After taking the lead on a restart with 20 laps to go, Ross Chastain was able to hold off a hard-charging William Byron to win the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, picking up his first win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season and the fifth of his Cup career. After missing the playoffs in 2024, Chastain was able to get in the win column by snapping a 30-race winless streak in the first race of the Round of 12, serving as spoiler to the remaining playoff drivers.
After avoiding a spin from the lead by Kyle Busch at the end of the final long green flag run, Chastain was able to take the lead back by hooking the inside line on the final restart, giving him the top spot for good despite playoff driver William Byron's attempt to run him down over the course of the final laps.
Byron would end up with the best finish of all playoff drivers, with Ryan Blaney in fourth, Alex Bowman in sixth, Christopher Bell in seventh, Denny Hamlin in eighth and Chase Elliott in ninth marking the other playoff drivers to earn top-10 finishes in the opening race of the Round of 12.
Hollywood Casino 400 results
- #1 - Ross Chastain
- #24 - William Byron
- #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
- #12 - Ryan Blaney
- #54 - Ty Gibbs
- #48 - Alex Bowman
- #20 - Christopher Bell
- #11 - Denny Hamlin
- #9 - Chase Elliott
- #71 - Zane Smith (R)
While his regular season wasn't up to the standard that he had set in his first two seasons with Trackhouse Racing -- including 2022, when he set a high bar by making the Championship 4 and finishing second in the final standings -- Chastain had been trending towards contending for wins again with three top fives and four top 10s in his last seven starts.
Today, that trend and a fast car brought Chastain back to Victory Lane for the first time since Phoenix last November.
"For us on this 1 team, it's what Cup racing's all about. It's what (car owner) Justin Marks and Pitbull bought into NASCAR with Trackhouse (for), to do stuff like this -- to disrupt," Chastain told NBC Sports. "And look, there's been times this year where we couldn't have disrupted the minnow pond outside Darlington let alone a Cup race. It's hard. It's really tough.
"...I didn't think after practice and qualifying we had what it took. I thought we'd been way stronger here in the past. 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. ... We haven't left, we haven't went away. Nobody's slowed us down other than ourselves, and today we were the fastest car."
Playoff problems a dozen
The tone for the opening race of the Round of 12 would be set on the very first lap, when Chase Elliott -- having to come from the rear of the field after engine issues in practice and qualifying -- barely skated past a multi-car crash coming off of turn 2. That set the tone for the day among the remaining 12 playoff drivers, as multiple had narrow escapes and some had issues they could not overcome.
Kyle Larson had the most challenging day of any playoff contender, as his chances of sweeping the season at Kansas were ruined when he had a right rear tire go down and send him into the wall in the early laps. Larson avoided the same sort of disaster that befell him at Atlanta, but not race-altering damage: The diffuser underneath his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet would be adversely affected from dragging on the racetrack, and Larson would never have the same pace again as he had to battle back from a lap down just to salvage a 26th place finish.
Larson was one of two playoff drivers to bring out the yellow flag, as Austin Cindric -- trying to fight back from an extra pit stop after earning points in stage one -- spun on the backstretch while racing in the top 15, nosing into the inside wall and setting his playoff hopes back considerably after an excellent Round of 16. Cindric would finish four laps down in 34th, deepest of all playoff drivers despite miscues throughout the day for some others.
Christopher Bell led six times for a race-high 122 laps, but lost out on maximum points in stage one by brushing the wall and then lost track position on a restart later in the day with more wall contact. Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano would each have issues on pit road, with Blaney and Hamlin recovering from their own respective issues -- ranging from loose wheels to slow stops -- to finish fourth and eighth while Logano finished 14th. Daniel Suarez went a lap down early and lacked pace for much of the day, but was able to make up time later in the going and salvaged a 13th place finish.
