NASCAR America: Scan All from Kansas Speedway

Scan All takes you behind the scenes of the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, where Kevin Harvick escaped elimination with a win and advanced to the Round

NO.88 CREW CHIEF GREG IVES FINED, OTHERS RECEIVE WARNINGS POST-KANSAS

NASCAR officials handed down a P2 penalty to the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team for not having lug nuts properly installed during Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

The infraction also brought a fine of $10,000 to Greg Ives, crew chief of the No. 88 Chevrolet. 

The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team received a written warning and a loss of 15 minutes practice time for failing pre-race LIS three times.

The cars of Carl Edwards, Kyle Larson andMartin Truex Jr. failed pre-race LIS twice and received written warnings.

The cars of Austin Dillon and Regan Smithfailed pre-race template inspection twice and received written warnings.

Cole Whitt's No. 55 Chevrolet failed pre-qualifying LIS twice and received a written warning.

The cars of Jamie McMurray and Martin Truex Jr. failed pre-qualifying template inspection twice and received written warnings.

Other warnings issued after last weekend's events at Kansas Speedway:

The XFINITY Series cars of Cole Custerand Brandon Brown failed pre-race LIS twice and received written warnings. 

Also, the cars of Brennan Poole andDerrike Cope failed pre-race template inspection three times and received written warnings.

Radioactive:Kansas -"Get our [expletive] head out of our [expletive]."NASCAR RACE HUB

Check out all the best scanner audio from the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway

The battle of the Chase bubble:Logano in for now,Dillon just outside

After finishing sixth Sunday at Kansas,Austin Dillon feels confident that he can finish well enough at Talladega Superspeedway next weekend and advance to the Round of 8 in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

“I’m just proud of my guys, we did a good job,” Dillon told NBC after the race. “The last four-tire call was really good. I really wanted a top-five there, that was our goal or a win, and just missed it by one.

“We have a shot to make it to the next round at Talladega, and that’s all you can ask for. … We’re just going to have some fun at Talladega and see if we can make it to the next round.”

But Dillon will have to worry not only about how well he finishes at Talladega, he’ll also have to worry about how Joey Logano does.

MORE: Race results

MORE: Point standings

Logano and Dillon enter the final elimination race of the Round of 12 tied, 37 points behind points leader Jimmie Johnson. Logano is scored in eighth place in the standings after Kansas, while Dillon is scored ninth. The tiebreaker is best finish in the round. Logano finished third at Kansas to hold the tiebreaker on Dillon for now.

“We did what we had to do today, went and were flawless on execution, just need to be a little faster to win,” Logano told NBC. “It was a good recovery (from last week’s wreck at Charlotte), but I wouldn’t say it’s a full recovery yet. We’re going to be needed the race pretty hard at Talladega and try to get a few more points there.”

Logano said Talladega is “not a must win, either. We’re in (a transfer spot) right now, but it’s obviously a little bit too close for comfort. We have to push harder next week.”

Kevin Harvick - Kansas -'NASCAR Victory Lane'

CUP: Kevin Harvick checks in with the 'NASCAR Victory Lane' crew after winning the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

NASCAR America: Should Sprint Cup drivers be allowed in Xfinity races?

After a weekend that saw Sprint Cup regular Kyle Busch win the Xfinity race at Kansas Speedway and Cup driver Kyle Larson hinder Xfinity title contender Erik Jones‘ chances of a win or strong finish, talk has again surfaced on if Cup drivers should be competing in the Xfinity Series.

Earlier this week, NASCAR executiveSteve O’Donnell told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that fans should “stay tuned” for an announcement “fairly soon” on the issue.

With all of that brewing, NBC Sports analysts Jeff Burton and Parker Kligerman debated the issue.

“It’s a very difficult solution,” Burton said on NASCAR America. “The reason I became a Cup driver is because of the opportunity to run in the Xfinity Series and race against Harry Gant, Mark Martinand Dale Earnhardt. Every now and then I could run with them. If none of them were there, I could win. But that propelled me, that gave me the opportunity to get to the Cup Series. A Cup owner, Billy Stavola and Mickey Stavola, they watched me run in the Xfinity Series, they said, ‘Hey that guy every now and then can run with Mark Martin, maybe he can be a Cup driver.’ Without that opportunity I don’t think I’m ever a Cup driver.

