September 29, 2024 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Ross Chastain plays spoiler at Kansas Speedway

KANSAS CITY, Kansas — 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.



NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 30
Race Results for the Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN Bet - Sunday, September 29, 2024
Kansas Speedway - Kansas City, KS - 1.5 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 267 Laps - 400.5 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 9/29/2024 @ 06:28 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 20 1 Ross Chastain Kubota Chevrolet 267   40 Running 5 52 5
2 6 24 William Byron (P) Valvoline Chevrolet 267 1 4 52 Running 2 24 1
3 19 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 267 8 8 40 Running 1 5
4 7 12 Ryan Blaney (P) Wurth Ford 267 3 3 49 Running 1 3
5 2 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 267 6 2 46 Running 2 5
6 12 48 Alex Bowman (P) Ally Chevrolet 267 9 1 43 Running 1 6 1
7 1 20 Christopher Bell (P) Rheem Toyota 267 5  36 Running 6 122
8 8 11 Denny Hamlin (P) FedEx Toyota 267 4  36 Running 1 1
9 38 9 Chase Elliott (P) UniFirst Chevrolet 267  9 30 Running  
10 15 71 Zane Smith # Focused Health Chevrolet 267   27 Running 1 3
11 25 17 Chris Buescher Fastenal Ford 267   26 Running  
12 22 3 Austin Dillon Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet 267   25 Running  
13 10 99 Daniel Suarez (P) Worldwide Express Chevrolet 267   24 Running  
14 5 22 Joey Logano (P) Shell Pennzoil Ford 267 2  32 Running 1 3
15 27 51 Corey LaJoie Children's Mercy Hospital Ford 267   22 Running  
16 37 41 Ryan Preece HaasTooling.com Ford 267   21 Running  
17 13 23 Bubba Wallace Columbia Sportswear Company Toyota 267   20 Running  
18 24 10 Noah Gragson Bed Bath & Beyond Ford 267   19 Running  
19 3 8 Kyle Busch BetMGM Chevrolet 267  7 22 Running 5 26
20 30 31 Daniel Hemric South Point Hotel and Casino Chevrolet 267   17 Running  
21 32 16 Ty Dillon(i) FitRx Chevrolet 267   0 Running  
22 26 6 Brad Keselowski Solomon Plumbing Ford 267  5 21 Running 2 4
23 28 21 Harrison Burton Menards/Dutch Boy Ford 267   14 Running  
24 9 14 Chase Briscoe (P) Mahindra Tractors Ford 267  10 14 Running  
25 4 45 Tyler Reddick (P) DraftKings Toyota 267   12 Running 1 7
26 11 5 Kyle Larson (P) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 267   11 Running  
27 33 38 Todd Gilliland Rasmussen Air & Gas Energy Ford 267   10 Running  
28 18 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Dillons/NOS Energy Drink Chevrolet 267   9 Running  
29 21 34 Michael McDowell Horizon Hobby Ford 267   8 Running  
30 31 42 John Hunter Nemechek Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota 267   7 Running  
31 34 15 Kaz Grala # Remixers.com/Xemex Ford 267   6 Running  
32 14 77 Carson Hocevar # Premier Security Chevrolet 267 10 6 11 Running 1 5
33 23 7 Justin Haley Gainbridge Chevrolet 266   4 Running  
34 17 2 Austin Cindric (P) Menards/Moen Ford 263 7  7 Running  
35 16 43 Erik Jones AdventHealth Toyota 263   2 Running  
36 35 84 * Jimmie Johnson Family Dollar/Dollar Tree Toyota 257   1 Running  
37 36 44 * JJ Yeley(i) Urban Racing School Chevrolet 118   0 Electrical 1 1
38 29 4 Josh Berry # Bed Bath & Beyond Ford 0   1 Accident  

Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 14 Mins, 54 Secs. Average Speed: 123.294 MPH Margin of Victory: .388 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 24, 22, 12, 11, 20, 54, 2, 19, 48, 77
Stage 2 Top 10: 48, 54, 12, 24, 6, 77, 8, 19, 9, 14

Race Comments: Ross Chastain won the Hollywood Casino 400 presented by ESPNBet at Kansas Speedway, his fifth NASCAR Cup Series victory. Prior to the start the following car dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reason indicated: #9 (engine change).

Failed to Qualify: None.

Caution Flags: 10 for 47 laps; Laps: 2-6 (#4, 16, 21, 9, 84 Incident Backstretch [None]); 20-24 (#5 Incident Turn 2 [16]); 82-86 (Stage 1 Conclusion [99]); 99-104 (#43 Spin Frontstretch [None]); 145-148 (#31 Spin Turn 2 [5]); 150-153 (#7, 42 Incident Backstretch [21]); 158-161 (#2, 8 Incident Backstretch [31]); 167-171 (Stage 2 Conclusion [31]); 237-241 (#8 Incident Backstretch [77]); 244-247 (#77, 38, 14 Incident Backstretch [47]).

Lead Changes: 30 among 15 drivers; C. Bell (P) 1-21; *. Yeley(i) 22; C. Bell (P) 23-72; W. Byron (P) 73-82; D. Hamlin (P) 83; J. Logano (P) 84-86; W. Byron (P) 87-100; T. Gibbs 101; K. Busch 102-105; C. Bell (P) 106-141; R. Blaney (P) 142-144; C. Bell (P) 145; Z. Smith # 146-148; C. Bell (P) 149-161; A. Bowman (P) 162-167; T. Gibbs 168-171; C. Hocevar # 172-176; R. Chastain 177-202; K. Busch 203; R. Chastain 204; K. Busch 205-210; T. Reddick (P) 211-217; C. Bell (P) 218; B. Keselowski 219; K. Busch 220-224; R. Chastain 225; K. Busch 226-235; R. Chastain 236-238; B. Keselowski 239-241; M. Truex Jr. 242-246; R. Chastain 247-267.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: October 6, 2024 - Talladega Superspeedway

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CURRENT NASCAR CUP SERIES STANDINGS

POS NO. DRIVER MFR +/-

1 24 William Byron Chevrolet +34
2 12 Ryan Blaney Ford +28
3 20 Christopher Bell Toyota +28
4 5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet +18
5 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota +11
6 48 Alex Bowman Chevrolet +8
7 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet +4
8 22 Joey Logano Ford +4

On The Bubble
9 45 Tyler Reddick Toyota -4
10 99 Daniel Suárez Chevrolet -14
11 14 Chase Briscoe Ford -25
12 2 Austin Cindric Ford -29