Winners and Losers: NASCAR Cup Series Overtime at Kansas
KANSAS CITY, Ks. — The AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway marked the fourth time in 2024 that a NASCAR Cup Series race went into overtime.
Kansas joined a string of three races in a row – at Richmond, Martinsville and Texas – as the only races of the 12 run so far that have gone into overtime.
Kyle Busch spun in turn two with five laps to go, snapping the tension on a fuel-mileage finish and setting up an intense and historic finish.
Kyle Larson wasn’t the only winner, just like Chris Buescher wasn’t the only who lost out. Here’s a look at the winners and losers in overtime at Kansas.
WINNERS
Kyle Busch
Busch ran up front all day, leading 14 laps and challenging Larson before a caution on lap 199 of 267 shuffled the strategies and the running order.
Busch rallied from eighth to third on the restart, behind Chris Buescher and Denny Hamlin. However, Busch struggled with handling and trying to protect the right-rear tire.
Busch lost third to Kyle Larson. Then, Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski charged ahead of him.
The right-rear tire eventually fell away on Busch. He spun, falling to 20th and triggering a caution with five laps to go in the scheduled distance.
Busch restarted 20th in overtime and had one of his best drives of the season, banking an eighth-place finish. He gained 12 spots between when the caution came out and when the checkered flag flew – the most of any driver.
“The guys deserved to finish in the top three. We qualified well and we backed that up in the race. We led laps and ran consistently in the top five,” he said. During the green-white-checkered, I drove the daylights out of it to get to eighth on that final restart. Not the day we wanted, but we came away with a good finish,” he said.
Busch now has five top-10 finishes on the season. They’ve all come in the last four races (ninth at Texas, fourth at Dover). In that time, he’s also led 52 of the 115 total laps he’s led all season and gone from +1 point to the playoff cutline to +31 – thanks in part to earning the fifth-most points Sunday with stage finishes of eighth and fourth.
Alex Bowman
Bowman placed seventh in stage two after showing some life in the stage. He ran seventh before the decisive caution on lap 199 but fell back to 15th.
Bowman’s car struggled in dirty air after he broke the nose of the car on the subsequent restart.
“We got really slow down the straightaway and really tight after that,” he said.
Bowman couldn’t climb any higher and stagnated in 15th until the caution flew with five laps to go in regulation.
Crew chief Blake Harris called for two fresh tires, putting Bowman seventh prechoose and eighth afterward.
Bowman used the momentum on the outside lane to actually gain a position in overtime, finishing seventh.
“We were really good all day, minus the second run of the day – we kind of fell off pretty hard there. We had a really fast No. 48 Ally Camaro, we just needed some track position. The start of the last long run, we broke the nose on the restart; it’s all separated so after that, a seventh-place finish is probably like a win,” he said.
Bowman is now +53 points to the cutline following his third consecutive top-10 finish.
Bubba Wallace
On lap 186, Austin Cindric had nowhere to go but the wall when Denny Hamlin got tight off of turn two. Cindric lost control and tagged Wallace and Michael McDowell, spinning Wallace backward – facing him toward the wall and oncoming traffic.
Wallace held on, didn’t hit the wall and came back to pit road, along with McDowell, without needing a tow. Their teams put on new tires and set them up for success.
When everyone else pitted, Todd Gilliland, Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, Justin Haley, Wallace and McDowell stayed out and restarted up front on lap 206.
While drivers on newer tires swallowed up all but Hamlin and Buescher, Wallace held on to a top-10 spot for a while. Then as the laps clicked down, Wallace sank and eventually pitted, dropping him to 24th, one lap down.
Wallace received the free pass with fresh tires and made the most of his opportunity. He drove from 24th to finish 17th.
The day wasn’t at all what Wallace, a usual frontrunner at Kansas, wanted. However, he and the team minimized the damage. Wallace is just -4 points to the cutline, heading to Darlington Raceway where he finished fifth and seventh last year and teammate Tyler Reddick nearly won in the fall.
LOSERS
Brad Keselowski
In the closing laps, Keselowski was charging to the front. He restarted 26th on lap 205 and jumped to 19th two laps later but saved some his stuff in what was going to be a tense run to the checkers on fuel and tires.
With around 30 laps to go, Keselowski entered the top-10 for the first time all night. With 17 to go, he was up to seventh, around seven seconds behind the leader – then 5.5 back with 13 to go and 3.9 back with eight to go, mounting a serious challenge.
The caution derailed the rally to the front for him and Martin Truex Jr., who was about three seconds ahead of him and was about to take the lead.
Still, hope persisted as crew chief Matt McCall called for four fresh tires. However, it didn’t work as well for Keselowski, as he restarted 16th. Mired in a quagmire of cars on two tires, as well as four, Keselowski could gain five spots in overtime, coming up 11th.
Keselowski ran fourth before the caution. Finishing 11th, he along with Todd Gilliland had the biggest net loss (-7 positions). Gilliland ran seventh before the caution and finished 14th on a similar four-tire strategy as Keselowski.
Keselowski is still above the cutline, albeit only by four points over Wallace – compared to 24 points before the caution flew.
Corey Heim
Heim earned his best career finish Sunday but it arguably could’ve been better.
During the long green-flag run before the caution with five laps to go, Heim had worked his way up to 16th, taking advantage of the conservation efforts going on around him. Teammate John Hunter Nemechek was in 13th.
They each came to pit road and took two tires like the leaders did. Heim restarted ninth, behind Nemechek, but Heim dropped like a rock compared to his teammate.
On the restart, Heim poked to the inside, trying to make a three-wide move. However, he had no help and dropped back to 16th.
Exiting turn four, someone made contact with Heim, causing him to slide in the grass to the line in 22nd.
“I got behind early from a speeding penalty and just situationally, couldn’t get on the lucky dog (free pass) until the end of the race. Just struggled with track position, of course, at the end of the longest line, one lap down most of the race. But, once we got back on the lead lap in Stage 3 and free’d the car up, I thought we were pretty good. Definitely wish we could’ve run close to the front today, but a good learning experience and we move forward,” Heim said.
The implications are low for Heim. A 22nd-place finish in his second-ever start in such an abrupt role is solid and will net him some prospect points as he eyes his next move in NASCAR.
Ryan Blaney
Blaney restarted fifth in overtime, looking to gain some points on a day where he didn’t earn any stage points.
On the restart, John Hunter Nemechek gave him a strong push that kept him three wide for fifth. However, Blaney couldn’t keep up on the backstretch, losing momentum to Alex Bowman who aeroblocked him going into turn three, locking Blaney into eighth and sliding him back to 11th as Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell ascended into the top-10.
Blaney couldn’t hold off the aforementioned Keselowski who rallied by him and nearly nipped McDowell for a top-10 while Blaney nipped Nemechek for 12th.
Blaney sits sixth in points, +84 points to the cutline but -100 points to regular-season points leader Kyle Larson – still looking for a win.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com