Sunday September 10, 2023 by Julie Bouchard
Kansas Speedway presented this Sunday the 28th stage of the 2023 season of the NASCAR Cup series, the 2nd of the first round of the playoffs. At the end of a race long dominated by Denny Hamlin but which ended in overtime after Chris Buescher broke a suspension and hit the wall 7 laps from the scheduled finish, Tyler Reddick took the victory, thus earning an automatic place in the next round of the playoffs.
Reddick led only the final two laps of the 268-lap event, placing his No. 45 Toyota 23XI Racing in Victory Lane at the Hollywood Casino 400. His second victory of the season was the fifth of his career in Cup, the second this season after that on the Austin road circuit on March 26.
Denny Hamlin (Toyota/Joe Gibbs Racing) placed second, 0.327 seconds behind Reddick, after leading 63 laps. Hamlin was heading towards victory before the 9th and final neutralization which occurred during this race. By the time the yellow flag was displayed, however, he was only ahead of Reddick by less than a second.
Erik Jones (Chevrolet/Legacy Motor Club) took third place, while last week’s winner Kyle Larson (Chevrolet/Hendrick Motorsports) finished 4th, a breath ahead of 2022 series champion Joey Logano (Ford /Team Penske).
Logano had chosen to position himself behind the Mexican Daniel Suarez during the last restart, with three laps to go. But Suarez was particularly slow to get going with much more worn tires than his rivals. He quickly dropped back in the peloton but this blocked Logano for a handful of seconds, who thus lost his chances of victory.
Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski and Alex Bowman rounded out the Top 10. For the full rankings, Click here.
Several drivers participating in the playoffs encountered problems during this race. Toyota drivers Martin Truex Jr and Bubba Wallace suffered the biggest setbacks. Truex, the regular season champion, completed only three laps before a flat tire sent him into the wall and into the pits, only to retire. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was ranked last among the 36 drivers who took part in this race.
For his part, Bubba Wallace, who won this race a year ago, headed to pit road after scraping the body of his No.23 23XI Racing Toyota against the wall on lap 108. After the Repairing and replacing the right rear tire, Wallace continued his race but only finished 32nd. He and Truex now find themselves below the playoff elimination line.
The next NASCAR Cup Series race is Saturday (7:30 p.m.) at Bristol Motor Speedway. At the end of the 500 laps of this event, we will know the 4 drivers eliminated from the first round of the series. Besides Truex and Wallace, the situation currently seems very compromised for Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Michael McDowell, currently ranked 15th and 16th.
2023-09-10 23:18:55
#NASCAR #Cup #Tyler #Reddick #wins #Kansas #advances #playoffs #video
