Kansas Speedway

Enter the Great Disrupter.

Ross Chastain’s No 1. Trackhouse Chevrolet came to life in the second half of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 and beat William Byron’s Chevrolet to the finish line in a hotly contested Round of 12 opener in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Chastain grabbed the lead from Martin Truex Jr. moments after the final restart on Lap 248 at Kansas Speedway and held off a charging Byron by 0.388 seconds to thwart the Playoff driver’s bid for automatic advancement into the Round of 8.

Having failed to qualify for the postseason this year, Chastain reveled in his first victory of the season, his first at Kansas and the fifth of his career.

“For us on this 1 team, it’s what Cup racing is all about,” said Chastain, who led 52 laps. “It’s what (team co-owner) Justin Marks bought into Trackhouse with Pitbull, bought into NASCAR with Trackhouse to do stuff like this—to disrupt.

“Look, there’s been times this year where we couldn’t have disrupted the minnow pond outside of Darlington, let alone a Cup race. It’s hard. It’s really tough.

“To come and do this, there are times where I didn’t think after practicing and qualifying we had what it took. I thought we have been way stronger here in the past. It didn’t feel great all day, but our Kubota Chevy, it was better as the rubber went down, and the adjustments were great.”

Byron led 24 laps but couldn’t overcome Chastain’s aerodynamic advantage over the closing laps.

“Yeah, just clean air,” Byron said ruefully. “I feel like he got the restart he needed to, and I was in the second row just trying to clear those guys. Once I got clear of them, my balance was OK. Just a little bit tight, but just kind of inching up on him. I needed probably, you know, for it to be a longer run being in second.

“Damn it, I wanted that one really bad. It just sucks, man. You’re so close, and you know going to Talladega you know what that is. So just sucks, but proud of the effort.”

Truex finished third after restarting in the top lane and surrendering the first two positions to Chastain and Byron. Playoff driver and defending series champion Ryan Blaney rallied to finish fourth after an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel.

Ty Gibbs, eliminated from the Playoffs at Bristol in the final Round of 16 race, came home fifth, followed by Playoff drivers Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell (the pole winner), Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott, who started from the rear of the field after an engine change in his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Byron heads to next Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway as the series leader, with a six-point edge over Bell and Blaney and a 34-point margin over ninth-place Tyler Reddick, the first driver below the cut line for the next round.

Hamlin and Bowman are fifth and sixth in the standings, 11 and eight points above the cutoff, respectively.

For Kyle Larson, top seed in the Playoffs entering the Round of 12, Sunday’s race was an unwelcome instance of déjà vu. Reminiscent of his early exit after a slamming the wall in Turn 2 in the first Round of 16 race at Atlanta, Larson cut a right rear tire and bounced of the Turn 2 wall on Sunday at Kansas just 19 laps into the race.

During the subsequent 56-lap green-flag run to the end of Stage 1, Larson complained of a vibration in his No. 5 Chevrolet. fell one lap down and finished the stage in 35th place.

Larson got his lap back as the beneficiary car under caution for Daniel Hemric’s spin on Lap 143 and mitigated some of the damage to his points position with a 26th-place finish. Larson leaves Kansas fourth in the standings, 18 points above the current cut line for the Round of 8.

Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric weren’t as fortunate.

Reddick, the defending race winner, could only manage a 25th-place result and leaves Kansas four points below the cutoff. Suarez finished 14th and trials Elliott and Joey Logano (tied for eighth) by 14 points.

Briscoe fought an ill-handling car and finished 24th, falling 25 points down to eighth place. Cindric sustained damage during a spin on the backstretch on Lap 157, finished four laps down in 34th and trails Logano and Elliott by 29 points.

Seeking his first victory of the season—with a record 19-year streak of winning at least one race per season on the line—Kyle Busch held the lead on Lap 26, with Chastain in pursuit. But as Busch attempted to put Briscoe a lap down though a narrow gap at the top of the track, his car broke loose and spun off Turn 2, causing the ninth caution.

