Upon Further Review: Charlotte chaos changes Chase for title contenders

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.

Ryan:Finally reaching the Round of 8 will mean a chance at seven for Jimmie Johnson

CONCORD, N.C. – The silver-edged and black magnetic bulletin board with the handy brackets and snazzy magnets didn’t tell the full story while displayed in victory lane Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Jimmie Johnson’s name and No. 48 was listed on the first magnet slotted into one of eight slots below “Martinsville/Texas/Phoenix.”

Because of that trio, no one would have blanched if Johnson’s name would have been slid over to the next tidy collection of empty straight lines on the board.

Those represent the four championship contenders in the Nov. 20 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The six-time series champion undoubtedly will be among them after a three-year absence.

With his win in the Bank of America 500, Johnson qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup’s Round of 8 for the first time Sunday.

In reality, the Hendrick Motorsports superstar effectively clinched much more than that — a shot at a record-tying seventh championship. Securing passage to the third round lays out like a layup for Johnson.

He has eight wins, tops among active full-time drivers, at Martinsville Speedway, the 0.526-mile that Johnson adores.

He also has eight wins at Texas Motor Speedway, including four consecutive in the November race on the 1.5-mile oval where Johnson’s knack for tire management is supreme.

Phoenix International Raceway, the flat 1-mile track where Johnson has four wins and 19 top 10s, would be considered his “worst” of the lot.

After Auto Club Speedway, these are the three best tracks on Johnson’s resume when ordered by average finish (7.5 at Martinsville, 7.8 at Phoenix, 8.3 at Texas).

“I’m super excited from the simple fact if there is any driver you want to go into the third round with, I don’t know who else it would be other than Jimmie Johnson,” crew chief Chad Knaus told NBC Sports. “We’re very optimistic for the next segment.”

Leading his team (including the driver) with the single-minded discipline of a drill sergeant for 15 seasons, that’s as close as you’ll come with getting Knaus to size up the No. 48 Chevrolet’s path to the championship as a cakewalk.

But it’s an absolute firewall that will catapult Johnson into the championship round for the first time in the three-year history of the playoffs revamped with points resets, elimination rounds and expanded fields that make it more difficult to recover from a setback.

There have been whispers of whether the changes had “Jimmie-proofed” the Chase.

But Sunday reaffirmed it mostly was circumstantial that Johnson – who raced for a championship at Miami in every season but one from 2004-13 – hadn’t reached the championship round in the new era.

Remove an axle seal failure at Dover in 2015 and a flat tire at Kansas in 2014, and Johnson might be aiming for his ninth title this year.

“All we needed was an opportunity to make it to that final round, and we could have been competitive,” Knaus said. “When you have mechanical problem that’s unforeseen. Those things happen. It just does. It’s life. Racing is a tough sport. It knocks you back into reality in a heartbeat.”

There will be no rude awakenings anytime soon. Clutching a golden ticket to the Round of 8, a rare two-race respite awaits the No. 48 – along with the dread-filled 500-mile roulette wheel at Talladega Superspeedway, which was the first place Johnson went after his 78th career victory.

“I just took a deep breath and was like, ‘Yes, we did it,’” he said. “I don’t have to be worried about finishing at Talladega.”

It’s the rest of the Chase field that should be worried now – though Johnson typically wasn’t betraying any hint of overconfidence and presumption.

“We can’t sit back and celebrate too much,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to buckle down and get to work and keep advancing our race cars.”

A date with history at Homestead-Miami Speedway awaits – and is virtually assured.

Ty Dillon eliminated from Xfinity Chase:“We were terrible today”

CONCORD, N.C. — The difference was one point for Ty Dillon.

Dillon was the first driver out of a transfer spot when the Xfinity Series Chase cut the field from 12 to eight Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Drive for the Cure 300. After finishing 11th, one lap down, team owner Richard Childress apologized on the team’s radio to his grandson after the checkered flag.

“Gave you a piece of (expletive), sorry about that. Man, we just go try to win some races.”

Dillon told NBCSN: “We were terrible today and didn’t give ourselves much of a shot. For whatever reason, our car was not the same today … It’s heartbreaking. We couldn’t even stay on the lead lap. It’s very upsetting. I wanted this championship so bad. It hurts.”

