KANSAS CITY, Kans. — Ross Chastain led the final 21 laps to earn his first victory of the season Sunday at Kansas Speedway.
“To come and do this, there are times where I didn’t think after practicing qualifying we had what it took,” Chastain told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “I thought we have been way stronger here in the past. It didn’t feel great all day, but our Kubota Chevy, it was better as the rubber went down, and the adjustments were great.”
William Byron finished second. Martin Truex Jr. placed third. Ryan Blaney finished fourth. Ty Gibbs completed the top five.
“I feel like (Chastain) got the restart he needed to, and I was in the second row just trying to clear those guys,” Byron said of the restart with 20 laps togo. “Once I got clear of them, my balance was okay. Just a little bit tight, but just kind of inching up on him. I needed probably, you know, for it to be a longer run being in second.”
Chase Elliott finished ninth and Joey Logano placed 14th. They hold the final two transfer spots with two races left in the round. Those below the cutline are Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric.
Kyle Larson entered as the points leader but saw his race turn dramatically when he cut a tire and hit the wall, bringing out a caution on Lap 20. He would fall a lap down and eventually get it back at Lap 145.
“Our team did a really good job fighting and clawing to get better where we ended up,” said Larson, who finished 26th. “I was just really tight there on that last restart and gave up everything. I wish it would have just went green to the end, instead of having those couple cautions. It is what it is, but we’ll regroup and move on to Talladega.”
Kyle Busch, winless in his last 50 races, spun while leading to bring out the caution on Lap 237 of the 267-lap race. He was working to lap Chase Briscoe when he lost control of his car.
“I am sure he was racing to stay on the lead lap with whoever was in front of him there,” Busch said. “Granted they have a race to run, but back in the old days when you were under 30 to go or whatever it was, lap traffic would kind of lay over and give you a lane and let the leaders race. I just wasn’t getting that, so I tried to force my hand into getting that and get to his outside, and for whatever reason, it just gave all the air in all the wrong places and I spun out.”
Stage 1 winner: William Byron
Stage 2 winner: Alex Bowman
Next: The series races Sunday, Oct. 6 at Talladega Superspeedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC)
