James: Chase drivers dealt serious setbacks at Kansas
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- There was no safe place inside the Chase for the Sprint Cup Sunday at Kansas Speedway.
Brad Keselowski entered fourth in points and seemingly safe. He left with a 38th-place finish and outside the eight-driver transfer envelope heading to the sure-to-be-volatile conclusion of the three-race second round at Talladega Superspeedway next Sunday.
Keselowski’s Chase advancement hopes were damaged in a Lap 189 wreck, which dropped him to 11th in the rankings. The Team Penske driver wiggled off Turn 4, then tucked too close to Denny Hamlin as he tried to save the car, then had his No. 2 Ford wrecked as it plowed into the apron.
“I spun out, got in the grass and tore the nose off,” Keselowski said from the garage after his team tried to repair the car and get the 2012 Sprint Cup champion back on track. “I probably could have raced a little bit less hard; you know, I had a big points gap coming here, with this format it’s probably the smart thing to do. But I don’t want to race like that. I want to race my guts out, I want to go for wins. I don’t want to points race. I don’t care what the damn format is, I’m going to go out and give it my best.”
Kevin Harvick wins Chase race at Kansas, escapes elimination
Title-eligible rookie Chase Elliott became a contender for an important first Cup win mid-race but sustained a costly tire rub just laps later after a green-flag pit stop and finished 31st to fall from 10th to 12th in points. The prospects of his season changed because of a bent piece of sheet metal.
A race that started brilliantly for Matt Kenseth ended stale. And then there were those that gritted through, like Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. Pole-sitter Kenseth was dominant in the early stages, leading every green flag lap through Lap 126 before race winner Kevin Harvick passed him after a pit stop. Kenseth finished ninth.
Hamlin’s flickering hopes for a first championship seemed to dampen even further than last week when a splitter failure forced three pit stops for repairs, dropping him deep into the running order. By mid-race he had recovered to race inside the top 10. However, a pit-road speeding penalty on a late caution dropped him back in the pack again. He finished 15th to fall from eighth to 10th. Hamlin was set for a strong finish at Charlotte before being hampered by an engine failure to begin this three-race playoff segment.
Truex was fast but plagued by a faulty fueling can that consistently left him gallons short on each pit stop. Still, he rallied to finish 11th and sits seventh in the standings.
And this was supposed to be the calm break before Talladega.
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