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Wins Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway
By Stephen Furst
When the green flag waves over Kansas Speedway for the start of the Hollywood Casino 400, a familiar car will be leading the field across the stripe. Christopher Bell has earned the Busch Light Pole Award at Kansas Speedway for the third consecutive race and fourth time overall in his career. Bell edged out his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs by 0.040 seconds at a speed of 179.336 mph to take the top honors. Bell is currently second in the playoff standings behind Kyle Larson who will kick off todays Round of 12 opener in the 11th position. Larson won the spring race at Kansas by 0.001 seconds over Chris Beuscher, making it the closest margin of victory in NASCAR history.
Going into Sunday’s race, Chase Briscoe swapped pit crews with Josh Berry for remainder of the season. This may be a good move as most of the guys coming back to Briscoe’s car are guys that Briscoe had previously on his pit crew, making for instant chemistry.
“The pit crew thing is tough, because the guys that I’ve had have been on it for the last year and a half… they got changed whenever (Kevin) Harvick was in the Playoffs, so I’m back kind of with my original guys,” Briscoe said.
Playoff contender Chase Elliott will start last on the grid today after an overnight engine change giving Chase plenty of ground to make up during the race.
Bell and Gibbs lead field to green flag with Bell getting a good push from Busch to take the lead into turn 1. While Bell would have liked to get some laps in to extend that lead, the first caution of the day flew before even one lap is completed. Cars were wrecking coming out of turn 2 on first lap caused by Chris Buescher checking up and bottling up the cars behind him when Harrison Burton had nowhere to go with Chase Elliott outside of him. The incident collected the cars of Josh Berry, Harrison Burton, Ty Dillon, and Jimmie Johnson. Chase Elliott, while nearly involved, makes it through to increase his position from starting last to sitting in 29th.
On restart teammates Gibbs and Bell pulling even side by side while the middle of the field races three-widen well behind them. Bell and Gibbs would race side-by-side for two laps after restart, with Bell finally pulling ahead, securing the lead 3 laps after restart. Through early laps, most of top 10 positions would be filled by playoff cars, with only two spots not occupied by playoff drivers [Busch and Gibbs]. Elliott would be making moved being up 13 positions since start of race on lap 15, while Chase Briscoe is fighting handling issues and is seen falling backwards having lost 16 spots since start of the race.
Kyle Larson would bring out the second caution of the day when his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet hits the wall on lap 19. Larson suffered a right rear tire failure while racing with Carson Hocevar in turn 1. Radio communications from crew chief Cliff Daniels leads to the possibility that Kyle ran over debris on the track. Larson would have repairs made and remain on lead lap in 35th position.
Joey Logano dives to the inside and makes it three-wide on restart to attempt to take the lead from Bell but could not hold on and falls back to 3rd position meaning the top 2 would remain Bell and Gibbs. The stage would continue with plenty of two-wide racing throughout the field with cars running multiple grooves to find speed. On lap 30 William Byron would pass Ty Gibbs to find himself up to 2nd place. Further back in the field, Kyle Larson has not made up very many spots on track after his altercation with the turn 1 wall, still hanging out outside of the top 30. Larson would go a lap down on Lap 57 as his pace was nearly 1 second off of the pace to the leaders.
Team Penske cars are showing some speed today at Kansas with all three cars running in top 7 spots. Historically, Kansas is not a strong track for Team Penske. Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano continue to make moves within and into the Top 5 with Logano pressuring the leaders and Blaney getting by Denny Hamlin to squeeze into the 5th position. With 9 laps to go in stage 1, William Byron was closing in on Christopher Bell for the lead, with Logano lapping faster than both lead cars. Byron’s pressure would be felt by Bell as he lost grip into turn one and found the turn 1 wall with the rear quarter panel with 8 to go in stage 1, losing the lead and falling back to 4th place behind Logano and Blaney, with pressure from teammate Hamlin in 5th with 5 to go in Stage 1. Daniel Suarez and Kyle Larson are two playoff cars not on lead lap at end of stage 1. Elliott managed to climb up to 19th place at the end of stage 1 after starting last with Bell going from starting on the pole to ending stage 1 in 5th place.