“I will say this, when I raced against Mark Martin, he didn’t drive (in the Xfinity Series) for Jack Roush. When I raced (against) Harry Gant, he did not drive for his Cup team. When I raced Dale Earnhardt, he ran his Xfinity team out of a small shop on his property. I wasn’t racing against Richard Childress Racing. I was racing against smaller race teams. As the Xfinity Series has evolved, they’re not miniature Cup teams.”

Burton also said that permitting Cup drivers to race in the series allows Xfinity drivers to stand out to show that they can compete in the Cup level.

Kligerman said: “I’m going to play some devil’s advocate with you and say, ‘OK, if tomorrow Kyle Busch and all the other Sprint Cup regulars could not run the Xfinity Series, then we would not evaluate drivers, young drivers coming up by saying ‘If they can beat Kyle Busch or beat Brad Keselowski.’ ”

Burton noted that “the way we’ve always done things doesn’t mean that is the right way to do it. Racing is always an evolution … and we need to be looking at better ways to do things.”

Chase Elliott:I don t know what to do following another bad finish

Chase Elliott looked like one of the drivers to beat for the better portion of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, but things quickly took a turn for the worst.

After starting 13th, Elliott methodically made his way toward the front early, wrestling the lead from eventual race winner Kevin Harvick on Lap 169. Five laps later, Elliott relinquished the lead for a green-flag pit stop.

Immediately after, Elliott was forced to give up the lead once gain to come back down pit road for a left-rear tire rub. The problem eventually caused him to hit the wall and finish 31st.

Elliott’s crew chief, Alan Gustafson, told him over the radio during the race that he thought he knew what the problem was, but didn’t go into detail.

“I don't know if we got the left rear getting up on the race track, or something and it got into the fender and cut it down,” Elliott said of the issue after the race. “I don't know what to do man, we were trying as hard as we can. We had such a good car today (Sunday) again, and....I don't know what to do. Just keep after it and try to move on."

The rookie is now 25 points behind eighth-place Joey Logano in the Chase standings. Heading into Talladega, it’s not mathematically impossible for Elliott to advance to the Round of 8 on points, but he certainly has his back against the wall in a likely must-win scenario.

"I just will go there, and race our hearts out and try to win I guess,” Elliott said. “That's about all we can do.”

Despite another tough race following a 33rd-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway a week prior, a dejected Elliott still managed to look at the positives.

“We have something to be proud of in the way we have been running,” he added. “There are just some things we can't control. I don't know how to fix that stuff. These guys deserve better on this SunEnergy1/ NAPA team.  We are bummed, but what do you do. You just have to move on."

Brad Keselowski involved in wreck at Kansas(video)

NASCAR Chase driver Brad Keselowski‘s bid for a win came to an early end when he wrecked on Lap 189 of the scheduled 267-lap Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Keselowski slid up in front of Denny Hamlin, got loose and Keselowski’s Ford Fusion was tapped in the rear by Hamlin’s Toyota Camry, sending the 2012 Sprint Cup champion flying.

The front end of Keselowski’s car was heavily damaged when it appeared to hit part of the concrete rumble strip near the entrance to pit road. His team is attempting to put the car back together and back on the racetrack.

Keselowski will now have to win or have a very high finish in next Sunday’s race at Talladega to be able to advance to the Round of 8 in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

UPDATE: Keselowski returned to the track on Lap 219 with a new front end, but he also was scored 29 laps off the lead in 37th position. Two laps later, heavy smoke billowed from the rear of Keselowski’s car and he was ordered off the track, also bringing out a caution. Keselowski’s day was over at that point and he finished 38th.

“If my team keeps putting out this kind of effort, I’m not going to worry about today,”said Keselowski, who has four wins at NASCAR’s largest superspeedway. “We’re going to win another race or we’re going to race Talladega or other races. We’ll be fine.”

Chase Elliott: ‘I don’t know what to do’ after poor Kansas finish, Talladega looming

For about 40 laps in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 the talk of Chase Elliottgetting his first Sprint Cup win once again intensified.

Then it – and possibly his championship hopes – disappeared in the smoke from a fender rub.

Elliott had chased down Kevin Harvick for about 30 laps when he caught the No. 4 and passed him for the lead on Lap 169.

Elliott led four laps and then gave it up as green flag pit stops began. But immediately after his pit stop, smoke began pouring from the left rear of his car as sheet metal rubbed against a tire. Elliott was forced to pit on Lap 175.

The No. 24 never returned to the top 20 and was plagued by multiple brushes with the wall the rest of the afternoon. Elliott finished 31st, three laps down.

