KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The dozen drivers who advanced to the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs saw Kansas Speedway as a relatively straightforward test, given the potential chaos looming at Talladega and the unpredictability of the road course at Charlotte.
For most of them, it turned out to be a test of survival.
Just about everyone aside from Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron, who finished second to Ross Chastain, and Alex Bowman had to overcome problems Sunday. They ranged from loose lugnuts to handling issues to complete engine changes, amd put the championship contenders in a position where they simply wanted to maximize an otherwise bad day.
“We had a good recovery,” admitted defending series champion Ryan Blaney, who had a loose wheel with 77 laps to go, rallied to finish fourth, and left in a tie for second behind Byron in the postseason points standings.
“We have a few things to work on but I am proud of the fast car,” Blaney said. “I appreciate the 12 guys for sticking with it all day. That is probably the best we have run here in a long time, especially with this NextGen car.”
Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott also managed to salvage top-10 runs after weekend misfortune.
Bell qualified on the pole at Kansas for the third straight time, and he was dominating Stage 1 and on his way to valuable playoff points when he bounced off the wall. He bounced off it again later in the race, eventually finishing seventh.
“Wish I had a couple of corners back,” he said. “I made mistakes and let a lot of track position go. Yeah, to come back and finish seventh after getting mired in the back is something good, but definitely left what could’ve been.”
Hamlin was not nearly as magnanimous after mistakes by his crew cost him track position. He finished eighth.
“It was just a crappy day on pit road, and we didn’t get the finish we deserved. This is a great opportunity to lock ourselves in and instead we’re scraping and clawing to finish in the top 10,” he said. “We lost 15 spots on pit road and had the fastest car. We came in fourth and came out 15th or 20th or something like that, and you can only pass so many.”
Elliott felt a whole lot better about his crew after a long weekend in Kansas.
It began with an engine gremlin during practice Saturday, resulting in a poor qualifying time and thus a poor pit stall. But the crew on the No. 9 was able to swap out the engine, fine-tune it throughout the race and get Elliott to ninth by the end.
“We were able to move forward a long ways,” Elliott said. “Since we had a bad pit pick, ultimately it just puts you in a bad position to lose spots on pit road. It just seemed like we would get a bunch of spots on the track, then lose a bunch of spots on pit road. We tried to claw our way back up into the top-10, so it was nice to at least get that far.”
Daniel Suarez battled handling issues Sunday and was 13th, while Joey Logano had a fast car before his handling inexplicably went away. He also had a loose wheel and finished 14th, making him the last driver above the playoff cut line.
“We went from a winning car to being wrecking-loose like someone hit a light switch. I don’t know why or what,” Logano said. “At least we scored good stage points in the first stage but we got nothing the second stage, unfortunately.”
Logano’s day was still productive compared to those of Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson and Austin Cindric. Briscoe never had any pace and finished 24th, just ahead of Reddick and Larson, whose team had perhaps the longest day.
He had a right rear go down just 18 laps into the race, sending him bouncing into the wall — he was fortunate to be running the top line, otherwise the impact would have ended his day entirely. The team on the No. 5 had to work on a damaged diffuser during several pit stops, then kept working on suspension and other issues later in the race. And while Larson was never quite comfortable, he still ran in the top 20 late before finishing in 26th.
That would have been a welcome result for Cindric, who had a loose wheel early and then his left rear go down later. He wound up spinning down the back stretch and finished 34th, dropping him to last in the postseason points standings.
“It was a really frustrating result,” Cindric said. “Obviously we had some contact on the back straightaway and I took us out of the race, really. That is unacceptable for the position we are in, especially with the speed we have had in the car. I am pretty bummed about all that. I think the next two weeks are weeks we can go have great races but we definitely won’t be able to get this one back. It makes our goals a little more clear going into Talladega and the Roval.”
