Chase Watch: No, the standings aren’t inverted
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Kansas Speedway has become a torture chamber for Kyle Busch. He escaped it on Sunday. And apparently shoved all four Hendrick Motorsports cars in it in his place.
Entering the race, Busch’s average finish at Kansas was 21.4, tied for his worst at any track. And it was the only track he hadn’t finished in the top-five at. That statistic changed Sunday as Busch finished third.
“I won today,” Busch said. “I just didn’t get champagne and a trophy. To get through Kansas feels nice.”
Thanks to the points reset after Dover and the conclusion of the first round of the Chase, Busch is now second in the points standings to Joey Logano, who won the race.
As Busch bucked his trend, Hendrick Motorsports’ cars had a tough day, to put it mildly. We detailed the situations of Jimmie Johnson here and Dale Earnhardt Jr. here, but Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne didn’t escape Kansas unharmed either.
Gordon got into the wall early in the race off the bumper of Jamie McMurray. The two were racing together after a restart and McMurray’s car slid up into the left rear of Gordon’s car off turn four and forced him up the track. Gordon ended up brushing the wall, but was able to keep going despite losing several spots.
He fought back but had a poor restart at the end of the race. Gordon finished 14th.
“We were having a pretty solid day with the Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet until the No. 1 car got loose and got into our left rear; was just way over his head,” Gordon said. “I knew he had a good car. He’s been running good, but he just got loose and got into me and got me in the wall. We had a little damage but we just lost all that track position. It is so hard to get it back at this place. We somewhat got it back; and on that last restart, I was just real loose.”
He was the highest finishing Chaser after Kahne’s strong run was derailed by a late green flag pit stop and then a bout with the wall after the next-to-last restart.
“We had a great car,” Kahne said. “Ever since the Chase started, minus Chicago, we’ve had a top 5 car. And now again I thought we had a top 3 car. So, I feel good about all that. We have to finish. We were there. We had a tire issue and got behind and just tried passing too many cars at once and got loose and hit the wall”
Kahne finished 22nd.
Here’s how the points standings look through the first of three races in the second round. The top eight drivers will advance to the third round.
1. Joey Logano, 3,048 points: 1st at Kansas
2. Kyle Busch, -6 points: 3rd
3. Carl Edwards, -9 points: 5th
4. Ryan Newman, -9 points: 6th
5. Denny Hamlin, -11 points: 7th
6. Kevin Harvick, -15 points: 12th
7. Matt Kenseth, -17 points: 13th
8. Jeff Gordon, -17 points: 14th
9. Kasey Kahne, -25 points: 22nd
10. Brad Keselowski, -39 points: 36th
11. Dale Earnhardt Jr., -42 points: 39th
12. Jimmie Johnson, -44 points: 40th
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