As to the cause of initial tire rub, Elliott said: “We really don’t know. I don’t know if we got the left rear getting up on the race track, or something and it got into the fender and cut it down. I don’t know what to do man, we were trying as hard as we can. We had such a good car today again.”

Combined with his DNF last week at Charlotte, Elliott is last on the Chase grid among the 12 remaining drivers and 25 points out of eighth, the final transfer spot.

“I don’t know what to do,” Elliott said. “Just keep after it and try to move on.”

Moving on means going to Talladega Superspeedway, site of the last race of the second round.

“I just will go there, and race our hearts out and try to win, I guess,” said Elliott, who won the pole at Talladega in the spring and led 27 laps before finishing fifth. “That’s about all we can do, I guess. We have something to be proud of in the way we have been running. There are just some things we can’t control. I don’t know how to fix that stuff.”

Despite tough day at Kansas, Hamlin confident he can win at Talledega

It’s been a rough Round of 12 in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship for Denny Hamlin.

In the first two races of the second round , he’s finished 30th (Charlotte) and 15th (Sunday at Kansas).

That leaves Hamlin below the Chase cutoff line heading to Talladega in 10th place, 43 points behind series leaderJimmie Johnson and six points short of eighth-ranked Joey Logano.

Even so, Hamlin is confident he can win at Talladega, which would advance him to the Round of 8.

“I’ve got confidence I can win every single week on the race track,” said Hamlin, who won this year’s Daytona 500. “It’s just – this is a team sport and you’ve got to have every facet of the car and the team all put together and we’ve just got to execute. I’ve got full confidence we can go to Talladega and win next week and we’ll show that when we get there.”

Crew chief Mike Wheeler also remains confident.

“We had a lot of challenges today, more than we were expecting,” he said. “We were hoping for a smooth day and a top-three finish and ended up having three or four issues, and battled back from all of them and had a top 15 out of it, which isn’t too bad. We still have a chance to go into next week and we’ll try to make the most of it.

“We knew going into Talladega that we would probably have to have a win to get in (to the Round of 8). At this point right now, we probably need that, but honestly if we go run top three, things can fall our way. It’s not going to stop us from doing the best we can and our speedway program is pretty good for us, so I’m actually okay with going there and looking forward to it.”

Kyle Busch fades late to finish 5th at Kansas, ready for Talladega’s ‘racing gods’

It seems rare that Kyle Busch doesn’t have a car to win, but that was the case Sunday as he tailed off in the second half of the Hollywood Casino 400.

Still, Busch came home with a fifth-place win, which allowed him to hold on to his third-place ranking in the Chase for the Championship standings, 10 points behind series leader Jimmie Johnson.

“We had really good short-run speed, we just didn’t have long-run speed,” Busch said. “I hated that we weren’t able to go up there and race the 4 (Kevin Harvick) and get more out of it, but we just had to fade gracefully there towards the end and didn’t have enough to chase those guys down. I wish we did. Our car was fast all through practice and everything this whole weekend, we just missed it here for the race. We just didn’t get our race adjustments right.”

While he is sitting in a strong position heading to Talladega, the younger Busch isn’t taking anything to chance, given how unpredictable NASCAR’s biggest superspeedway is.

“You never can have any comfort and you do what you need to do in order to transfer through,” Busch said. “It’s all about the racing gods in that story in Talladega.”

NASCAR executive hints at rule to limit Sprint Cup drivers in Xfinity,Camping World Truck Series

For fans who don’t like Sprint Cup drivers competing in Xfinity and Camping World Truck races, a NASCAR executive says “stay tuned’’ for an announcement “fairly soon’’ on the issue.

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, uttered those words Monday on “The Morning Drive” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio when asked about limiting Cup drivers in the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series.

“It certainly is on our radar,’’ O’Donnell said. “We’ve heard the fans. It’s interesting, it’s been a balance throughout the years. We’ve always had Sprint Cup drivers come into the Xfinity Series and sometimes dominate, back in the Mark Martin days.

“As the sport has evolved one of the great things is we’ve got more of a fan following in the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series. They like seeing those drivers come up through the ranks and it’s our job to make sure that Xfinity is where names are made. We’ve got to do on that on the racetrack.

“That is something we’re taking a really hard look at for next year, I’d say stay tuned. We’re going to look at and probably have something to announce fairly soon.’’

NASCAR prohibits any Cup driver who was in last year’s Chase from competing in this year’s season finale for the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

One possibility could be for NASCAR to extend such a ban for all future Chase races in the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series.

This issue was raised after Kyle Buschwon Saturday’s Xfinity race at Kansas Speedway for his ninth victory of the season.

