Despite late race cautions and ensuing restarts, pit strategy that left him on inferior tires, and a desperate push by Chase Elliott to advance to the Round of 8, Denny Hamlin powered his Fed Ex Camry into victory lane at Kansas Speedway Sunday afternoon. With his 5th checkered flag of the season, Hamlin positions himself 3rd for the penultimate trio of races to determine the MENCS Championship 4 to battle it out at Homestead next month. Hamlin will look to capitalize on this momentum at a stronghold of his, Martinsville, next weekend.
In the bubble battle, Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson’s gutsy four tire call with 13 laps to go fueled a stirring comeback that allowed Elliott to outpoint Brad Keselowski for the 8th and final transfer position. Additionally, the NAPA Chevrolet driver became the only Hendrick driver to advance. He joins Kyle Larson as the only “bowtie” drivers in the round of 8, along with three Gibbs Toyotas and the Fords of of Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney for Penske, and the lone Stewart-Haas contender, Kevin Harvick.
Round of 8 Point Standings
Race Recap
Kansas Speedway provided real drama around the transfer positions to determine the MENCS Championship 4. Logano came into Sunday with an 18-point cushion over Alex Bowman. Bowman, Elliott, William Byron and Clint Bowyer all anticipated the need to win in order to advance barring catastrophe from Logano, Keselowski or Harvick. As it turned out the first two stages set up the scramble at the end. Logano seemed to secure his spot in the next round with Todd Gordon’s decision to leave his driver out after a late caution in Stage 1, setting Joey up to hold off the field to win a vital 10 points. He added another four in Stage 2, putting him behind only Elliott and Truex with 15 for the day.
Going into the final 107 lap stage, Logano was up 21 points on Elliott, with Keselowski 14 to the good. Brad’s Discount Tire Mustang managed a 6th place finish in Stage 1, but began to falter due to poor handling. As Stage 3 played out, Keselowski faded to a lap down, but Elliott stalled in 7th and couldn’t make up the necessary ground. Blaney’s brush with the wall along with a shredded tire brought out the race’s 5th caution on lap 254, ensuring subsequent chaos. Keselowski was forced to take the wave-around with most of the lapped cars, whereas Elliott took four, knowing a charge was needed.
Fate Intervenes
On the restart, Elliott made the bottom lane work and weaved his way into second, behind only Hamlin on two right-side tires. Meanwhile, Keselowski languished around 20th and fell below the cutoff line. Then, coming to two to go, Bubba Wallace broke the hub out of his left rear wheel and collected Matt Tifft. This was the much needed break for Keselowski, who was seeing his championship hopes slip away. While the leaders stayed out for the green-white-checker, Brad and the other wave-around cars came in. The Paul Wolfe led crew picked up spots on pit road and Keselowski lined up 15th, 2nd of the cars with the freshest tires and back inside the bubble.
It now appeared as if Elliott needed to pass Hamlin and win to earn the automatic berth to the next round. Meanwhile, Logano soldiered on, in effect staying out of harm’s way to get to the checkered flag. The next restart had Chase surrounded by Gibbs cars and he did not receive the needed push to battle Hamlin, even coming under challenge for his runner-up spot. Not only had his chances for victory faded, but Keselowski strode through the three-wide traffic jam and picked up insurance positions. Logano, who had stayed out on the lap 265 caution, was put into a perilous position of being one of the first cars on older tires and fell back, still safe based on the number of lead lap cars.
Fate dealt a final, mortal blow when Daniel Suarez got loose in turn 4 coming to the white flag. In catching his car he made contact with Keselowski and spun, being struck by Daniel Hemric in the process. Logano made way to the apron to avoid the crash but was door slammed by Austin Dillon and sent spinning through the grass. All of this occurred as Hamlin was mere feet from the start-finish line to end the race. Nevertheless NASCAR flashed the caution lights prior to his taking the white flag, meaning another overtime and another chance for Elliott.
Logano had significant right front damage and pitted to clear the tires from any potential rubs. Keselowski lined up 13th, still with fresher tires than those around him and needing only for Elliott not to win. Chase once again restarted beside Hamlin but once again could not receive the push needed to navigate around the 11 and settled for 2nd. Meanwhile Keselowski was sent to the middle lane and faded to 19th and out of the playoffs. The 2012 champion lamented to reports afterwards, “We didn’t make it. I pushed as hard as I knew how and didn’t quite do good enough on the last restart, and that was it.”
So now the field is set to determine the MENCS Round Of 8 who will compete to be part of the championship 4 at Homestead. The next round features the paperclip bullring Martinsville, Texas’s 1.5 mile speedway, and ISM Raceway in Phoenix. Stay tuned for a preview of these three races and predictions on who races for a championship. Follow Belly Up Sports racing coverage or start a conversation with me on twitter at: @dwscrippler