“I’m sure he was racing to stay on the lead lap with whoever was in front of him there,” said Busch, who finished 19th. “Granted, they have a race to run, but back in the old days when you were under 30 (laps) to go or whatever it was, lapped traffic would kind of lay over and give you a lane and let the leaders race.

“I just wasn’t getting that, so I tried to force my hand into getting that and get to his outside, and for whatever reason, it just gave all the air in all the wrong places, and I spun out.”

The race featured 30 lead changes among 15 drivers, the latter a track record. Bell led a race-high 122 laps. Hendrick teammates Byron and Bowman won stages 1 and 2, respectively.

In the closest finish in NASCAR history, Kyle Larson beat Chris Buescher to the checkered flag by roughly one inch to win Sunday night’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway.

After Kyle Busch’s spin on Lap 261 of a scheduled 267 sent the race to overtime, Buescher took the lead on the restart of the two-lap shootout, only to have Larson pull even on the backstretch on the final lap.

Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet and Buescher’s No. 17 Ford banged doors twice coming to the finish line. Buescher held the edge a foot from the stripe, but Larson surged ahead to win in a photo finish, with timing and scoring showing a margin of 0.001 seconds.

The victory was Larson’s second of the season, his second at Kansas and the 25^thof his career. The win was the sixth this season for Hendrick Motorsports, most in the NASCAR Cup Series so far this year.

“That was wild,” said Larson who had faded from second to fourth before Busch’s spin. “I was obviously thankful for that caution. We were dying pretty bad. Was happy to come out third (off pit road), and figured my best shot was to choose the bottom and try and split three-wide to the inside.

“Worked out my car turned well and was able to get some runs. Got through (Turns) 1 and 2 really good down the backstretch and had a big tow on Chris, and got him to kind of enter shallow, and I just committed really hard up top.

“Wasn’t quite sure if we were going to make it out the other side. I got super loose in the center, and then we’re just trying to… I’m trying not to get too far ahead of him to where he can side draft, and then I was just trying to kill his run. It was crazy.”

In the frenzied overtime, Chase Elliott was third, 0,059 seconds behind Larson, followed by Martin Truex Jr., who trailed the leader by 0.075 seconds.

The caution for Busch’s spin negated the fuel-saving measures that had dominated the final stage of the race. The lead-lap cars pitted en masse on Lap 263, with most taking right-side tires only, and Truex opting for fresh rubber on all four corners.

Fifth-place finisher Denny Hamlin was first off pit road and chose the bottom lane for the overtime restart with Larson behind him and Buescher to his outside. But Larson ducked to the inside entering Turn 1, abandoning Hamlin and allowing Buescher to surge into the lead.

Buescher, who scored his first career top five on an intermediate speedway, held the top spot until Larson surged ahead by a half-car-length on the backstretch to set up the wild drag race to the finish line.

“That sucks to be that close,” said Buescher, who overcame a penalty for a pit crew member over the wall too soon during the Stage 2 break. “It was a great finish for us, a really strong day. A lot of speed in this Castrol Edge Ford Mustang, and we really needed that. Needed a win more, and I thought might have had that one.

“Had a lot of speed there firing off. We were really good really all day, and really proud of that. Had some good strategy to get us back up there and tried to cover what I could and gave him half a lane too much, I suppose, but good hard race right there down to the line. But, yeah, it just hurts.”

The race featured 27 lead changes among 10 drivers and seven cautions for 43 laps. Except for stage breaks, the race ran caution free until Lap 176, when contact from Corey LaJoie’s Chevrolet sent seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson spinning in a three-car accident that slowed the race for seven laps.

Three more cautions followed in rapid succession, creating varying strategic options as drivers either chose to pit for fuel or to stay out. Truex, who had ample fuel, was closing fast late in the race on then-leader Hamlin, who was saving gas, when the caution for Busch’s spin forced the overtime.

Pole winner Christopher Bell ran sixth, followed by Alex Bowman, Busch, Noah Gragson (scoring his third straight top 10) and Michael McDowell.

