In what on the total is a sneak preview of the Championship 4 scuttle later this year, Denny Hamlin outdueled Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. to steal the Dazzling Originate Batteries 400 equipped by O’Reilly Auto Facets Thursday night at Kansas Speedway.
After a wild restart on Lap 246, Hamlin passed Harvick for the lead on Lap 255 of 267 and held off a uninteresting cost from Keselowski to attain his NASCAR Cup Series-easiest fifth victory of the season, his third at Kansas and the 42nd of his profession.
Hamlin led four times for a scuttle-excessive 57 laps to rebound from three sub-par finishes in what in every other case has been a stellar season for the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team.
“I don’t know if we had the finest vehicle-we positively had a top-three vehicle all day,” acknowledged Hamlin, who has won two straight races at Kansas. “We very finest went and bought it there on the head. I saw the 4 (Harvick) getting loose, and on the total ought to you’re loose, you’re now not in a local to trudge up excessive, and that used to be a succor for us to be able to win that momentum going…
“We’ve had a rough three weeks-we were leading at Indy after we blew a tire, but it completely seems admire we’re in actuality hitting on all cylinders honest now.”
Moments after the final restart, Harvick made a deft switch to waddle past Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman. Hamlin followed and began to shut the outlet by working the head lane on the 1.5-mile music. Harvick’s vehicle used to be too loose to procure Hamlin’s line, and after chasing for eight laps, Hamlin made the run for the lead with relative ease.
“We wanted a miracle,” acknowledged Harvick, who spent different the night working in or shut to the head 5, sooner than grabbing his rapid-lived lead on the final trudge. “Our Busch Gentle Apple Ford Mustang used to be in actuality loose. We purchased a couple staunch restarts and had a couple staunch laps, but we were in ache there regardless, if it didn’t very finest abet going yellow.
“Our guys did a staunch job conserving us in the wrestle all night, but we positively beget some work to influence.”
Keselowski followed Hamlin past Harvick, and Truex rapidly followed to true the third space. Truex led 44 laps and Keselowski 30 in a scuttle that featured a surfeit of action, as the 11 cautions implied.
“I presumed Denny and I were doubtlessly somewhat shut to equal the second half of of the night,” acknowledged Keselowski, who picked up his fifth stage steal of the season in Stage 2. “It used to be very finest a matter of who purchased out in entrance. We didn’t win out in entrance on the restarts there, and he used to be in a local to make doubtlessly the most and produce dwelling the steal. All in all, it used to be still a terribly staunch day.”
Kyle Busch, who led 52 laps, won the first 80-lap stage to pick up his first Playoff level of the season, but his scuttle fell apart with 40 laps left when he slid into the out of doors wall and used to be pressured to pit road with a flat honest entrance tire.
Busch recovered to influence 11th, however the reigning sequence champion saw his winless plug attain 19 races, his longest drought to delivery a season since his first fat-time campaign in 2005.
The scuttle used to be a danger for seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who came to Kansas two ingredients within the present Playoff cutline. Johnson used to be an harmless victim of a Lap 176 demolish introduced on when Joey Logano slapped the out of doors wall after his left entrance tire misplaced air.
Matt DiBenedetto and Austin Dillon also were accumulated in the demolish, but Johnson suffered doubtlessly the most, finishing 32nd and shedding to 18th in the standings, eight ingredients in the abet of Sunoco rookie Tyler Reddick in the scuttle for the final Playoff berth.
Harvick held the fourth space on the influence. Erik Jones ran fifth, followed by Aric Almirola (scoring his eighth straight top 10), Cole Custer, Bowman, Kurt Busch and Byron. Within the scuttle for the accepted-season championship, Harvick leads second-space Keselowski by 97 ingredients.
— NASCAR Wire Service —
Mark scuttle famous ingredients at: Fling Results, Drivers Aspects Standings, Owners Aspects Standings, Cumulative Picture, Penalty Picture.
Mark total scuttle info on the Kansas scuttle web page.
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