Ross Chastain played spoiler Sunday at Kansas Speedway with a victory in the opening race in the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Chastain took the lead off a restart with 20 laps to go in the Hollywood Casino 400. The Trackhouse Racing driver chose the inside lane underneath Martin Truex Jr. He charged by on the bottom and was clear of the field off Turn 2.
The victory was Chastain’s first of the year after failing to earn a playoff berth. He led playoff driver William Byron across the finish line with Truex finishing third.
“It’s a huge deal,” Chastain said. “For us on this [No. 1] team, it’s [why] Justin Marks bought into NASCAR with Trackhouse to do stuff like this — to disrupt. There have 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 today, there were times after practice and qualifying I didn’t think we had what it took. I thought we’ve been way stronger here in the past and it didn’t feel great all day, but our Kubota Chevy, gosh, it was better as the rubber went down, and the adjustments were great.”
Ryan Blaney finished fourth followed by Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell in seventh after starting from the pole. Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Zane Smith completed the top 10. Elliott’s ninth-place finish came after starting last because of an engine issue during practice that required the team to change the power plant for the race.
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Bell led a race-high 122 laps. Byron won the first stage, and Bowman won the second.
The race’s final caution was for Carson Hocevar’s spin on the backstretch after contact from Todd Gilliland. Truex was the lead at the time of caution, with Chastain second, Bowman third and Byron fourth.
Chastain led 52 laps en route to his fifth career victory.
Daniel Suarez was the first of the playoff drivers to finish outside the top 10. He finished 13th and Joey Logano finished 15th. Chase Briscoe finished 24th, Tyler Reddick finished 25th, Kyle Larson finished 26th and Austin Cindric, 34th.
It was a long day for Larson, who hit the wall in Turn 2 on lap 19 because of a cut right rear tire. He fell off the lead lap on lap 56 and spent much of the afternoon having his car, which lacked grip and speed, repaired. Larson received the free pass under a lap 144 caution when Daniel Hemric spun.
Cindric spun on the backstretch on lap 157 after bouncing off Kyle Busch. It left Cindric with a flat left front tire.
KYLE BUSCH SPINS FROM THE LEAD!
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The penultimate caution of the afternoon involved Busch. The Richard Childress Racing driver spun from the race lead while being chased by Chastain. He got loose off Turn 2 coming up on Briscoe, who was fighting to stay on the lead lap. Busch wiggled, hit the outside wall, and lost control of his Chevrolet.
Busch led 26 laps. He has six races left to go to victory lane and push his streak of winning at least one race a year to 20 straight.
Sunday’s race featured 30 lead changes among 15 drivers and 10 cautions.