Slow stop slumps Chase Elliott's winning chances at Kansas; Hamlin also derailed
But one miscue at Lap 198 of Sunday's AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway unraveled an otherwise impressive day for the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, ultimately fading to a 15th-place finish.
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MORE: Race results | Best Kansas photos
Elliott had impressive speed throughout the weekend, qualifying ninth and surging to second place at the end of both stages. A strong pit stop at the end of Stage 2 propelled Elliott to the lead to restart the final stage. Elliott did his part when the green flag waved to fend off teammate Kyle Larson and RFK Racing's Brad Keselowski to maintain the top spot.
A flat tire for Keselowski at Lap 195, however, triggered the first domino in derailing Elliott's day. The caution flag waved and ushered in an ensuing round of pit stops that ultimately played a pivotal role in determining the outcome of Sunday's race.
Elliott led the field to pit road and planted his No. 9 Prime Video Chevrolet into pit stall No. 41, the first box nearest pit entry. All looked routine as the crew serviced the right side of the car — until jackman TJ Semke dropped the jack a millisecond too early. Rear-tire changer Chad Avrit hadn't yet secured the right-rear wheel before the car was lowered, forcing Semke to re-jack the vehicle for Avrit to tighten the lug nut.
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The mistake marked the group's only significant error of the contest, but the stop anchored Elliott in the box for over 14 seconds — a relative eternity in a NASCAR world rocketing forward with common eight-second services. Elliott plummeted from the lead to 16th place and never truly recovered. The 2020 Cup champion worked his way back to 12th place in the closing laps of the contest, but Todd Gilliland, Corey Heim and Noah Gragson all eventually worked past him to drop Elliott to 15th at the checkered flag.
On one hand, there are plenty of positives for Elliott, crew chief Alan Gustafson and the No. 9 crew to take from Kansas after leading 29 laps and averaging a fourth-best 6.37 running position, according to NASCAR's loop data. Per NASCAR Insights, Elliott also ranked third in Defense Rating with the fifth-best Speed Rating and seventh-best Passing Rating.
But the end result dampens what could have been for Elliott, who ranked just 23rd in NASCAR Insights' Restart Rating.
'It was great for the 9 this weekend,' said Chad Knaus, Hendrick Motorsports' vice president of competition. 'They unloaded, they were good. Chase had very favorable comments about the race car straight out of the gate, which was really nice. I know that Alan and Chase are digging in deep and working extremely hard with their team to try to make sure that they do that on a weekly basis, because when they do, they execute very well.
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'It's unfortunate that issue happened today because I think we'd be sitting here with them easily in the top five with the pace that they had. But it only takes one hiccup and it can derail your day. So we've got to keep working on those things. But as long as they continue to bring good race cars and fast race cars and execute at a high level, they're going to be where we need them.'
That particular round of pit stops ended others' days while propelling others back into the mix.
Christopher Bell launched three spots forward to escape pit road with the lead at Lap 198 while his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe rocketed four spots up to sixth. Bell was a constant presence inside the top five Sunday, but Briscoe largely struggled to start the event before leaping to a fourth-place finish.
Denny Hamlin, meanwhile, another JGR driver, suffered a mechanical failure, speculating that the transaxle broke on his No. 11 Toyota while attempting to leave his pit stall with an already-broken clutch.
A handful of quick cautions in succession — first for spins by Cody Ware, Daniel Suárez and Ty Dillon, then for Kyle Busch and again for a five-car incident — jumbled the running order once again before Larson finally emerged as the day's dominant driver, leading 221 of 267 laps to score his third Kansas win.
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