Since 2011, Cup regulars have won 138 of the 196 Xfinity races (70.4 percent).

Nineteen of the 30 Xfintiy races this season have been won by a driver who competes regularly in the Sprint Cup Series. While that is nearly two-thirds of the races won by a Cup regular, the total is down from recent years.

Last year, Cup regulars won 23 of 33 Xfinity races (69.7 percent)

In 2014, Cup regulars won 22 of 33 Xfintiy races (66.7 percent)

In 2013, Cup regulars won 28 of 33 Xfinity races (84.8 percent)

In 2012, Cup regulars won 18 of 33 Xfinity races (54.5 percent)

In 2011, Cup regulars won 28 of 34 Xfinity races (82.4 percent)

Here’s a look at the most wins by a Cup regular in the Xfinity Series since 2011

42 – Kyle Busch

22 – Brad Keselowski

19 – Joey Logano

9 – Carl Edwards

9 – Kevin Harvick

Carl Edwards gutted after another home-track victory slips away

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – With a steely smile and stiff upper lip, Carl Edwards politely weaved through throngs of longtime friends and well-wishers, flagging downKevin Harvick’s car at the victory lane gate.

Edwards leaned through the window to offer a lengthy congratulations and then graciously completed the rest of his postrace interviews.

He delivered a good-natured slap on Kansas Speedway president Pat Warren’s shoulder with a “thanks for everything,” joked with Austin Dillon about his playoff beard and stopped when a member of the track’s color guard asked him for a selfie before exiting the media center.

“Yeah, let’s do it,” Edwards said.

Outwardly, the Columbia, Mo., native, who started his career on short tracks across Kansas and Missouri, seemed to be handling his runner-up finish to Harvick in the Hollywood Casino 400 – the hometown race Edwards desperately wants to win even more than the Daytona 500.

But looks were deceiving.

“I’d rather not talk about that,” Edwards said with a half-smile that seemed to indicate his joke was a half-truth. “It’s tough. There’s so many people that come to this racetrack that support me and have supported me. Not just when I’m racing here, but Capitol Speedway, Old Summit, Callaway Raceway, Godfrey, all these places I raced growing up. It’s a really special place for me.

“As much fun as I had racing up front, yeah, it stings. There are negative emotions tied to not winning here with that fast of a car, but that’s the way it goes.”

Edwards led 61 laps and was in first on a restart with 30 laps remaining when he lost the lead to Harvick.

After slipping to third behind Kyle Busch, he furiously battled by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate for a second – the same place he finished to Jimmie Johnson at the 1.5-mile oval eight years ago.

This didn’t have the same dramatic ending – Edwards slapped the turn 4 wall on the last lap while attempting an optimist slide job on Johnson – “both of them were pretty painful.

“I was pretty sure we were in control of the race,” he said. “I felt really good about it. That race here in 2008 with Jimmie, I felt like we were really in control of that one. We let that one go, too.

“These I remember more just because they are so special. Fortunately, we get to race here twice now every year so I cannot wait to come back again. I wish we could line the cars back up again and go, but I’ll wait. Just like anything, you learn from your wins, but you probably learn more from your defeats. We’ll go back and look at that restart.”

Harvick, who has been working on honing his restart technique for a year, timed the green flag perfectly in his No. 4 Chevrolet, leaving Edwards’ No. 19 Toyota in the dust with a push from Johnson’s No. 48 Chevy.

“I think the key to the restart was just timing,” Harvick said. “The rest of it we’ll keep to ourselves.”

The other key was Edwards’ battle with Busch, which chewed up too many of the remaining 30 laps to make a run at Harvick.

“I knew if I could clear Kyle quickly, I could maybe catch Kevin,” Edwards said. “My car was faster than Kyle’s. He was good there for a lap or two, then I felt like I was quite a bit faster. I just needed to get by him.

“But he was doing his job. He was racing as hard as he could.”

Though teammate Matt Kenseth led a race-high 116 laps from the pole position, Edwards said his Camry was the best of the day after qualifying second.

“That’s what’s frustrating,” he said. “You should win with the fastest car, especially when you start on the front row. I take responsibility for that. I could have done something different on that restart, possibly hung on, and I wouldn’t have been in that position.

“But, man, I raced as hard as I could all day. We didn’t make hardly any mistakes. So we can keep our heads up.”

He also will enter Talladega Superspeedway in relatively safe position for advancing to the Round of 8. Edwards is 24 points ahead of the current cut line.

