KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Chase Elliott took control of the second elimination race in the NASCAR playoffs with 44 laps remaining Sunday at Kansas Speedway and never relinquished his lead to win the Hollywood Casino 400 for his third victory of the season. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was already locked into the next round after taking the checkered flag at Dover International Speedway two weeks ago in the first race of the Round of 12. Aric Almirola joined him last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. “It was a great round for us for sure,” Elliott said in victory lane. “We had a great car today. We’re working hard this year; just got to keep it rolling. It’s been a great couple of months.”
Elliott rolls to win at Kansas
After starting 13th, Elliott, in his No. 9 Chevrolet, held off a hard-charging Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson in the final laps around the 1.5-mile track, and they finished second and third, respectively. Before Sunday’s race, Elliott’s best finish here was fourth at the 2017 playoff race. “Having the ability to win and do it weekly and put yourselves in those positions week-by-week is the most important thing,” Elliott added during his press conference. “And if we can do that these next three weeks, I think we can give ourselves a chance (at the championship).”
Kyle Busch joined Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer and older brother Kurt Busch to round out the list of eight drivers still in contention for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship going into next weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway.
Larson, Brad Keselowski (sixth Sunday), Ryan Blaney (seventh) and Alex Bowman (ninth) were eliminated. “Those other guys were just really fast, and we weren’t really able to do anything with them,” Keselowski, who won three consecutive races in September, said of Sunday’s race. “We were crashed at Dover. We ran out of gas at Talladega when the race went to overtime. The breaks kind of fell against us this round and we weren’t able to overcome that.”
Despite running in the top three for most of the first two stages and the beginning of the third, Blaney’s No. 12 Ford grazed the outside wall with a little more than 60 laps remaining. Surprisingly, he was able to hang on to his top-10 position and finished seventh, but it wasn’t enough to advance in the playoffs. “Obviously, it was a mistake I made trying to work hard to catch those guys, and I pushed too hard and got in the fence,” Blaney said. “It is all my fault. Whether it would have worked out for us or not, I don’t know. "I don't think we had the speed (Elliott) or (Harvick) had. The 9 (Elliott) was super fast. I don't know. I messed up and cost us a shot.”
Harvick entered Sunday’s race with the most points of any playoff driver — including Elliott and Almirola — and his second-place finish in the first stage Sunday locked him into the Round of 8. After winning the spring race here, Harvick ultimately finished 12th after a pit-road speeding penalty with less than 60 laps to go dropped him from the lead, allowing Elliott to take over. “Obviously got lucky with Kevin’s misfortune there,” Elliott said. “I wish we could have raced him straight-up to see who was better.”
Pole-sitter Logano and Kyle Busch clinched their spots at the end of the second stage, after finishing third and fifth, respectively, in the segment. So by the end of the second stage, there were seven drivers fighting for only three remaining spots, which were filled by Truex (fifth), Bowyer (13th) and Kurt Busch (18th). “It was enough, barely,” said Bowyer, who was hoping for a better result at his hometown track. “We were lucky really. It was ugly. I wanted to be better than that. ... I just can’t figure out how to get around this damn place.”
Larson, whose team was given a 10-point penalty last week after violating NASCAR’s damaged vehicle policy last weekend at Talladega, and Bowman were so far outside of the top-8 drivers that they needed a victory to remain in contention for the championship. “I’m actually glad that nothing stupid took us out of the playoffs this year,” said Larson, who started at the back of the field. “We had that battery come out at Dover a couple years ago, blew up an engine here last year. So I mean, obviously, I would have liked to have made it to the next round, but I’m glad that it wasn’t anything other than just us not performing where we needed to be that kept us out of the next round.” Martinsville Speedway will host the first race in the Round of 8 next Sunday (2:30 p.m. ET).