“That race from start to finish was amazing,” said Larson. “That first stage was incredible. The second stage at the end was fun, and then that whole last stage with the wrecks and cautions and then fuel strategy and tires running long and all that was wild.

“You guys got your money’s worth today, and I’m just proud to be a part of the show.”

Notes:Hamlin won the first stage and Buescher the second… The previous closest finishes in NASCAR history were Ricky Craven’s 0.002-second win over Kurt Busch on March 16, 2003 at Darlington and Jimmie Johnson’s victory over Clint Bowyer at Talladega on April 17, 2011 by the same margin… Corey Heim finished 22^ndin relief of injured Erik Jones, who will return to action next weekend at Darlington… Larson extended his series lead to 29 points over Truex in second… Larson’s victory by the closest of margins kept Ford drivers winless through 12 races this season.

With a bold move to the front of the field in overtime, Tyler Reddick won Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 and left his car owner frustrated at the end of the second NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Race at Kansas Speedway.

Reddick beat Joe Gibbs Racing driver and 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin to the finish line by 0.327 seconds. Hamlin led 63 laps and was more than two seconds ahead of Reddick when Playoff driver Chris Buescher blew a right rear tire on Lap 261 of a scheduled 267 to cause the ninth and final caution.

Diverging strategies then gave Reddick the opening he needed to gain automatic entry into the Playoffs’ Round of 12. Daniel Suarez stayed out on 31-lap-old tires and inherited the lead. Erik Jones, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano made two-tire stops and restarted second, third and fourth.

Reddick restarted on the bottom of the third row and surged forward while Hamlin hung back in the top lane. After the field rounded Turn 4 on the restart Lap, Reddick shot to the bottom of the track and took the lead right before the start/finish line.

On the final circuit, third-place finisher Erik Jones moved up the track on the backstretch to block Hamlin’s progress for a moment, and that gave Reddick all the breathing room he needed to secure his second victory of the season, his first at 1.5-mile Kansas and the fifth of his career.

“Just an outstanding job by this whole 23XI team,” Reddick said, after climbing out of the window of his No. 45 Toyota during his celebratory burnout.

“We had really good pace, but just couldn't get ahead of Denny there, but chaos ensued, people stayed out, some took two tires, and the bottom lane opened up. Pretty crazy.”

Beaten by a car he owns, Hamlin took the defeat philosophically. The second-place run leaves him 49 points ahead of teammate Martin Truex Jr., the first driver below the current Round of 12 cut line.

“Well, the 5 (Kyle Larson, behind Hamlin in the top lane for the final restart) was just laying back so much,” Hamlin said. “I was trying to back up to him. Should have just kind of focused forward probably.

“It gave the 45 (Reddick) an opportunity to get up there in front of us. Just kind of sleeping on the restart, looking in the rear view instead of looking in the front.

“Just another really, really fast car—just didn't need that caution at the end.”

Larson finished fourth after leading a race-high 99 laps and winning the first stage. Logano came home fifth, thanks to the two-tire call by crew chief Paul Wolfe. Chase Elliott was sixth, followed by Kyle Busch, pole winner Christopher Bell and Brad Keselowski, who won the second stage.

The race, however, had dire consequences for Playoff drivers now in danger of elimination next Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Disaster struck Regular Season Champion Martin Truex Jr. before the race was four laps old. As the field was working Lap 4, Truex started to slow on the backstretch and then slammed the wall in Turn 3, the result of a cut tire.

With the suspension on his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota damaged beyond repair, Truex retired to the garage in 36th place and fell seven points below the cut line for the Round of 12.

“Just unfortunate and very unlucky,” Truex said after exiting the infield care center. “I took off really tight, and I knew something was up, and then cut a right rear. Not really sure what happened, obviously, but it blew in the worst place possible.

“I hate it for my guys. We had an awesome Bass Pro Toyota Camry. We were going to have a great day, just not sure what we need to do to get some luck here.”

Bubba Wallace was next to have his hopes of advancement to the Round of 12 suffer a crippling blow. Wallace was running second on Lap 108 when his right rear tire exploded, sending his No. 23 Toyota hard into the outside wall.

