The twelve drivers who moved on to the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs saw Kansas Speedway as a relatively simple challenge, especially with the chaos expected at Talladega and the unpredictability of the road course in Charlotte.
For most of the drivers, it turned into a fight for survival. Aside from Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron, who took second place behind Ross Chastain, and Alex Bowman, everyone faced issues on Sunday.
These problems ranged from loose lug nuts to handling troubles and even complete engine changes, forcing the championship contenders to focus on making the best of a tough day.
“We had a good recovery,” said defending series champion Ryan Blaney, who dealt with a loose wheel with 77 laps to go but managed to finish fourth. He left Kansas tied for second in the postseason points standings behind Byron.
“We have a few things to work on, but I am proud of the fast car,” Blaney added. “I appreciate the 12 guys for sticking with it all day. This is probably the best we’ve run here in a long time, especially with this NextGen car.”
Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, and Chase Elliott also managed to secure top-10 finishes after facing challenges over the weekend.
Bell qualified first at Kansas for the third time in a row and was leading Stage 1 when he hit the wall. He made contact with it again later in the race and ended up finishing seventh.
“I wish I had a couple of corners back,” he said. “I made mistakes and lost a lot of track position. Finishing seventh after being stuck at the back is good, but I definitely missed out on what could’ve been.”
Hamlin was not as forgiving after his crew’s mistakes cost him valuable track position, finishing in eighth place.
“It was just a rough day on pit road, and we didn’t get the finish we deserved. This was a great chance to secure our spot, but instead we’re fighting just to finish in the top 10,” he said.
“We lost 15 spots during pit stops and had the fastest car. We came in fourth but came out around 15th or 20th, and you can only pass so many cars.” Elliott felt much better about his team after a long weekend in Kansas.
It started with engine problems during practice on Saturday, which led to a poor qualifying time and a bad pit stall. However, the crew on the No. 9 car managed to change the engine, make adjustments during the race, and get Elliott to ninth place by the end.
“We were able to move forward a lot,” Elliott said. “Since we had a bad pit stall, it put us in a tough spot to lose places on pit road. It felt like we would gain spots on the track but lose them during pit stops. We tried to fight our way back into the top 10, so it was nice to at least achieve that.”
Daniel Suarez struggled with handling issues on Sunday and finished 13th, while Joey Logano had a fast car but suddenly lost handling and dealt with a loose wheel, finishing 14th, making him the last driver above the playoff cut line.
“We went from having a winning car to being loose like someone flipped a switch. I don’t know why or what happened,” Logano said. “At least we got good stage points in the first stage, but unfortunately, we got nothing in the second stage.”
Logano’s day was still better than those of Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, and Austin Cindric. Briscoe struggled to find speed and finished 24th, just ahead of Reddick and Larson, who had a particularly tough day.
Larson’s right rear tire went down just 18 laps into the race, sending him into the wall. He was lucky to be on the top line, or the impact could have ended his race.
The team on the No. 5 car had to fix a damaged diffuser during several pit stops and continued to work on suspension and other issues later.
Although Larson was never completely comfortable, he managed to run in the top 20 late in the race before finishing in 26th place.
That would have been a good outcome for Cindric, who had a loose wheel early on and then lost air in his left rear tire later. He ended up spinning down the back stretch and finished 34th, putting him in last place in the postseason points standings.
“It was a really frustrating result,” Cindric said. “We had some contact on the back straightaway and that took us out of the race, really. That is unacceptable for where we are, especially with the speed we have had in the car.
I’m pretty bummed about all that. I think the next two weeks are chances for us to have great races, but we definitely can’t get this one back. It makes our goals a little clearer going into Talladega and the Roval.”