Byron jumps out to the lead at start of Stage 2 with Christopher Bell fighting Ty Gibbs for 3rd place. Fifteen laps into the stage Denny Hamlin begins mounting a charge to front, chasing down the leaders. The caution lights would come on at lap 98 when Erik Jones spins into grass in tri-oval, requiring assistance from the tow truck to remove his car from the grass. Kyle Larson was one position behind Jones when he spun, but was not eligible for the free pass to get lap back since Erik Jones was the first car a lap down, but also the car that was the cause of the caution. Larson would make multiple pit stops during the caution to continue to work on his car in hopes of getting back on the lead lap and gaining back as many lost points as possible. Denny Hamlin would lose positions under caution and fall to 15th due to a slow pitstop. Kyle Busch would come out of the pits with the lead, but unsure if they got enough fuel to make it to the end of the stage.
Kyle Busch takes the lead on the ensuing restart with Bell fighting back and eventually claiming the lead one lap later. A four-car battle for lead would develop on lap 107 in turns 1 and 2 with Bell out in front but would not last long as next time around leaders are single file. Busch would brush the wall on the backstretch around lap 112, causing him to begin to lose positions, sitting in 8th at lap 115. Kyle Larson would find himself as the first car 1 lap down on lap 116 with laps pacing only slightly slower than the leaders which would keep him safe from going another lap down and ahead of the other lap down drivers.
Ryan Blaney showing strength, passes Logano for 2nd position on lap 137 and sets his sights on leader Christopher Bell, ultimately taking the lead from Bell on lap 142. Kyle Larson would finally claim the free pass and gets back on lead lap after Hemric brought out a caution on lap 144 when he made contact with the turn 4 wall and eventually spin coming out of turn 2 on the ensuing lap. The leaders pit under caution with 20 to go in stage 2, which would prove costly for Denny Hamlin, as he would have to pit a second time under caution to tighten a loose lug nut.
With 32 laps to go, Kyle Busch makes an attempt to lap the car of Chase Briscoe coming out of turn 2. Briscoe would give Busch the top lane, but Busch loses grip and puts himself into the wall while never making contact with Briscoe and then spins down the backstretch.
“I’m sure he was racing to stay on the lead lap with whoever was in front of him there,” said Busch. “Granted, they have a race to run, but back in the old days when you were under 30 (laps) to go or whatever it was, lapped traffic would kind of lay over and give you a lane and let the leaders race. I just wasn’t getting that, so I tried to force my hand into getting that and get to his outside, and for whatever reason, it just gave all the air in all the wrong places, and I spun out.”
Keselowski dives into turn 1 on the restart but had to back out due to old tires not giving any grip and loses many positions. This would put Martin Truex Jr. out front. Green flag racing wouldn’t last long as with 25 to go Carson Hocevar has to back out of the throttle going down backstretch and gets turned by Gilliland. The field would restart with 20 to go seeing Martin Turex Jr. and Ross Chastain on front row and teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron in row 2. Chastain would take the lead and never look back, even with tough pressure from William Byron in the closing laps. Byron just would not have enough to make a pass on Chastain. In the end, it was a watermelon smashing afternoon for the driver of the #1 Chevrolet in victory lane.
“For us on this 1 team, it’s what Cup racing is all about,” said Chastain, who led 52 laps. “It’s what (team co-owner) Justin Marks bought into Trackhouse with Pitbull, bought into NASCAR with Trackhouse to do stuff like this—to disrupt. Look, there’s been times this year where we couldn’t have disrupted the minnow pond outside of Darlington, let alone a Cup race. It’s hard. It’s really tough.”
“To come and do this, there are times where I didn’t think after practicing and qualifying, we had what it took. I thought we have been way stronger here in the past. It didn’t feel great all day, but our Kubota Chevy, it was better as the rubber went down, and the adjustments were great.”
William Byron would emerge as the top spot in the playoffs even without the win. Of the 12 playoff drivers, four would finish outside of the Top 20, including Kyle Larson who came into the opening race of the round of 12 in the lead of the standings. However bad a day as he had finishing in 26th, he managed to survive with only dropping to 4th in the standings 18 points above the cut line. This could be very crucial as next week the ever intimidating and unpredictable Talladega is up next on the schedule.
