Kyle Busch led 150 of 200 laps Saturday in winning the Xfinity Series’ Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway.
Busch earned his 85th Xfinity win and ninth of the year.
Busch did it in a race where only three of the eight remaining Chase drivers finished on the lead lap. Busch had been a lap down and took a wavearound after a caution came out in the middle of green-flag stops.
“There was a lot of things trying to work against us there towards the end,” Busch said. “We just persevered and made it through everything.”
Busch has won the past three Xfinity race at Kansas Speedway.
All five Chase drivers who finished off the lead lap were involved in accidents with less than 35 laps left in the race.
WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Elliott Sadler finished second, earning his 15th straight top 10 … Daniel Suarez led six laps and finished third, his seventh top five in eight races … Regan Smith finished sixth for his first top 10 in three Xfinity starts this year … Matt DiBenedetto finished 11th. In 15 Xfinity starts this season, it’s only the second race he’s finished.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Cole Custer was involved in three cautions, including a five-car wreck on Lap 165 that collected Chase drivers Darrell Wallace Jr and Justin Allgaier. Custer finished 35th, Wallace 33rd and Allgaier 14th … Brendan Gaughan was another Chase causality, spinning out of Turn 4 with 23 laps left and slid through the grass, receiving significant damage. After being cleared in the medical center, Gaughan dashed back to his car, returning to the race with less than 10 laps left and finishing 31st … Erik Jones raced up front most of the day until contact with Kyle Larson on a restart with 24 to go sent him into Ty Dillon. Jones’ Toyota began smoking from damage, and he pitted before finishing 15th, one lap down.
NOTABLE: If Team Penske’s No. 22 car does not win the Nov. 5 race at Texas Motor Speedway, it will have been a full year since the team’s last victory.
NEXT: O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 5 at 3:30 p.m. ET
Elliott Sadler and Daniel Suarez are tied for the Xfinity Series points lead after the Kansas Lottery 300. Sadler finished second, and Suarez was third.
Each has 3,039 points after the opening race of the second round of the Xfinity Chase.
CONCORD, N.C. — As smoke poured from his engine and the leaders sped away, Denny Hamlin lamented his fate.
“Denny Hamlin luck in the Chase,’’ he radioed his team. “That gets you every time.’’
Just when it seemed as if the top eight
Chase drivers could relax after four foes suffered misfortune Sunday,
Hamlin saw his comfortable points bulge waste away quicker than a before
and after picture.
He was one of five Chase drivers to
finish 30th or worse at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He became the oddity
that could throw this Round of 12, which includes a cutoff race at
Talladega Superspeedway, into chaos.
Before Hamlin’s woes, it appeared the top eight Chase drivers would hold a healthy advantage on the four — Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick — who suffered from miscalculations, miscues and mischievous machinery.
Just before Hamlin’s engine blew while running second, he had a 31-point lead on those outside a transfer spot.
At that point, it appeared as if Dillon
and Elliott would be 19 points out of the cutoff spot. In the two
previous years of the elimination format, only one driver more than 15
points out of the final transfer spot after the opening race in the
second round advanced. That was Brad Keselowski. He did so by winning at Talladega in 2014. No one so far back made it on points.
After Hamlin’s woes put him in the final
transfer spot in the standings, Dillon and Elliott found themselves only
three points behind him.
Now, there are two Chases. Those in the
top seven can take fewer risks because the penalty of losing points
could be critical with Talladega looming in two weeks. The bottom five,
including Hamlin, are in a race among themselves for the final transfer
spot if they can’t win this weekend at Kansas or the following week at
Talladega.
“All I can do is try to run as fast as I
can,’’ Hamlin said. “I won’t be able to control what any of my
competitors do. All I can do is try to go to Kansas and try to win, go
to Talladega and try to win.’’
Last year, Hamlin’s luck saw him fail to
advance from the second round. He entered the cutoff race at Talladega
second in the standings, 18 points ahead of the cutoff. He failed to
make transfer after an issue with the roof hatch and then was collected
in a last-lap crash.
Teammate Kyle Busch
had it worse in 2014. Busch was second in the standings, 26 points
ahead of the ninth place, the first driver outside a cutoff spot
entering Talladega and was eliminated after a crash when hit from behind
by Dillon.
Logano, who finished 80 laps behind the
leaders Sunday after suffering two tire issues and slamming the wall
twice, joked that if he had finished only two laps down, “I could have
had a good points day.’’
Had he done so, he would have finished
23rd instead of 36th and those extra 13 points would have put him in the
final transfer spot instead of Hamlin.
That’s how volatile Sunday was for some
Chase contenders. Now, it impacts decision drivers and crew chiefs will
make the next two weeks.
“We’re not in must-win, but we’re in can’t-screw-up mode,’’ Logano said.
HAIRY SITUATION
Blake Koch thought he’d have some fun after making the inaugural Xfinity Chase.
He decided to mimic hockey players who grow beards during the playoffs and do it for NASCAR’s version of the playoffs.
Truth be told, Koch, figured he’d have
the beard for only the first three races and then could shave, but he’ll
keep it going after advancing to the Round of 8 after Sunday’s race at
Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“I’m a pretty optimistic person, but I
expected us to make the Chase, not to really transfer to the next group
of eight,’’ he said. “That’s really tough to do. If I would have known
that, I wouldn’t have set to growing this Chase beard because it’s going
to get long now.