“Day or two will pass, maybe the sting will wear off and I’ll be more excited about the points situation going into Talladega,” he said. “Because that’s the bright side.”

Keselowski will ‘race guts out’ at Talladega after finishing 38th at Kansas

After wrecking and finishing 38th in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400, Brad Keselowski left Kansas Speedway in 11th place in the Chase standings, 44 points behind series leader Jimmie Johnson and seven points below the Chase cutoff line heading to Talladega next Sunday.

But to hear Keselowski, a four-time winner at Talladega, he’s feeling very confident that not only will he have another strong finish at NASCAR’s largest superspeedway, but that he’ll also make the cut when the Round of 12 is whittled to the Round of 8 after next Sunday’s race.

“I don’t think it is a must-win situation; I am not worried about it,” the 2012 Sprint Cup champion said. “I am going to go there and bust my butt to try to win but I don’t think it is a must win yet.

“I like Talladega. Talladega has been good to me and I am going to drive my butt off and at the end of the day I have faith that if it is meant to be, it is meant to be. We can’t get down. There is a long way to go still.”

Keselowski had a promising race going at Kansas until he slid up in front of Denny Hamlin on Lap 189, got loose and Hamlin couldn’t slow fast enough to avoid hitting the rear of Keselowski’s car.

That contact sent Keselowski’s Ford Fusion sailing left, where it made heavy contact with the concrete rumble strip at the entrance to pit road, causing extensive damage to his front end.

“I don’t know what happened,” Keselowski said. “Days like today are going to happen to anybody and everybody in the Chase. It is about the effort you have when that happens.”

Keselowski lost 29 laps while in the garage as his team worked feverishly to install a whole new front end on his race car.

Unfortunately, he got back out on the racetrack when a huge plume of smoke came out from the back of his car, signaling the end of his day once and for all.

“The guys busted their butt to get me back out,” Keselowski said. “They put on a whole new front end. There must have been some kind of damage to the engine (that caused the heavy smoke) from the spin.

“It was running fine before that. I think it is just unfortunate. I am not going to say for sure what happened to cause the spin. We will move forward. If we keep getting the effort like they did to fix this thing we will be fine.

“If my team keeps putting up this kind of effort, I don’t worry about today. We will win another race. We will win Talladega and other races and be fine. … I am proud of my guys for doing their best to recover and we will move on to Talladega and give ‘em hell.”

Matt Kenseth laments how good race turned bad; lucky to finish ninth

It was a bittersweet day for Matt Kensethin Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

The good part was he maintained his second-place position in the standings, just eight points behind series leaderJimmie Johnson.

But that was about the only thing good that came out of Sunday’s race, said Kenseth, who started from the pole, led a race-high 116 of 267 laps but finished what he considered a disappointing ninth.

“It was really bad,” Kenseth said of his overall race. “We had a good car and not sure how I did it, but I hit the wall getting into turn one and then in the middle of the race I started losing some handle a little bit when the track changed.

“I lost track of where I was and hit the wall. It was an uphill battle from there and then at the end I thought we still had a shot at a top-five out of it but (Alex Bowman) just hung a left as hard as he could and knocked our right fender off and then I was just dead in the water.”

With the way he dominated the first half of the race, it appeared this would be Kenseth’s race to win. But things didn’t work out that way.

Trying to put together a complete race is “never easy,” Kenseth said. “We got off a little bit. We led early and as the track rubbered up we got off on our handle a little bit and lost a few spots to (Chase Elliott) and (Kevin Harvick). Some of those guys had some real good short-run speed.

“Then I got into the wall right after I lost a couple spots and that really put us behind. But, I thought we were going to come back from it and I’m not sure what (Bowman) was doing. He came right across the track and cleaned the right front fender off. We were lucky to finish, so thankful we still got ninth out of it after that.”

Alex Bowman earns best result of career while dealing with ‘stomach bug’

The best finish of Alex Bowman‘s Sprint Cup career took a lot out of him.

The replacement driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway with what Earnhardt called a “stomach bug,” and managed put the No. 88 in seventh place.

Afterward, Bowman had to be taken to the infield medical center.

The seventh-place finish is Bowman’s best in 77 career Sprint Cup starts. He has two top 10s in his six races in the No. 88 as Earnhardt recovers from a concussion.

Bowman was one of three non-Chase drivers in the top 10. A.J. Allmendingerfinished eighth. It’s his sixth of the year and his first since the August Bristol race.

