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 simple test, considering the potential chaos looming at Talladega and the unpredictability of the road course in Charlotte.
For most of them, it turned out to be a test of survival.
Almost everyone, except Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, who finished second behind Ross Chastain, and Alex Bowman had to overcome problems on Sunday. They ranged from loose nuts to handling issues to complete engine changes, and championship contenders in a position where they just wanted to maximize a bad day.
“We had a good recovery,” admitted reigning series champion Ryan Blaney, who had a loose wheel with 77 laps to go, rallied to finish fourth and came away tied for second behind Byron at the playoff points standings.
“We have a few things to work on but I’m proud of the fast car,” Blaney said. “I appreciate all 12 guys for staying with us all day. It’s 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 salvage the top 10 after the weekend’s bad luck.
Bell qualified on pole at Kansas for the third straight time, and he was dominating Stage 1 and en route to valuable playoff points when he bounced off the wall. He bounced back again later in the race, eventually finishing seventh.
“I wish I had a few turnarounds,” he said. “I made mistakes and lost a lot of position on the track. Yes, coming back and finishing seventh after getting bogged down at the back is something good, but I definitely left behind what could have been.
Hamlin was not so magnanimous after his crew’s mistakes cost him his track position. He finished eighth.
“It was just a lousy day on pit road, and we didn’t get the result we deserved. “It’s a great opportunity to lock ourselves in and instead strive to finish in the top 10,” he said. “We lost 15 places 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 overtake so many.”
Elliott felt much better about his team after a long weekend in Kansas.
It started with an engine problem during practice on Saturday, which led to a poor qualifying time and therefore a bad pit stall. But the No. 9 crew was able to change the engine, tweaking it throughout the race and putting Elliott ninth at the end.
“We’ve been able to come a long way,” Elliott said. “As we had a bad pick in the pits, ultimately it puts you in a bad position of losing spots on pit road. It just seemed like we were going to get a bunch of spots on the track and then in losing a bunch on pit road We were trying to get back into the top 10, so it was good to be at least that far back.
Daniel Suarez had handling issues on Sunday and finished 13th, while Joey Logano had a fast car before his handling inexplicably disappeared. 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 a ruined car, like someone flipped a switch. I don’t know why or what,” Logano said. “At least we scored good points in the first stage, but unfortunately we didn’t get anything in the second stage.”
Logano’s day was still productive compared to those of Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson and Austin Cindric. Briscoe never had any rhythm and finished 24th, just ahead of Reddick and Larson, whose team had perhaps the longest day.
He had a right-rear crash just 18 laps into the race, sending him bouncing into the wall – he was lucky to run on the front row, otherwise the impact would have completely ended his day. The No. 5 team had to work on a damaged diffuser during several pit stops, then continued to work on suspension and other issues later in the race. And although Larson was never quite comfortable, he still ran late in the top 20 before finishing 26th.
This would have been a welcome result for Cindric, who had a loose wheel early on and then his left rear fell off later. He ended up spinning down the stretch and finished 34th, dropping him to last in the playoff points standings.
“It was a really frustrating result,” Cindric said. “Obviously we had some contact at the rear straight away and really put us out of the race. It’s unacceptable for the position we’re in, especially with the speed we had in the car. I’m quite disappointed by it all.” I think the next two weeks will be weeks where we can have some great races, but we definitely won’t be able to get this one back. This makes our goals a little clearer for Talladega and the Roval.
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