Wallace brought the car to pit road to repair a bent right rear toe link and lost three laps in the process. After a second trip to pit road, he was five laps down in 34th place and could recover only to 32nd by the end of the event.

Now 14th in the Playoff standings, Wallace leaves Kansas 19 points behind Kevin Harvick in 12th.

After two brushes with the outside wall, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came home 23rd and is 22 points behind Harvick. Michael McDowell dropped 40 points below the cut line with a 26th-place result and realistically needs a victory at Bristol to advance to the Round of 12.

Denny Hamlin didn't tap-dance around the tap that helped him to a much-needed victory at Kyle Larson's expense in Sunday's AdventHealth 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.

On the final lap, after an intense chase that began with a restart on Lap 221 of 267, Hamlin closed in on Larson's Chevrolet and further loosened an already loose race car. Slight contact from the right front of Hamlin's Toyota turned Larson into the outside wall as Hamlin streaked past and took the checkered flag.

Larson recovered to finish second, 1.307 seconds behind the winner, who ended a 33-race drought with his fourth victory at Kansas and exited his car at the finish line to a chorus of boos from fans who didn't like the way he had won the race.

"Yeah, I got position on him there, tried to side-draft him and clipped his left rear," said Hamlin, who collected his 49th career victory, tying him with Tony Stewart for 15th most all-time. "But I'm glad he was able to at least finish.

"Credit to my FedEx team, though. Four hundred wins for Joe Gibbs Racing (203 in the NASCAR Cup Series, 197 in the Xfinity Series)—it's such a great accomplishment for them."

Hamlin's last-lap pass for the win was the first at Kansas. The race featured 37 lead changes among 12 drivers, the most lead changes in NASCAR history in a 400-mile race on a 1.5-mile intermediate speedway.

Larson led seven times for a race-high 85 laps that included a stretch of 46 straight before Hamlin grabbed the win on Lap 267.

"I haven't seen a replay," Larson said, "but obviously, he was side-drafting really aggressively, like he would. He was touching me, it felt like, and it had me really out of control. I we wish we could…"

As Larson uttered those words, his attention turned to a confrontation between fifth-place finisher Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson, who swapped sheet metal at least twice during the race. The drivers took a couple of swings at each other before being restrained.

"I got tight off of (Turn) 4, for sure," said Chastain, who ran Gragson up toward the wall during the final stage. "Noah and I have a very similar attitude on the racetrack. We train together, we prepare together, and we know every little thing about each other.

"Yeah, I definitely crowded him up off of 4, and he took a swipe at us in 3, and came down and grabbed ahold of me (after the race). A very big man once told me we have a no-push policy here at Trackhouse (Racing)."

Pole winner William Byron ran third, after recovering from a speeding penalty that put him two laps down. Bubba Wallace passed Chastain with 15 laps left to secure the fourth position. Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon completed the top 10.

The fact that Larson was able to contend for the win at all was a reflection of his talent, given thorny circumstances that set him back in the early going. In a three-way battle for the lead before the race was five laps old, Reddick tried to shoehorn his No. 45 Toyota between Larson, the leader, and Ross Chastain, then running third.

But Reddick tapped the rear of Larson's Chevrolet and sent the No. 5 spinning toward the apron. Larson avoided contact with the wall and recovered to reassume the lead during the second stage.

As Hamlin's crew chief Chris Gabehart noted after the race, "Denny Hamlin just beat the most talented race car driver in the world. What does that say?"

Consecutive wrecks late in Stage 2 scrambled the running order and handed the stage win to Logano, who had stayed out under the sixth caution for Christopher Bell's wreck on the backstretch on Lap 159.

As Chastain slowed slightly on the backstretch, Bell steered his No. 20 Toyota to the inside, then moved up the track and clipped Chastain's Chevrolet. Bell spun into the wall and damaged his car beyond repair.

"Just tried to get a little too aggressive on the side-draft, got into the 1 (Chastain) and spun out," Bell said succinctly after leaving the infield care center.

