KANSAS CITY, Kans. — Chase Elliott will start at the rear of the field in Sunday’s Cup playoff race after an engine issue was discovered in practice Saturday at Kansas Speedway.
The team changed engines after Saturday’s qualifying session.
Christopher Bell won the pole. Eight of the 12 playoff drivers qualified in the top 10.
Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET on USA Network) begins the second round of the playoffs. Elliott is among the 12 remaining playoff drivers. He enters the race seventh in the standings, just six points above the cutline.
Elliott’s woes began in practice.
“I came off Turn 2 (in practice) and basically just felt like it went down a cylinder, an audible change and lost a lot of power,” Elliott told NBC Sports’ Kim Coon. “I knew something was wrong and came in as quick as I could just to try to keep from messing it up any worse but such a bummer. What a terrible time to have something go wrong. The Hendrick engine shop has been so good throughout my career. ... I hate it but would much rather have it happen (Saturday) than (Sunday).”
Elliott made a qualifying attempt at reduced speed to use those qualifying tires as the scuffed set teams are allowed to carry over to the race.
Jeff Andrews, president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports, told NBC Sports that the team tried to diagnose the issue on pit road before qualifying and found it was not an electrical issue. The team determined that the car could go make a qualifying attempt at reduced speed without threat of blowing up.