Crew chief Nick Harrison also didn’t hide his disappointment.

“We didn’t have a car fast enough today capable of making it,” he told NBC Sports in the garage. “Disheartening, but part of it. Just got to keep our head up, move on, try to win some races before the year’s up.”

Dillon entered Sunday’s race needing to make up three points to advance. A crash in the Chaser opener at Kentucky Speedway and a 27th-place finish put the team last on the Chase grid. Second place last weekend at Dover International Speedway closed the gap, however, Dillon wound up needing his competitors to have trouble in Charlotte.

Two did in Brennan Poole and Darrell Wallace Jr., but it wasn’t enough. While Poole was eliminated after finishing 18th, Harrison gave credit to Wallace’s team for making up the necessary ground. Dillon, Harrison said, didn’t have a car fast enough to build the gap he needed even though he finished nine spots ahead of Wallace.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Austin Dillon said of his younger brother. “I hate it for him. I don’t know what else we could have done. As a whole, RCR is struggling in the Xfinity Series now. We’ve just got to give him a better car (and) he makes it into the next round.’’

Austin Dillon, who was running a spot ahead of his younger brother, got the free pass on what was the race’s final caution on Lap 185. That left Ty Dillon unable to get on the lead lap and have the opportunity to gain any more positions – and points – that could have helped him advance.

As for what he’ll tell his brother, Austin said, “Go out and try to win races. From right here, it’s nothing fun about it. I wish he was going on to the next round. He really deserves it. It’s just a bummer. The 44 (JJ Yeley) and 48 (Poole) got into it back there, and it made the 44 pit too. And that was another position that he lost. I don’t know. Not good.’’

Harrison will share the same sentiment with his driver when the two sit down and talk about the first round of the Chase.

“I think you just have to move forward and keep your head up and be big boys,” Harrison said. “We’ve had an up and down season, definitely want to get some wins and have been close, we just haven’t. That wreck in Kentucky put us in a hole that we really didn’t need; we could have used our consistency to try and get us is, but we got in a hole, and we didn’t run good enough today to advance.”

LOGANO WINS AT CHARLOTTE, XFINITY ROUND OF 8 FIELD SET

Joey Logano came on strong late to win the NASCAR XFINITY Series Drive for the Cure 300 Presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday. The win is Logano's second of the season and 27th of his XFINITY career.

The Team Penske driver was one of five drivers to run both events on Sunday at Charlotte, joining Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski.

Logano led 12 laps en route to the win at the 1.5-mile track, surging late to overtake a dominant car driven by Larson, who led 165 laps and finished fourth.

Elliott Sadler finished second, with Daniel Suarez in third and Erik Jones rounding out the top five. The top-five effort from Jones secured his spot in the Round of 8 of the first XFINITY Series Chase. Suarez and Sadler won the races at Dover and Kentucky, respectively, to earn their Round of 8 spots.

The following drivers will join them in the next round: Justin Allgaier, Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Reed, Blake Koch and Darrell Wallace Jr.

The four drivers eliminated from the postseason were: Ty Dillon, Brennan Poole, Ryan Sieg and Brandon Jones.

Dillon's 11th-place finish left him one point behind Wallace for the final spot in the Round of 8 field. A battery issue around Lap 120 spoiled a top-five run for Poole and led to an 18th-place finish.

Sunday's race was originally scheduled for Friday night but rain and the remnants of weather from Hurricane Matthew moved the start time to immediately following the Charlotte NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event.

The XFINITY Series Chase will kick off its Round of 8 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday with the Kansas Lottery 300 (3 p.m. ET on Oct. 15, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

JOHNSON WINS AT CHARLOTTE, LOCKS IN ROUND OF 8 SPOT

Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday. The victory locks in Johnson's spot in the Round of 8 in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Johnson had to overcome the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Matt Kenseth on a late restart to take the lead back for good on Lap 317.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver led 155 laps en route to his eighth victory at the 1.5-mile track and his 78th victory in the sport's top series. Since the Chase moved to an elimination format in 2014, Johnson had never advanced out of the Round of 12.

