By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Ross Chastain took the lead from Martin Truex Jr. on a late restart and won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, where just about everyone still alive in the playoffs had to overcome problems to make the most of their Sunday.
William Byron was unable to chase down Chastain after he took the lead with 20 laps to go, though the Hendrick Motorsports driver still wound up with the best finish among the 12 to qualify for the second round of the postseason.
Chastain celebrated his first win of the season with his trademark watermelon smash on the front stretch.
“We’ve been building on this,” he said. “We didn’t qualify the best this weekend but we won the race.”
The retiring Truex, who was eliminated last week at Bristol, finished third in what was his last race at Kansas. Ryan Blaney had a loose left wheel in the final stage but rallied to finish fourth, giving the defending champion’s postseason hopes a big boost.
Ty Gibbs was fifth, followed by four more playoff contenders. William Byron was sixth, pole sitter Christopher Bell recovered from a couple of scrapes with the wall to finish seventh, Denny Hamlin salvaged an eighth-place finish after two problems on pit road, and Chase Elliott was ninth after starting at the rear of the field due to an engine change.
“Considering yesterday and starting last and everything, it could have been a lot worse,” Elliott said. “But I’m always on the side of the fence where our car was good enough. I felt like it could have been a lot better. But we’ll take it.”
Kyle Busch looked like he might finally extend his streak to 20 seasons with a Cup Series win when he caught and passed Ross Chastain with 64 laps to go. But cycling back to the front after pit stops, Busch was squeezed by Chase Briscoe as he fought to stay on the lead lap. That sent him into the wall and skidding down the back stretch with 30 laps left.
Busch wound up finishing 19th, extending his winless streak to 51 races dating to last year in St. Louis.
“I guess I got in too big of a hurry,” he said. “I mean, I’m numb. I don’t know what to do.”
Kyle Larson had perhaps the longest day of anyone. The winner at Bristol had a right rear tire go down 18 laps into the race, sending him scraping the wall. The damage appeared to be minimal, and his Hendrick Motorsports crew kept working at it the rest of the race. But he still finished 26th, just behind fellow playoff drivers Briscoe and Tyler Reddick.
Austin Cindric had to pit twice at the end of Stage 1 because of a loose wheel, but was back in contention when his left rear went down near the end of Stage 2, sending him spinning down the back stretch. He finished four laps down in 34th place.
Points picture
Byron moved atop the playoff points standings with Laney and Bell six points behind him, and Larson is another 10 points back. Joey Logano is in the eighth and final spot above the cutoff, four points ahead of Reddick and 14 ahead of Daniel Suarez. Briscoe and Cindric are the other drivers in peril with two races left before the next cutoff.
Setting the pace
Carl Edwards was back at Kansas Speedway to drive the pace car, eight years after walking away from the sport. He never won a Cup Series race at the track west of his hometown of Columbia, Missouri, but he did win a Truck Series race 20 years ago.
“I thought it was just going to be a ceremonial ‘grand marshal’ kind of pace car thing,” Edwards said, “but they made me come in this morning and do a lesson. A little more pressure than I expected.”
Up next
NASCAR continues the Cup Series playoffs next Sunday at Talladega. Blaney won a year ago, beating Kevin Harvick to the line after a last-lap wreck that included Elliott, Briscoe, Cindric and Riley Herbst.