Late spin, pit road decisions shake up Kansas order after contact-filled overtime

Two laps and a couple extra fresh tires paid significant dividends for a couple of NASCAR Cup Series stars at Kansas Speedway.

After seemingly progressing in natural fashion with no accidents to slow the field, a Cody Ware spin shockingly brought out a caution flag just seconds before leader Denny Hamlin was set to take the white flag in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400. That pushed the race to overtime and left the few lead-lap cars scrambling to make a last-second pit road decision.

In the end, Sunday’s tire wear meant staying out was out of the question. The final call instead hinged on whether to take two tires or four.

For Hamlin, eventual winner Tyler Reddick and the rest of the front-runners, the decision was easy. Most took two right-side tires and retained their track position. But for those on the back half of the lead lap, the chance to take four tires and gain ground with two laps to work with was too tempting to ignore.

The top-10 drivers coming to the final restart all elected to take two tires. But those in 11th through 17th all opted for four, setting up a dramatic final two laps that entertained beyond the intense battle for the win up front.

None benefited more from the decision to take four tires than Chase Briscoe. On a day when teammates Hamlin and Christopher Bell were both battling for the win, Briscoe was largely mired in the back half of the top 15. But the Hoosier nailed the final restart and stormed forward from outside of the top 10 in overtime, rising to third to secure a solid points haul from a challenging day.

William Byron did the same on a weekend that proved disappointing for all Chevrolet drivers outside of runner-up finisher Kyle Larson. Byron emerged from pit road in 13th and passed six cars to secure a seventh-place finish, giving him the second best finish on a challenging afternoon for the Bowtie brand.

The rest of the drivers on four tires weren’t as fortunate. Ryan Preece, Carson Hocevar, Corey Heim and Riley Herbst all remained outside of the top 10 over the final two laps, battling each other with limited time and space to work with.

None were worse off after Sunday’s race was pushed to overtime than Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bell.

For a brief time in Stage 3, the Oklahoma native looked like a favorite to win. Bell had taken the lead early in the final stage and paced Toyota teammates Hamlin and Reddick into the final round of green-flag pit stops.

That early promise didn’t ultimately bear fruit. Both drivers undercut Bell during the final pit cycle and stayed ahead of him in the run to the checkered flag, but Bell was still poised for a solid top-five result after a contending day.

Initially, the push to overtime seemed like a positive development for the 31-year-old. Bell restarted fourth, caught the benefit of Kyle Larson’s dramatic inside dive below that stacked up the front row and jumped to Reddick’s outside in a three-wide battle through Turn 2. But Reddick got loose when his No. 45 came too close to Hamlin and washed up the track.

That sent the Californian into Bell’s left-rear quarter panel and pushed Bell into the outside wall. He briefly lost control of his car and careened down the track, narrowly avoiding Hamlin before he regained control.

Bell tried to soldier on, but the damage was done. Hampered by a flat tire, Bell fell behind the field and spun off Turn 4 and into the pit entrance. He then had to drive through the pit lane at pit road speed and limp his machine through the white flag lap, taking the checkered flag last among lead-lap drivers in 20th.

“Unbelievable,” Bell radioed to his team as he returned to the racing surface, the rest of the field slowing for the cool-down lap above him. “Absolutely unbelievable.”

Sunday’s result is the second time Bell has seen a potential win thrown away by an overtime crash. He previously got the worst of a run-in with an opportunistic Carson Hocevar at EchoPark Speedway, fading from the lead to 21st in the year’s second race.

In recent years, those moments would only be painful in the moment. But with the return of the Chase and additional 15 points for a win, the roughly 70 points lost leave Bell 10th in the standings with ground to make up instead of potentially sitting inside the top five with teammates Hamlin and Ty Gibbs.