Chase Briscoe would end up deep in the field in 24th after playing a role in two late-race accidents, while Tyler Reddick lost major track position on the penultimate restart and wound up 25th. As a result, Reddick -- the regular season champion -- ended his day four points behind Chase Elliott and Logano for the final spot above the Round of 8 cut line, followed by Suarez (-14), Briscoe (-25), and Cindric (-29).
Busch's opportunity slides away
For a moment in the final 50 laps, it looked like Sunday might be two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch's day to end a career-long 50 race winless streak, get his first win of the 2024 season, and extend his NASCAR record streak of consecutive winning seasons to 20. Busch and Chastain swapped the lead before and after the final round of green flag pit stops, and it looked for a moment that Busch may have the better of him -- until it all came undone with 32 laps to go.
Attempting to hold Chastain back while navigating through lapped traffic, Busch ended up in a tight squeeze through turn 2 as Chase Briscoe, fighting to stay on the lead lap, barely left Busch a lane between himself and the outside wall. The flow of air created by that gap would end up upsetting the handling of Busch's car, sending it sideways and into the wall before it spun and slid down the racetrack to bring out the yellow flag.
Busch was able to hang onto a spot in the top 10 momentarily, but his car was never the same again and he would wind up fading to a 19th place finish, leaving him to lament what may have been with his streak in jeopardy of being snapped at 19 seasons.
"The 14 turned down the hill in order to get clean air from the guy in front of him, and so I went to his outside and plugged the hole. And just air ... for some reason, I felt nothing off the corner," Busch told NBC Sports. "Hadn't really had that like that the whole time. There's a term for that I want to say right now, but I can't. Busted my butt. ... We hung underneath the 1 car there for 15 laps trying to pass him, finally passed him. Could get away from him a little bit, catch a lapped car, would back up a little bit, and the gap just kind of kept doing that. I guess I just got in too big a hurry.
"... I'm numb. I don't know what to do."
Race results rundown
- The improvement Zane Smith has shown over the second half of his rookie season has turned into a full blown surge in results, as Smith's 10th place finish marked his second top 10 in his last three starts and his third in his last seven starts dating back to Michigan. With four top 10 finishes this season, Smith is now tied with fellow rookie contender Josh Berry in the top 10 category, and with one more top 10 can tie teammate Carson Hocevar for the most top 10s by a rookie this season.
- While his teammate's missed opportunity to win took the headlines, Austin Dillon ended up leading the way for Richard Childress Racing with a 12th place finish. For Dillon, that result marks his best finish since his controversial win at Richmond in August, which was eventually ruled impermissible for playoff eligibility after rough driving on the final lap. Sunday's result was just Dillon's second top 15 since that race.
- For at least the first week, Rick Ware Racing ended up "winning" the trade between themselves and Spire Motorsports, as Corey LaJoie finished 15th in his first outing behind the wheel of the No. 51 Ford that had previously been driven by Justin Haley. Haley showed some good pace early behind the wheel of the Spire No. 7 that LaJoie had been driving, but a miscommunication between himself and his spotter would result in a mid-race spin on the backstretch that Haley would end up not recovering from. Haley would finish a lap down in 33rd.
- Daniel Hemric recovered from a mid-race spin to finish 20th, just ahead of Kaulig Racing teammate Ty Dillon who finished 21st after recovering from damage suffered in the first lap accident. On Saturday, Kaulig Racing had announced that Dillon would take Hemric's place as teammate to A.J. Allmendinger next season, making Hemric a free agent for 2025.
- Despite not suffering major damage in the crash on the opening lap, Josh Berry was towed back to the garage area and out of the race despite the assertion of crew chief Rodney Childers that Berry had suffered no major damage but could not drive back to the pits due to having flat tires. Berry was victimized by a technicality in NASCAR's Damaged Vehicle Policy rules, which states that a car with flat tires can only be towed back to the pits if they were suffered as the result of a single car spin without contact and not if they are involved in a crash.
Next Race
The single biggest wild card of the NASCAR playoffs is upon the Round of 12 drivers, who will all head to Talladega Superspeedway for the YellaWood 500 next Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