The same cannot be said for Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric, who did not share the same luck in the standings. Defending race winner Reddick, who showed a strong run early in the race, could only manage a 25th-place finish, leaving Kansas four points below the cutoff. Daniel Suarez finished 14th and is now 14 points behind Chase Elliott and Joey Logano who are tied for eighth, by 14 points.
Chase Briscoe fought an ill-handling car and finished 24th, falling 25 points in the standings down to eighth place. Austin Cindric finished 4 laps down in 34th position after sustaining damage during a spin on the backstretch on Lap 157. He now trails Logano and Elliott by 29 points.
NASCAR Cup Series Race – Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN Bet
Kansas Speedway – Kansas City, Kansas
Sunday, September 29, 2024
- (20) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 267.
- (6) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 267.
- (19) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 267.
- (7) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 267.
- (2) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 267.
- (12) Alex Bowman (P), Chevrolet, 267.
- (1) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 267.
- (8) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 267.
- (38) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 267.
- (15) Zane Smith #, Chevrolet, 267.
- (25) Chris Buescher, Ford, 267.
- (22) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 267.
- (10) Daniel Suarez (P), Chevrolet, 267.
- (5) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 267.
- (27) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 267.
- (37) Ryan Preece, Ford, 267.
- (13) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 267.
- (24) Noah Gragson, Ford, 267.
- (3) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 267.
- (30) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 267.
- (32) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 267.
- (26) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267.
- (28) Harrison Burton, Ford, 267.
- (9) Chase Briscoe (P), Ford, 267.
- (4) Tyler Reddick (P), Toyota, 267.
- (11) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 267.
- (33) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 267.
- (18) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 267.
- (21) Michael McDowell, Ford, 267.
- (31) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 267.
- (34) Kaz Grala #, Ford, 267.
- (14) Carson Hocevar #, Chevrolet, 267.
- (23) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 266.
- (17) Austin Cindric (P), Ford, 263.
- (16) Erik Jones, Toyota, 263.
- (35) Jimmie Johnson, Toyota, 257.
- (36) JJ Yeley(i), Chevrolet, Electrical, 118.
- (29) Josh Berry #, Ford, Accident, 0.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 123.294 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 14 Mins, 54 Secs. Margin of Victory: .388 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 10 for 47 laps.
Lead Changes: 30 among 15 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Bell (P) 1-21;*. Yeley(i) 22;C. Bell (P) 23-72;W. Byron (P) 73-82;D. Hamlin (P) 83;J. Logano (P) 84-86;W. Byron (P) 87-100;T. Gibbs 101;K. Busch 102-105;C. Bell (P) 106-141;R. Blaney (P) 142-144;C. Bell (P) 145;Z. Smith # 146-148;C. Bell (P) 149-161;A. Bowman (P) 162-167;T. Gibbs 168-171;C. Hocevar # 172-176;R. Chastain 177-202;K. Busch 203;R. Chastain 204;K. Busch 205-210;T. Reddick (P) 211-217;C. Bell (P) 218;B. Keselowski 219;K. Busch 220-224;R. Chastain 225;K. Busch 226-235;R. Chastain 236-238;B. Keselowski 239-241;M. Truex Jr. 242-246;R. Chastain 247-267.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Christopher Bell (P) 6 times for 122 laps; Ross Chastain 5 times for 52 laps; Kyle Busch 5 times for 26 laps; William Byron (P) 2 times for 24 laps; Tyler Reddick (P) 1 time for 7 laps; Alex Bowman (P) 1 time for 6 laps; Ty Gibbs 2 times for 5 laps; Carson Hocevar # 1 time for 5 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 1 time for 5 laps; Brad Keselowski 2 times for 4 laps; Zane Smith # 1 time for 3 laps; Ryan Blaney (P) 1 time for 3 laps; Joey Logano (P) 1 time for 3 laps; * JJ Yeley(i) 1 time for 1 lap; Denny Hamlin (P) 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 24,22,12,11,20,54,2,19,48,77
Stage #2 Top Ten: 48,54,12,24,6,77,8,19,9,14
