Analysis: Aggressive action in Kansas thriller preview of what's to come in playoffs

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A heavyweight bout between two title contenders that came down to the final lap. Post-race fisticuffs between two heated competitors. Cars on the brink of control that drivers wheeled to a record number of lead changes and high volume of caution flags.

Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway had just about everything a fan could hope for. And the best part is we get to see it all again in the playoffs on Sept. 10.

MORE: Relive Kansas excitement | Exclusive audio: Gragson, Chastain fight

The showdown between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson was an all-time duel over the final 26 laps once Hamlin cleared William Byron for second place. Hamlin trailed by 1.3 seconds after the pass and steadily reeled in the 2021 champion. But it wasn’t until the final lap that the No. 11 Toyota driver could truly make his move — and in an attempt to side-draft Larson, Hamlin contacted his left-rear, sending Larson into the wall. That set up the 37th and final lead change of the day, most for a 400-miler on an intermediate track and handily topping the previous Kansas record of 26 lead changes set back in 2009.

A thrilling finish sealed a thrilling afternoon.

“This is just a perfect race track for this race car,” Hamlin said. “The match between the car, the tire and the race track, it‘s just a perfect match. That‘s why you saw today really nobody running away from the field. As many leaders as we saw side by side, two, three laps in, I saw these guys dicing up three-wide for the lead. It has just enough (tire) falloff where track position is very important, but it‘s not everything. You can still get position on someone like you saw there on the last lap.

“It‘s a Kansas thing. So what happens is that the preferred lane is up high, so you have to drive in the corner and pull a slider on someone, and sometimes that slider doesn‘t work, which is why you saw most of the wrecks, I think, were probably a product of that.”

Indeed, the yellow flag waved 11 times Sunday, the most in the past six races at the Midwestern mile-and-a-half tri-oval. Nine of those cautions were for incidents. As Hamlin detailed, the nature of racing at a track with so many lane options despite a preferred line allows drivers to take risks. Some are rewarded, some penalized.

Such was the case for Christopher Bell, Hamlin’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing. As Ross Chastain slid from middle to high at the exit of Turn 2, Bell dove low in an attempt to complete the pass. Ever so slightly, Bell miscalculated and caught Chastain’s left-rear, sending Bell’s No. 20 Toyota sliding into the backstretch wall and ending his day.

“I don’t know what happened to the 1, but I was just trying to be too aggressive on my side-draft whenever I got up beside him,” Bell told reporters at the care center.

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Successful or not, those daunting moves are the ones that enthrall us as spectators. A slew of drivers found their limits Sunday … and some did so off the track, too.

Noah Gragson found his after getting pinched into the outside wall by Chastain at the exit of Turn 4 for their second run-in in three weeks. That led the Legacy Motor Club rookie to Chastain’s car post-race, where Gragson found the eighth-generation watermelon farmer for a confrontation. It started with words; it ended with a punch thrown by Chastain that led to them being physically separated by security.

Chastain, at the nucleus of plenty of incidents in the past 15 months, pointed to the Next Gen vehicle as the genesis of such hotly-contested moments.

“I think everybody is evolving to the new car,” Chastain said. “It’s not so new anymore. We’ve got to get a handle on it. And then there’s times where we’re running 20th-ish and I can’t get by people, and then a couple good restarts and some good adjustments by (crew chief) Phil Surgen and the boys and girls at Trackhouse, and we’re back up there fighting for a top five. It’s some of the best drivers in the world in totally equal cars and putting on some good racing.”

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The intensity was present from the drop of the green flag as Chastain, Larson and Tyler Reddick found themselves in a fierce, three-wide battle for the lead by Lap 4. Just two laps later, Reddick slid high at the exit of Turn 4 and spun Larson across the frontstretch.

Larson’s rally was nearly completed — but instead fell a half-lap short.

The thrills seem bound to continue — both in the near future and the long-term. The series shifts to Darlington Raceway next week for its annual Throwback Weekend, a fitting theme for paint schemes and the abrasive 1.366-mile, asymmetrical oval.

And when the Cup stars fly back west to Kansas, the higher stakes will provide plenty of incentive to push those limits even further.