Driving the same car number that carried teammate Kurt Busch to victory in the May race at Kansas Speedway, Bubba Wallace claimed a dramatic win at the same track in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400, the second event in the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Wallace regained the lead on Lap 225 after the final cycle of green-flag pit stops at the 1.5-mile track and stayed out front for the final 43 circuits as his car owner, Denny Hamlin, chased him to no avail.

Wallace crossed the stripe exactly one second ahead of Hamlin, as a driver not competing for the drivers’ champion won for the second straight week. Hamlin finished second for the second straight Playoff race, have trailed Erik Jones to the line last Sunday at Darlington.

“Man, just so proud of this team, so proud of the effort that they put in each and every week,” said Wallace, who won for the first time this season and the second time in his career. “Just thankful for the opportunity, right? Took this jump from an idea two years ago from a text from Denny before it all even happened. He was ready to get the deal done…

“Just so proud. Pit crew was awesome today. We had one loose wheel. Just thankful. Thanks for the opportunity, and thankful to shut the hell up for a lot of people.”

Wallace is competing for the Cup Series owners’ championship in the car Kurt Busch drove for the first 20 races of the season before suffering lingering concussion-like symptoms after a wreck in qualifying at Pocono. With his win, Wallace qualified for the Round of 8 in the owners’ competition. 

Christopher Bell, who ran third, is the first driver to lock himself into the Playoffs’ Round of 8 on points. The other 15 championship contenders will have to establish their positions in the final 12—or suffer elimination—next Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

During the final run, Hamlin passed Bell for the second position on Lap 252 of 267. With 10 laps left, Hamlin trailed by 2.066 seconds but could get no closer than the final one-second deficit the rest of the way.

Hamlin clearly had mixed feeling about his pursuit of the No. 45 23XI Toyota he co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan.

“It's been a good overall day,” said Hamlin, who recovered from an equipment interference penalty—his 34th pit road infraction of the season—on Lap 27 under a competition caution. “Still frustrated about the first half of the race. We just aren't executing all that well…

“Really happy for our 11 Toyota team. They fought hard. They really stepped up that last half. We made the car quite a bit better. Just really happy about the outcome and really happy for that 45 team and Bubba Wallace and (crew chief) Bootie (Barker). Bubba has just really worked hard on his craft, and we've just given him fast race cars, and now he is showing what he has got.”

Alex Bowman finished fourth, followed by non-Playoff driver Martin Truex Jr. Championship contenders William Byron, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suarez completed the top 10.

Other Playoff drivers weren’t as fortunate.

A sudden disaster knocked Kevin Harvick out of the race before the end of Stage 1. Racing side-by-side, Chastain and Wallace steered up the track in front of Harvick’s No. 4 Ford as the cars sped through Turn 4.

Harvick’s Mustang snapped loose and the right front of his car pounded the outside wall. With damage too severe to repair, Harvick retired from the race in last (36th) place. 

“When those two cars came up in front of me, I just got super tight,” Harvick said after a visit to the infield care center. “When I lifted, it grabbed and got loose. I just wasn’t expecting them to come up and my car getting that tight.” 

Harvick entered the race 16th in the Playoff standings. The last-place results puts him in a must-win situation next Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“Yeah, it is what it is,” Harvick said. “We were racing to win anyway today, so that’s what we will do again next week.”

Harvick wasn’t the only casualty of the first stage. Pole winner Tyler Reddick blew a right rear tire while leading on Lap 65 and slammed into the outside wall in Turn 2. He brought his No. 8 Chevrolet to pit road, but attempts to repair the car proved futile, and Reddick was eliminated in 35th place.

“The right-rear tire just blew like we’ve had a few times,” said Reddick, who fell to 11th in the Playoff standings. “At Fontana (Auto Club Speedway), I was able to save it. But here, it snapped at the worst possible point, and we just killed the wall. 

“It broke the control arm on the right-front, so our day was over. We leave here with not a lot of points, so we’ll have to fight hard at Bristol.”