“I thought it was going to be a three-week beard. It’s going to be an eight-week beard, at least, maybe nine weeks.’’
Koch advanced with a team that has 16
employees and moved shops during the season. They prepared cars for
Dover in May with flashlights because their new shop didn’t have power
yet.
“I think that’s definitely the biggest story of the first round, Blake and his guys making the second round,’’ said Elliott Sadler,
who advanced to the Round of 8 via his win at Kentucky Speedway. “The
start-up team and where Blake came from last year to this year,
congratulations, that to me is a job well done.’’
PIT STOPS
— Kurt Busch
and Brad Keselowski are tied with the best average finish in the eight
races on 1.5-mile tracks. Both have a 7.0 average. Keselowski finished
seventh on Sunday; Busch eighth. Three of the last six races, including
the season finale at Homestead, are on 1.5-mile tracks.
— For the first time in this Chase, there
were multi-car accidents. In the first three Chase races, there were
seven cautions for spins or accidents. All had been single-car
incidents. Sunday, two of the five cautions for accidents featured
multiple cars, including the 12-car incident off a restart.
— Last year, Joey Logano and Kevin
Harvick were 1-2 in the points after the opening race in the second
round. This year, they are 11th and 12th.
— Kasey Kahne’s third-place finish was his best result since his win at Atlanta in Sept. 2014 — a span of 77 races.
— Danica Patrick’s 11th-place finish Sunday was her best result of the year. Her previous best was 13th at Dover in May.
— Five of the top-10 finishers Sunday were drivers not eligible for the title. They were Kasey Kahne (finished third), Ryan Newman (fourth), Kyle Larson (fifth), Tony Stewart (ninth) and Jamie McMurray (10th).
— Tony Stewart’s ninth-place finish snapped a streak of seven consecutive finishes of 13th or worse.
— Michael McDowell’s 14th-place finish was his second top-15 result in his last four starts.
Kyle Larson was fastest in final Xfinity Series practice Thursday evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway with a lap of 185.198 mph.
Erik Jones, looking to avoid Chase elimination in the Charlotte cutoff race, was second at 184.995 mph with Joey Logano third (184.856 mph), Daniel Suarez (184.332 mph) fourth, and Brandon Jones (184.150 mph) fifth. Larson and Logano are two of five Sprint Cup Series drivers entered in Friday night’s Drive for the Cure 300.
Ty Dillon posted the fastest lap in Friday’s lone Xfinity practice session at Richmond International Raceway with a lap of 122.144 mph.
The top seven on the speed chart are full-time Xfinity Series drivers.
Dillon was followed by Daniel Suarez (121.212 mph), Blake Koch (121.190), JJ Yeley (120.984), Ryan Reed (120.805), Brandon Jones (120.741) and Jeremy Clements (120.719). Brad Keselowski, who was eighth, was the first full-time Cup driver on the speed chart at 120.697 mph.
Jeb Burton had the best 10 consecutive lap average at 118.043 mph. He was followed by Justin Marks (117.805 mph) and Erik Jones (117.107).
Austin Theriault had the only significant contact with the wall, hitting it with less than 20 minutes left in the 1-hour, 55-minute session.
Xfinity qualifying is scheduled to begin at 4:15 p.m. ET with the race set to take the green flag at 7:44 p.m. ET. Both can be seen on NBCSN.
On Tuesday, Blake Koch and Kaulig Racing became the latest Xfinity Series team show off their retro paint scheme for the Sept. 3 VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway, which will air on NBC.
Kock’s No. 11 LeafFilter Chevrolet will be a time capsule from the early 1980s as a tribute to the career of three-time Sprint Cup champion Darrell Waltrip.
Kaulig Racing revealed Koch’s paint scheme, based on Waltrip’s No. 11 Mountain Dew car that he ran in the 1981 and 1982 seasons when Waltrip won his first two titles.
MORE: Check out all of the Darlington throwback paint schemes
Twenty-four of Waltrip’s 84 career wins came with the white-and-green paint scheme, including the 1981 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500 at Darlington.
Waltrip won at Darlington five times in his career.
“Running this paint scheme at Darlington is a huge honor for us at Kaulig Racing as well as those of us at LeafFilter,” said Matt Kaulig, owner of Kaulig Racing in a press release. “Darrell Waltrip is a true icon in the sport of NASCAR, and his success in the Mountain Dew paint scheme makes it extremely recognizable to both those in the racing industry and fans new and old. In 2015, Darlington Raceway delivered on its first ‘throwback’ themed Labor Day weekend, and we’re excited to be apart of this year’s celebration that’s guaranteed to be even bigger.”
Koch is in his sixth season of Xfinity Series competition and is 12th in the point standings. In five starts at Darlington, Koch’s best finish is 18th in 2011.
“It is an awesome feeling to be apart of something as cool as the throwback weekend at Darlington,” Koch said in a press release. “It’s even cooler to be able to run a Darrell Waltrip paint scheme, a driver who is a legend in our sport. He had a ton of success during his career in the No. 11, hopefully we can continue that trend.”
Koch is not the only driver who will compete in an old Waltrip paint scheme at Darlington. For the Sept. 4 Southern 500, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will use the paint scheme Waltrip had for his first Sprint Cup win.
