After 400 miles around the 1.5-mile track of Kansas Speedway, it was ultimately Joey Logano that grabbed the checkered flag. The victory marks Logano’s third win of the 2020 season. Historically, Kansas has been a decent track for him, with his last win at Kansas coming in 2015. Amplifying the excitement of the win, Logano is now the only driver locked into the final four that will compete for the championship at Phoenix Raceway. This marks the fourth time Logano has advanced to the final four in his Cup Series career.
“Hell, yeah! Racing for a championship,” Logano said over the radio to his crew.
En route to Logano’s win, there were six cautions through the entirety of the race. The first caution came 25 laps after the pole sitter, Chase Elliott, led the field to green; this was the competition caution. Following 80 laps of competition, Elliott held off Keselowski to nab the stage one win.
The first incident-related caution of the day appeared on lap 144 for Matt Kenseth, who was not clear when attempting to pass Erik Jones. Both cars suffered damage from the contact. Just 16 laps later, Denny Hamlin led the field to grab the stage two win, marking his tenth stage win of the season.
On lap 199, a caution appeared for Kurt Busch, who experienced a major engine failure. Now, Busch is most likely in a must-win situation to continue his fight for a championship. With 47 laps to go, the yellow flag flew for Tyler Reddick, after he made contact with the wall.
Though it was Logano that piloted the field on the last lap, Kevin Harvick trailed by 0.205 seconds to finish in the runner-up spot. Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Busch rounded up the remainder of the top-five.
Notably, four non-playoff drivers collected top-tens today at Kansas, with Ryan Blaney in seventh, William Byron in eighth, and Christopher Bell in tenth.
Kansas was the stage for the first of three races that will determine the final four drivers, who will compete for a championship. Since Logano is now locked in with a win, three vacant spots remain open to compete with him for the championship trophy. Harvick, Hamlin, and Keselowski follow behind Logano to make up the remainder of the top-four. With two races until Phoenix, Elliott, Bowman, Truex Jr., and Ku. Busch will look to progress above the cutline to continue on the path to their championship ambitions.
The playoff action continues next week as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, October 25. Catch all the action on NBCSN at 3:30 PM ET.
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