Troubles continued for Playoff drivers when Kyle Busch, whose team already had incurred two equipment interference penalties on pit road, spun off Turn 4 on Lap 137. Busch’s right-side tires went flat as he skidded toward the infield grass, and Busch lost a lap as he nursed his wounded car to pit road.

Busch got his lap back as the beneficiary under caution at the end of Stage 2, but he lost two laps during the final 96-lap green-flag run. His 26th-place finish dropped him two points below the current cut line for the Round of 8, trailing Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric by that margin. 

Joining Busch and Harvick in the bottom four are Austin Dillon (14th Sunday) and Chase Briscoe (13th). The Playoff field will be cut from 16 to 12 drivers after next Saturday’s race at Thunder Valley.

In an event fraught with pit road mistakes and mechanical issues, Kurt Busch ran an impeccable race.

In an intensely competitive run to the finish of Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway, Busch nosed past leader Kyle Larson at the finish line on Lap 259 of 267 and completed the pass two corners later off Turn 2, as Larson scraped the outside wall.

Seven laps later, Busch’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota crossed the finish line 1.413 seconds ahead of Larson to win for the first time at Kansas, the first time this season and the 34th time in his career. Busch has now won NASCAR Cup races for five different car owners and with four different manufacturers.

“If I can get one Kyle, I can get both,” said an elated Busch, who passed brother Kyle Busch, the third-place finisher, 11 circuits after a restart on Lap 235.

With 21 laps left Busch began his pursuit of Larson, making up ground as traffic became a factor. On Lap 259 Busch pulled even to the inside of Larson, as the drivers raced side-by-side from the backstretch to the finish line, with Busch inches ahead at the stripe.

Busch widened his advantage through the first two corners of Lap 260 and cleared the No. 5 Chevrolet as Larson brushed the wall near the exit of Turn 2.

“It’s all about teamwork,” Busch said. “I don’t do this alone, and the way that Toyota’s helped us, JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing)… My little brother has been so important, just on the family side of ‘Hey, you’ve got to get through these steps.’

“But this is 23XI. This is our first win with the 45 car, and with Jordan Brand on the hood, I felt like I had to play like the GOAT, race like the GOAT. I had to beat the Kyles. I beat both.”

Larson said his car got tight toward the end of the race but asserted that he and Busch never made contact as they raced side-by-side.

“I wasn’t upset with him or anything,” Larson said of Busch. “It was just hard racing there for the win. I knew when he got to my inside, I was struggling in traffic a little bit and he was able to get by and from there, I just had to hold onto second.

“I just fought really hard today and overdrove it at moments. Just had to work hard for it.”

Busch’s win was also a milestone for fourth-place finisher Denny Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing with NBA legend Michael Jordan. Hamlin started the race in the rear of the field and went to the back two more times under penalty before rallying to score his second top-five of season.

Bubba Wallace, who scored 23XI’s first victory last year at Talladega, ran 10th despite a late penalty for an uncontrolled tire.

“It’s huge. I’m so proud of Kurt—and Bubba as well,” Hamlin said. “Bubba deserved a shot at the win as well. They were so much better than that. There were just mistakes, and we’re working on that. I feel like I’ve let these guys down with pit road—and it’s just part of it.

“It’s growing pains, but, man, this is what this team is capable of, and I’m so happy for Kurt. Way more joy than if I was winning.”

Pole winner Christopher Bell finished fifth, followed by Martin Truex Jr., as Toyota claimed five of the top six positions. Ross Chastain, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Alex Bowman ran seventh through ninth, respectively.

Flat left rear tires, which had surfaced as a major issue during Saturday’s practice, continued to plague drivers during the race itself.

Christopher Bell lost the lead under caution after Lap 64 with a flat left rear. The same issue sent William Byron into the Turn 4 wall on Lap 113 and erased a lead of more than 1.5 seconds over Kurt Busch.

Three laps later, front-row starter Tyler Reddick rode the outside wall with a left rear down. Truex slowed with a flat left rear while running fourth within one lap of the end of Stage 2. The recurring problems scrambled the field—and so did a comedy of errors on pit road.

