Ross Chastain earned his first victory of the 2024 season and the fifth of his profession with a formidable victory at Kansas. He held off William Byron within the closing 20 laps to seize the checkered flag.
“It is an enormous deal,” mentioned Chastain whereas taking a chew out of a freshly smashed watermelon. “For us on this No. 1 workforce, that is what Cup racing is all about. It is what Justin Marks purchased into Trackhouse with Pitbull — to do stuff like this. To disrupt. There’s been occasions this yr after we could not have disrupted [a] minnow pond exterior of Darlington, not to mention a Cup race. It is laborious. It is actually robust.”
Watch: Bracket busting continues: Chastain takes Kansas forward of Byron
Byron completed second, Martin Truex Jr. third, Ryan Blaney fourth, and Ty Gibbs fifth. Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, and Zane Smith rounded out the top-ten.
A warning close to the top of Stage 2 jumbled the working order round as a number of automobiles selected to pit early whereas many playoff drivers stayed out to attempt to earn some additional stage factors. This put a brand new group of drivers out entrance for the beginning of the ultimate stage. Carson Hocevar led briefly, however Chastain charged from fifth to first and held the lead for a while.
Kyle Busch ultimately ran him down and clawed the lead away after an intense battle, holding the benefit by means of the ultimate spherical of green-flag pit stops. Busch was attempting to maintain his streak of 19 consecutive years with a Cup win alive, extending it to twenty.
However whereas heading off Chastain, he received in a clumsy aero spot on the exit of Flip 2 attempting to lap Chase Briscoe. Busch tagged the wall and spun out, inflicting a warning and ending his shot on the win.
Truex Jr. is one other driver attempting to earn his first win of the yr, and he managed to grab the lead on pit street. Brad Keselowski stayed out, however shortly light as one other wreck broke out in the course of the pack. The ultimate restart got here with 20 laps remaining. Chastain powered round Truex Jr. on the restart and by no means appeared again, taking the checkered flag about 4 tenths away from Byron.
Under the cut-line
The playoff image is tight getting into the wildcard race at Talladega. Kyle Larson reduce a tire and crashed early, struggling house to a twenty sixth place end. He stays fourth within the standings, however solely 18 factors above the cut-line. Joey Logano is on the bubble, 4 factors above Tyler Reddick. Daniel Suarez is 14 factors out, Chase Briscoe 25 factors out, and Austin Cindric 29 factors out.
Hendrick drivers swept the phases with Byron profitable Stage 1 and Bowman profitable Stage 2, conserving them close to the highest of the standings leaving Kansas.