“It felt like the best 1.5-mile race we put together there” Allmendinger said. “Good solid top-10 car all day. I made a mistake and sped on pit road (on Lap 117) and got us behind a little bit. Just kind of tough call there at the end. You don’t know how many people are going to pit and good track position and everybody behind me came. I was pretty happy to hold most of them off. I felt like we had about a fifth or sixth-place car and we finished eighth with it. Just a solid day. We need to keep doing work like this.”

Allmendinger has 44 top 10s in 294 Sprint Cup starts, with nine in the last two seasons.

Kasey Kahne finished 10th for his sixth top 10 in seven races. He has 12 top 10s this year, his most since 2013.

Kevin Harvick outruns Carl Edwards to win Hollywood Casino 400

Kevin Harvick took advantage of Carl Edwards dueling with a teammate to lead the final 30 laps and win the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Harvick clinches a spot in the third round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup with the win.

The No. 4 was followed by Edwards, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch.

Harvick, who led 74 laps, has won the second race in both rounds of the Chase so far. He won at New Hampshire in the first round.

“These races are hard to win and these guys are so good at the details,” Harvick told NBC Sports. “You put their backs against the wall and they get better.”

Harvick first took the lead on Lap 126 from Matt Kenseth, who led 116 laps before the halfway point before fading to finish ninth. Harvick then led 43 laps. In the middle of the race, a slow pit stop sent Harvick deep into the top 10, but Harvick returned to the point on the final restart. Edwards got into a tense battle with Busch, allowing Harvick to jump out to a 2.5-second lead.

Since the elimination format of the Chase debuted in 2014, Harvick has never been eliminated from a round.

“It’s hard to keep yourself motivated and perform at a high level, so to be able to come out and do it for three years says a lot about the character of this team and the things that they do,” Harvick said. “I’ve done a poor job (on restarts) the first half of the year. We struggled with some ratios and timing. We came up with some good ratios and things that really fit what we are doing.”

Harvick’s fourth win of the year gives him 35 Sprint Cup victories.

MORE: Race results

MORE: Point standings

HOW KEVIN HARVICK WON: Harvick overtook Carl Edwards on the final restart with 30 to go and led the rest of the way unchallenged.

WHO HAD A GOOD DAY: Carl Edwards led 61 laps and earned his first top five since Kentucky in July … Joey Logano finished third a week after placing 36th at Charlotte … Jimmie Johnson followed up his Charlotte win with a fourth-place finish … Alex Bowman bounced back from early contact with Jamie McMurray and an unscheduled pit stop to finish seventh for his career-best finish and his second top 10 … A.J. Allmendinger finished eighth for his sixth top 10 of the season and his first since Bristol in August …Kasey Kahne‘s 10th-place finish gives him six top 10s in the last seven races.

WHO HAD A BAD DAY: Aric Almirola andDavid Ragan caused a caution on Lap 37 when they got together. Almirola finished 40th, Ragan in 36th … Jamie McMurray hit the wall on Lap 44 after making contact with Alex Bowman. McMurray finished 37th … Kyle Larson hit the outside wall on Lap 177 to bring out the caution. Larson finished 30th … Brad Keselowski was turned by Denny Hamlinas they exited Turn 4 on Lap 190. Keselowski went sliding through the frontstretch grass, receiving significant damage. Keselowski finished 38th, earning his first DNF since the 2015 Daytona 500 … Denny Hamlin finished 15th after having to pit three times under one caution for splitter damage and being called for three pit road penalties late.

Notable: The last four Kansas races have been won by a different driver … Chevrolet has won 11 of the 22 Sprint Cup races held at Kansas.

Quote of the Day: “With this format I had a big points gap coming in. With this format it is probably the smart thing to do but I don’t want to race like that. I want to race my guts out and go for wins. I don’t want to points race. I don’t care what the damn format is, I am going to give it my best.” – Brad Keselowski after finishing 38th

NEXT: Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. ET on NBCSN

Sprint Cup points after Kansas race

Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick, who won Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway, are the only drivers guaranteed to advance to the Round of 8.

Johnson remains the points leader after the second race of the Round of 12, which concludes next weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

Joey Logano holds the eighth and final transfer spot. He’s tied with Austin Dillonwith 3,045 points. Logano owns the tiebreaker based on a better finish than Dillon in this round. Logano placed third Sunday.

Outside the transfer spot is Dillon (by tiebreaker), Denny Hamlin (six points out),Brad Keselowski (seven back) and Chase Elliott (25 points back).

Click here for the Sprint Cup points report