Hamlin, who started in the rear of the field because of unapproved adjustments to his No. 11 Toyota, twice was flagged for equipment interference.

Kyle Busch came to pit road as the leader on Lap 83 and lost nine positions after stopping his No. 18 Camry too close to the wall. After finishing second to his brother in Stage 2, he drew a pit road speeding penalty in sector 10.

Larson lost track position because of two consecutive slow stops in the first half of the race. Chastain lost 13 positions on pit road during the Stage 2 break when his crew had trouble changing the left rear tire.

Erik Jones’ crew was unable to remove his right rear tire and had to cut the wheel off before replacing it, costing Jones seven laps before repairs were made.

Chase Elliott had the opposite problem. The left rear tire fell off the No. 9 Chevrolet as Elliott was running sixth on Lap 196. The car became mired in the mud near the apex of Turns 3 and 4 in a grassy strip below the apron, and the reigning series champ lost three laps.

Remarkably, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Bell, Truex and Chastain all recovered to finish in the top seven. But the one driver who ran a mistake-free race—Kurt Busch—came home the winner.

Kyle Larson did the heavy-lifting on Sunday, leading nine different times for a race-high 130 laps, ultimately crossing the finish line a hefty 3.619-seconds ahead of the field to earn a NASCAR Cup Series-best ninth win of the season (15th of his career) in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

It is the third consecutive race win for the 29-year old Californian and the second time this season he's won three in a row. The last time a driver won three straight races twice in a season was 1987 when the late, seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt accomplished the feat.

As important as the milestone and positive Playoff outcome to Larson's Hendrick Motorsports team, however, Sunday's victory also comes 17 years to the day that the storied organization lost 10 people – including Rick Hendrick's son Ricky and brother John – in a plane crash near Martinsville, Virginia.

In Victory Lane, Larson's No. 5 Chevy team turned their hats backward in tribute to Ricky's favorite style and pointed upward in tribute to the organization's beloved lost members.

"I want to dedicate this win to Rick and Linda (Hendrick)," Larson said. "I didn't ever get to meet Ricky or the other men and women who lost their lives that day, but I felt the importance of this race, no doubt.

"It's crazy how it kind of all worked out there for me to win. I know they were all looking down and helping out there with all the re-starts and stuff after getting into the wall. Again, thank you to Rick Hendrick. I know this means a lot to you and I'm glad I could get it done.‘'

There was a lot to be proud of. Larson has four race victories and a runner-up finish in seven Playoff races this season as the series holds its penultimate Playoff race next week at Martinsville Speedway. The outcome will determine which four of the current eight Playoff-eligible drivers will advance to the Nov. 7 season finale able to contend for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

Larson's Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott was runner-up Sunday, nursing a car with some damage after he hit the wall pushing for a win in the final laps. Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch, who are not Playoff-eligible and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, a Playoff driver, rounded out the Top five.

"Once I hit the wall, I really didn't have a choice, I hurt it pretty bad, but I'm really proud of the effort," Elliott said. "Our NAPA team did a great job today and I felt like we had something for Kyle [Larson] there, just got the wall off of Turn 2. Just so hard to get up to him. Every few feet you get closer, the harder it gets."

William Byron, who won his fourth Stage of the year, and Playoff driver Martin Truex Jr. were sixth and seventh, followed by Christopher Bell, Playoff contender Joey Logano and Austin Dillon.

At least six of the eight Playoff drivers – including Larson – endured some competitive drama during the competitive afternoon that saw 23 lead changes.

Notable, was the early exit for Team Penske's Ryan Blaney. He entered Kansas ranked second in the standings. But his No. 12 Ford was hit by Dillon and sent into the wall as the two ran among the frontrunners with only 44 laps remaining. Blaney's car was unable to continue and he ended up 37th on the afternoon, dropping from second to fifth in the Playoff standings, one point behind Kyle Busch, who finished 28th.

