The second race of the round of twelve took place this weekend at Kansas Speedway. Before we got to the race all 3 of the Penske teammates would have problems in practice and qualifying causing all three drivers to have to come from the rear of the field. Chase Briscoe led the field to green over his teammate Denny Hamlin. Briscoe led the first 20 laps before Hamlin took the lead and held onto it through green flag pit stops. Cody Ware brought out the first caution of the day on lap 56. Hamlin led the field back to green on two tires and was able to pull away and win the first stage.
Stage 1 Results:
- Denny Hamlin
- Kyle Larson
- Chase Elliott
- Christopher Bell
- Ross Chastain
- Chase Briscoe
- Joey Logano
- Chris Buescher
- Zane Smith
- Carson Hocevar
Pit stops after stage one saw playoff driver Tyler Reddick have to pit twice to address a possible loose wheel. Christopher Bell took two tires and led the field to green to start the second stage. John Hunter Nemecheck and Ryan Preece collided and crashed to bring out the second natural caution of the race on lap 89. Bell led the field back to green and held the lead until pit stops as Hamlin charged back to his bumper. Bubba Wallace cycled out to the lead over both his Toyota competitors but Hamlin made quick work to get back around him. Hamlin was able to hold on to sweep both stages and cash in some all.important stage points.
Stage 2 Results:
- Denny Hamlin
- Christopher Bell
- Kyle Larson
- Chase Elliott
- Chase Briscoe
- Bubba Wallace
- Joey Logano
- Ross Chastain
- Ryan Blaney
- Alex Bowman
After pit stops Chase Elliott beat Hamlin on the restart to take the lead of the race to start the final stage. Elliott was able to hold Hamlin off for about 20 laps before Hamlin was able to get back around and he would hold that lead until JJ Yeley was spun by Carson Hocevar on lap 211. Hamlin reported a loss of power steering under caution. The ensuing restart saw a huge crash after Noah Gragson got into Austin Cindric turning him into Joey Logano, playoff drivers Ross Chastain and Ryan Blaney also suffered damage. Hamlin was able to clear teammate Bell on the ensuing restart as things got rolling again with 45 laps to go. Denny radioed in with about 30 laps to go and said that he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold onto it. Struggling to keep his dominant Camry on point as the laps dwindled. Caution flew with 15 laps to go for the tire carcass off of Kyle Busch’s Cheddar’s Camaro. Hamlin lost spots on pit road after a blunder with the jack. Bell and Wallace led the field to green with 10 laps to go. Hocevar got spit out and spun around bringing out another yellow with 7 laps to go. Wallace was scored as the leader at the time of caution. On the ensuing restart, Wallace and Bell went to battle again. Before they were able to get to the white there would be a huge crash and Zane Smith would wind up on his side and flipping several times in turns three and four. Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry, and several others were involved. After a red flag, they racked the cars back up and tried for a second overtime. It was Bell vs Wallace with teammates Reddick and Briscoe behind. Wallace would make contact with Bell coming out of turn four coming to the white, this would allow those behind including Hamlin to make a charge as they barreled down the backstretch. Hamlin would get tight under Wallace in turn four and the two would make contact. Chase Elliott was able to squeeze by on the inside and get the win to log himself into the round of eight.
Top Ten:
- Chase Elliott
- Denny Hamlin
- Christopher Bell
- Chase Briscoe
- Bubba Wallace
- Kyle Larson
- Tyler Reddick
- Brad Keselowski
- William Byron
- Shane Van Gisbergen
Photo Credit: @STaranto92 on X
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