on Sunday.
MORE: Full fantasy preview for Kansas | Starting lineup
One thing is for certain, though, Tyler Reddick was quick on Saturday. And Kansas, a place where the preferred groove is running against the wall, suits a driver like Reddick, who maximizes his performance in the top lane.
Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:
Starter 1: Tyler Reddick
Starter 2: Christopher Bell
Starter 3: Kyle Larson
Starter 4: Martin Truex Jr.
Starter 5: Kyle Busch
Garage pick: Bubba Wallace
NEXT IN LINE: Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin
RISING: As noted earlier this week, Logano hasn’t had much recent success at Kansas, aside from holding off Kevin Harvick in 2020 for the win. The No. 22 Ford was mediocre in practice on Saturday, too, posting the 13th best single-lap speed and 18th best 10-lap average. But Logano laid down a heater in qualifying and will start from the front row.
Bowman has had a summer to forget. Fortunately for the No. 48 team, fall is approaching. Bowman had a solid Darlington, now 10 points above the cutline. And he wasn’t too shabby in practice and qualifying at Kansas, posting his best qualifying effort since the Daytona 500. Bowman ranked third on long-run speed.
MORE: Bowman eager to shake summer woes
FALLING: With the rumor mill heating up on Kyle Busch’s future, some would argue it’s hurt his on-track performance. Expectations were high entering this weekend because of his recent performance at Kansas, including a third-place run in the spring. While some of the Toyotas had good Saturdays, Busch (and Denny Hamlin) lacked single-lap speed in qualifying and will start from the mid-20s. Still, I’m leaning on a good run from Busch on Sunday.
Over the course of his 13 Cup starts at Kansas, Chase Elliott has mixed results. But whatever was amiss on the No. 9 car at Darlington could be transferred over to Kansas. The No. 9 Chevrolet was the lone Hendrick Motorsports team to miss the final round of qualifying and was 17th in practice.
FEATURED MATCHUPS:
Erik Jones vs. Daniel Suárez
Though his numbers don’t favor him at Kansas, Suárez acknowledged his speed on intermediates tracks this season when asked about his struggles at the 1.5-mile track. Jones was 26th in practice and qualified 24th while the No. 99 Chevrolet qualified 15th, so the choice this weekend is Suárez.
Kyle Busch vs. Denny Hamlin
These two drivers might have had the most surprising Saturday in Kansas. They were on top of each other in practice and qualifying, but 20th or worse in both sessions. Those numbers might be deceiving, as Toyota dominated the spring race. Leaning with Busch, solely off his recent consistency at Kansas.
Kyle Larson vs. Chase Elliott
The top two drivers at Hendrick Motorsports were on the opposite ends of the spectrum on Saturday. Per usual at Kansas, the No. 5 car was near the top of the scoring pylon and will start seventh. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if Larson were in contention for the win. On the other hand, Elliott was a disappointing 17th in practice and 22nd in qualifying. Larson is the clear-cut favorite this weekend compared to Elliott.
Ryan Blaney vs. Joey Logano
Blaney showed more speed in practice, but Logano jumped to second in qualifying. Both drivers have been inconsistent at Kansas over the last few years, but Logano’s three wins trumps Blaney’s 16.9 average finish in 15 starts.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — One of the most dramatic restarts of the NASCAR Xfinity Series season came Saturday at Kansas Speedway, with rain on the horizon and top title contenders vying for the win.
Until the final restart, Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota had been the car to beat all afternoon. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver won Stage 1 and led a race-high 66 laps before JR Motorsports took control of the race.
With just two laps remaining in Stage 2, the green flag dropped for the final time and Justin Allgaier chased JRM teammate Noah Gragson through Turn 1 and down the backstretch. As Allgaier stumbled before the white-flag lap, Gibbs raced to his outside and the No. 54 Toyota driver pulled ahead.
Coming through Turn 4 for the final time, Allgaier squeezed Gibbs before diving to the bottom lane toward the finish line. In retaliation, Gibbs dove hard into the door of the No. 7 Chevrolet and the two collided coming to the checkered flag.
In his post-race television interview, Gibbs was remorseful.
“I’m very disappointed in my actions and I apologize to him. I thought [the contact with the wall] was worse.”
RELATED: Race results | Photos from Kansas
Allgaier shared his perspective on the final-lap incident.
“The tough part about [the contact] is I know we’re coming to the end of the stage and all those things, but if we were to go back green, I think it extremely limited his day,” Allgaier said in a post-race interview. “And probably was going to limit our day, as well. So, probably not the right move to make.
“I felt like I left some room out there and obviously I wanted it to be tight, right? You’re trying to get everything you can get, but try to leave enough room that he was gonna have a lane without making contact. Frustrations get the best of you, but just hate it that we tore up a race car that really wasn’t torn up before that.”
The race was called after the Stage 2 finish due to inclement weather — a rain-shortened end to a rugged battle that was just heating up.
But when asked if he would continue the tension moving forward, Allgaier replied with a peaceful outlook.
“It’s hard to have a strained relationship in this garage without trying to mend fences,” Allgaier said. “You’re around these guys and gals for what feels like an eternity throughout the course of the year. So, you have to mend fences. I know what he said in his interview and whether that’s what he feels or not, that’s to be seen. But I’m sure we’ll talk about it before we go next week to Bristol.”
Next Saturday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is the final race before the Xfinity Series Playoffs begin.