Kenseth finished second, while Kasey Kahne finished third. Ryan Newman and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five. Of the top five, only Johnson and Kenseth are in the Chase.

Several Chase contenders had issues on this day. Martin Truex Jr. (No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota) came to pit road in the top three for his final stop under caution on Lap 311, but his car stalled leaving pit road. That trouble led him to finish 13th.

Denny Hamlin (No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) was running in second and had led 52 laps before his engine expired on Lap 307. Hamlin finished in 30th.

Polesitter Kevin Harvick had an electrical issue with his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet just shy of the midway point of the 334-lap event that brought his day to an early end. Harvick had spent much of his run in the top five before trouble hit; he finished 38th.

Joey Logano also had problems, smacking the wall twice due to tires going down over the course of runs. He went to the garage before returning 77 laps down and ultimately finishing in 36th. Last year, Logano swept all three races in the Round of 12.

A big wreck on a Lap 258 restart involving Austin Dillon's No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Chase Elliott's No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and several others shook up the running order late and brought out a red flag. Both Dillon and Elliott were in the top five at the time and Elliott had led 103 laps on the day. The RCR driver finished 32nd, while Elliott finished 33rd.

The driver that started second, Alex Bowman, (who was filling in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Chevrolet) was involved in a Lap 61 wreck with Casey Mears that saw the Hendrick Motorsports machine suffer major damage to the right side and call it a day early with a 39th-place finish.

Sunday's race was initially scheduled for Saturday night but rain and remnants of Hurricane Matthew led to the race being moved to Sunday as part of a doubleheader with the NASCAR XFINITY Series race, which was postponed from Friday night to Sunday.

The Round of 12 will continue next Sunday at Kansas Speedway with the Hollywood Casino 400 (Oct. 16, 2:15 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

This story will be updated.

Defending Charlotte winner Joey Logano slams the wall after blowing a tire (video)

Joey Logano won’t make it two consecutive wins in the October race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Logano took his No. 22 Ford to the garage on Lap 156 after hitting the wall for the second time in the Bank of America 500.

The defending race winner initially encountered trouble when he blew a left-front tire entering Turn 1 on Lap 118, slamming the outside wall. The accident came during a round of green-flag pit stops, but before Logano had pitted.

The No. 22 team from Team Penske fixed the right-side damage under caution, and Logano restarted 20th, the last car on the lead lap. The second accident occurred on Lap 157 when the right-front tire blew.

“I don’t know; tires are popping,” Logano said. “We’re not the only car that had the issue, but we’re the ones that hit the wall when it happened, so that’s not the best place to have them go down. We had a fast car. Our car was capable of winning the race. We drove up from 10th and were up to third and running down the leaders, so I felt really good about what we had. I don’t know. Things happen. It’s part of racing, I guess.”

Cut tire ends Alex Bowman’s day early at Charlotte (video)

CONCORD, N.C. — Alex Bowman‘s impressive run in the No. 88 Chevrolet at Charlotte Motor Speedway came to an end on Lap 62 of the Bank of America 500.

Bowman was running third when his left-front tire failed as he entered Turn 3. It shot the Axalta Chevrolet up the racetrack and into Casey Mears‘ No. 13 Chevrolet. The two then made contact with the outside wall before Bowman brought the car on pit road and toward the garage.

“Blew a tire I guess,” Bowman said. “It’s really unfortunate. I hate it for these Axalta guys. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports worked so hard. They brought a great race car here, brand new, and destroyed it. Really unfortunate, but it’s not anybody’s fault. We didn’t hit nothing. We just must have run over something.”

Sunday was Bowman’s fifth start substituting for Dale Earnhardt Jr. He started the weekend by qualifying a career-best second to Kevin Harvick and had not fallen outside the top five in the running order at the time of the accident.

Bowman’s best finish with Hendrick Motorsports in four starts was a 10th place at Chicagoland Speedway two weeks ago. He will be behind the wheel for five of the season’s six remaining races.

“They knew we were here; that’s all that matters,” Bowman said. “There is nothing more I can do, nothing more anybody on the race team can do. They all do a great job and did everything right, just bad luck.”