NASCAR Chase Race No. 5: Kevin Harvick wins Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas

There are now two Chase drivers locked into the next round leaving the remaining ten that are eligible to do battle at the fickle Talladega Superspeedway next weekend.

Kevin Harvick began the day eight points below the cutoff line in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but he doesn’t need to worry about points anymore. The driver of the No. 4 Chevy SS for Stewart-Haas Racing joins Jimmie Johnson in advancing to the Round of 8 after pulling away from the field on the final restart to win the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

“I just got two good restarts against the No 19 (Carl Edwards),” said Harvick. “He didn’t have a car quite as close to him, and I was able to break that draft before I got to the middle of one and two and get away from him, so that was pretty awesome. I just needed to go for and that is really the mindset we go into every race in the Chase was to go for, and we did.”

Carl Edwards, who had the lead at different times, was second followed by Joey Logano, Johnson and Kyle Busch in the top-5. Pole sitter Matt Kenseth led the most laps with 116 and finished 9th.

“That was hard fought,” Logano said. “I am still breathing hard. We just weren’t very good on the short runs so I had to play defense instead of offense on restarts. After 15 laps we were equal to, not way better to the point we could make up a bunch of time. We did what we had to do. I think they told me I am eighth in points so we will be close on it racing at Talladega. We did what we had to do today. We wanted to get a solid top-five and if we could win that is what we wanted. We had a good effort, we just have to get our cars a little faster right now.”

There are now ten drivers left looking to punch their ticket into the next round, unfortunately, one of the most unpredictable tracks on the circuit becomes the elimination race – at Talladega Superspeedway. Right now, the four drivers who would be out if this round ended today are Austin Dillon/Joey Logano who are in a tie for the final spot, Denny Hamlin (-6 points), Brad Keselowski (-7) and Chase Elliott (-25).

It looked like it was going to be a battle between Harvick and Edwards with 40 laps left until a caution came out. They would both restart side by side; however, the No. 4 sped to the lead leaving teammates, Edwards and Kyle Busch, to do battle for second and third letting Harvick to pad his lead.

After a blown engine last week that landed him at the bottom of the Chase race, Denny Hamlin had a number of issues just prior to the second caution and had to make a two extra trips to pit row to work on the splitter. He would fall to 35th at the restart, but remained on the lead lap. He was involved in an incident with Brad Keselowski, and had two pit row penalties while still managing a 15th place finish.

One Chase driver that took a big hit, literally, was Brad Keselowski who came up the track in front of Denny Hamlin, got loose then was hit by the No. 11 sending him into the grass where the front end pretty much exploded upon entry sending him to the garage. His crew was able to get him back on the track with 47 laps left trying to salvage as much of the race as possible, but after one lap appeared to blow something and his day was over. He finished 37th and is below the cutoff line with one race to go.

“My guys busted their butt on this Miller Lite Ford to get it back out,” said Keselowski. “They were working like crazy, there was a fire at one point. They worked their guts out. If my team keeps putting up this kind of effort, I don’t worry about today. We will win another race. We will win Talladega and other races and be fine. That is the first thing, I want to thank my team for that effort. As far as what happened on the track I don’t know. I spun and got in the grass and tore the nose off.”

PIT NOTES:
If there was any question he could be looked at for a full-time Sprint Cup ride in 2017, teams need to look no further than Alex Bowman who is doing a yeoman’s job sitting in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. as he recorded a seventh place finish at Kansas, a career best.

One driver that quietly got a solid finish was Kurt Busch. He started in the back of the field because he crashed his car in the last minute of the final practice on Saturday and steadily climbed through the field for a 13th.

CAUTIONS:
Lap 27 – Debris on backstretch, Clint Boyer gets free pass
— All Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
Lap 36 – Aric Almirola and David Ragan, damage to both cars
— All Chase drivers remain on lead lap at restart
Lap 44 – Jamie McMurray hits wall w/blown tire
— All Chase drivers still on lead lap at restart
Lap 115 – Josh Wise hits wall, Trevor Bayne gets free pass
— Martin Truex Jr. takes wave-around so all Chase drivers restarted on lead lap
Lap 177 – Kyle Larson hits wall, Casey Mears gets free pass
— 11 Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
Lap 190 – Denny Hamlin spins out Brad Keselowski, Michael McDowell gets free pass
— 10 Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
Lap 221 – Brad Keselowski drops fluid on track, Kasey Kahne gets free pass
— 10 Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
Lap 233 – Regan Smith blows tire and hits wall, Chase Elliott gets free pass
— 11 Chase drivers on lead lap at restart

HOLLYWOOD CASINO 400 FINAL RESULTS:
1 – Kevin Harvick
2 – Carl Edwards
3 – Joey Logano
4 – Jimmie Johnson
5 – Kyle Busch
6 – Austin Dillon
7 – Alex Bowman
8 – AJ Allmendinger
9 – Matt Kenseth
10 – Kasey Kahne
11 – Martin Truex Jr.
12 – Ryan Newman
13 – Kurt Busch
14 – Ryan Blaney
15 – Denny Hamlin
16 – Tony Stewart
17 – Trevor Bayne
18 – Danica Patrick
19 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
20 – Paul Menard
21 – Chris Buescher
22 – Michael McDowell
23 – Casey Mears
24 – Matt DiBenedetto
25 – Greg Biffle
26 – Clint Boyer
27 – Landon Cassill
28 – Brian Scott
29 – Regan Smith
30 – Kyle Larson
31 – Chase Elliott
32 – Michael Annett
33 – Cole Whitt
34 – Reed Sorenson
35 – Joey Gase
36 – David Ragan
37 – Brad Keselowski
38 – Jamie McMurray
39 – Josh Wise
40 – Aric Almirola