"We got run into from two lanes below me," a clearly frustrated Blaney said. "I have no idea (why). Obviously it hurts. Finishing 37th is not prime. We didn't have a great day but we had did a good job of fighting back and getting back into the Top 10 but then just got wiped out when we had plenty of room.

"That sucks. It was very unfortunate."

Strong winds and season-pressures made for action-packed runs all afternoon. Some cars scraped the wall and could continue like Larson and Elliott, but others, such as Playoff drivers Busch, Brad Keselowski, who finished 17th, and Truex had to pit for repairs and rally back into contention or points-saving modes.

Heading into Martinsville, Larson has the only automatic entry into the Championship 4 with his wins last week at Texas and this week at Kansas. Elliott is now second in the standings with a two-point edge over Hamlin.

Fourth place, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Busch, has that one-point advantage over Blaney and a three-point edge on his JGR teammate Truex. Penske Racing's Keselowski is six points behind Busch and his Penske teammate Logano goes into Martinsville 26 points below the cutoff line.

The series moves to the Martinsville Speedway next weekend for Sunday's Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The top-four ranked drivers then move on to the Nov. 7 NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway to decide who will hoist the hardware.

Perhaps it was birthday fate. When the name of the race is the Buschy McBusch Race 400, your name is Kyle Busch and it’s your 36th birthday – you have to figure there’s some serious racing juju in your favor. And Busch took advantage of it.

Busch’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took the lead on a restart with two laps remaining and held off the field by .336-seconds Sunday at Kansas Speedway to give him his first NASCAR Cup Series win of the season – 58th of his career – and his new crew chief Ben Beshore the first win of his career.

It completed a weekend trophy sweep for Busch, who won Saturday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race too.

“Just a great day to be able to put this M&Ms Camry up front,” Busch said smiling, adding “Great to be able to get everyone back in Victory Lane again this early in the season and get those points going our way.

“And,” he said breaking into a grin, “I just remembered it’s the Buschy McBusch race and a Busch won. What do you know?”

It was a dramatic ending to what had been largely a Kyle Larson show up front all day. The Hendrick Motorsports driver led a race best 132 of the 267 laps. But he got shuffled back to the second row on the last restart and had contact with Ryan Blaney’s front-row running Ford after taking the final green flag. The two cars slid up and bounced into the wall and out of the groove, allowing Busch to take off with the help of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. pushing from behind.

Ultimately the Fords driven by Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski – on fresher tires – chased down Truex on the last lap to claim second and third place behind Busch. Keselowski, last week’s Talladega winner, led a season-best 72 of the opening 80 laps.

Matt DiBenedetto was fourth and reigning series champion Chase Elliott finished fifth. Truex was sixth, followed by Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, William Byron and Austin Dillon.

Larson, looking to claim his second victory of the season was understandably disappointed after the race. He finished 19th after leading the most laps on the afternoon.

“I had the 2 [Keselowski] behind me and he didn’t get to my bumper and I think he had to protect behind him and it just allowed the bottom [row] to get a good jump on us and the bottom two lanes cleared me,” Larson explained.

“I was back to third and planned on pushing [Ryan] Blaney as good as I could and obviously, I pushed too hard and got him loose and chased both of us back into the wall. I was just trying to help him stay side by side with the 18 [Busch] on the back to allow myself to have some sort of opportunity, but I just pushed too hard.

“That’s really the first time I was behind somebody on a restart. I learned for next time.”

The first 167 laps of the 267-lap race were run with no major incidents – the caution flags came out only for a scheduled competition caution and the two stage breaks. Busch won Stage 1 and Larson won Stage 2.

But there were three cautions in the last 20 laps – making pit decisions and lane choice crucial in that last run to the checkered flag.

Ultimately, the two-time series champion Busch, was able to keep his car up front and make the move when he needed to – his victory obviously a huge boost in confidence for the team, which had only two previous top-five finishes in the opening 10 races of the season.

“It’s hard sometimes when you go through the lulls, you go through the disappointment, you go through dejection and the lack of understanding if you can still do it,” Busch said. “There’s a sense of doubt there for sure. But you just have to keep persevering, keep digging and putting your focus forward.”