By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
With 16 drivers starting the Chase, only seven drivers have a realistic shot of being the 2016 NASCAR champion. Kansas has several drivers either heavily favored or having the KS pedigree to run up front. Joey Logano has been hot and has won at Kansas, but will he run up front with the Toyota’s or Kyle Larson. Ryan Blaney needs a good run to win his 2nd NASCAR Championship.
Time to drop the green flag.
Stage One Laps (1-80)
After wrestling away the lead on the opening lap, Kyle Larson runs out front, and by halfway through the first stage, Logano falls to fourth. Larson dominates S1 leading 75 of 80 in three separate runs. Chevy places four drivers in the T-4. Toyota and Ford each place 3 in the T-3.
The race has produced five lead changes among three drivers, with one caution consuming four laps. Denny Hamlin runs second in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 2.051 seconds behind Larson. Hamlin, who started sixth, has led one lap and posted his best lap time of 30.499 seconds on lap 42. He has run 44 laps inside the top two and 61 laps in the top five. With 202 laps remaining, the race continues under green flag conditions.The only two cautions were for non-driver errors.
Stage Two (Laps 81-165)
S-2 restarts with Larson in the lead and Hamlin-Cindric run 2-3. Larson led Hamlin by one point entering Kansas. Larson stays in the lead as the caution flag waves as Noah Gragson loses an engine and does a half spin in Turn 2 while running 20th. Larson leads S2 to start and finish. The Toyota’s finish 3-4-5. Cindric is the Ford surprise finishing in P2 for S2 with Blaney and Logano keeping it close.
Final Stage (Laps 166-267)
Little passing in the final stage works to Larson’s favor as he leads 235 of 267 laps. Larson was momentarily passed a few times in the final stage, but in the end, he wins two-in-a-row after a 51- race winless streak.
Checkered Flag (Laps 166-Finish)
Three of the five cautions in the race were for both Stages and a competition caution midway through S1. Larson was in cruise control for mostof the race as other machines would occasionally catch up to Larson, but no one could maintain a lead for long.
Max points here at Kansas. Delivering the stage wins. Delivering the race wins. As Cliff Daniels said, my brother, you nailed that at the end of the race.
Q- Cliff Daniels told me a few weeks ago our championship, honestly, comes down to Kansas, Las Vegas, and Charlotte. Kyle Larson and the 5 team delivered in front of the Kansas fans.
Kyle, how in the world did you find that extra pace on the long run where you guys had really kind of somewhat struggled all day on long to get back past the 19? KYLE LARSON: I don’t know. I really thought when Chase got by, he was just going to stretch out, but I got some lines going where I could settle in and try to take care of my tires. I don’t know. I think it’s just easier to be the hunter rather than the hunted.“
They Said It…
Denny Hamlin comes home in the third position. Really you were averaging a running position of third to fifth all day. What kept this from being an exceptional day? It was a great day, but what kept it from being exceptional?
DENNY HAMLIN: “Winning. That’s the only difference. Just didn’t quite have it today. Just was hanging around. We could be really good in the long run, but the short run, you know, the 5 was really good, 2 was good. We just couldn’t quite, you know, hold those guys off or keep them close enough in the short run. Obviously at the end there ran a lot down, but just not enough time and track position. Obviously gained a few spots there at the end. Overall just that’s kind of what we had. Third-place car, driver, and everything today.“
Tale of the Tape
Fantasy
Kansas has several top finishing drivers and most of them are in our starting lineup. The notable missing driver is Denny Hamlin whom has a 1-5-6-6 line at Kansas. Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick are all top picks. Ross Chastain has the 9th best average at KMS.
Logano has a good track record at Kansas but not in this Gen 7 ride. Joey is hot and comes off a win at Bristol. He appears here. Time to race. Look after the graphic to see how we did.
For the week, we endedup with 222 points and lost ground to the field. I took out William Byron because he has been very cold and added Joey Logano who has been hot and has a good Kansas track record. We also left out Denny Hamlin to save him for Martinsville and Phoenix. That cost us 40 points. We are at just under 90-percent for the year.
Top 6 in Points
It’s fair to say the contenders are in the top six in points and for Blaney and Gibbs, without a couple of top finishes at LVMS, CMS, and Talladega, it could be a four horse race to the finish.
What’s Next
Roy J. Akers covers motorsports including NASCAR, NHRA, Indy Car and more and is the host of High Banked Fury, the Zoom/podcast.Motorsports newsmakers, media of the sport with expert analyst guests, stories, and opinions are found on the podcast and http://www.skyviewsports.net. Subscribe to all of it today!
