The Denny Hamlin-Kevin Harvick season-long duel marked another skirmish last night, with Hamlin grabbing the checkered flag at Kansas. Harvick still would lead in the standings if the playoffs were to begin today, on the back of his lack of disasters, but Hamlin’s got more wins, now holding five to Harvick’s four.
It wasn’t much of a race for the first two acts. Kyle Busch finally won a stage, and the Penske and Gibbs cars were out front a good amount overall, but there was nothing worth inserting video into this post over. As the night wore on, though, that changed pretty fast.
You see, there were a lot of chaotic restarts:
And chaotic restarts lead to contact:
Which in turn leads to more restarts…
…and more contact:
First off, thank goodness Ryan Preece was ok. Secondly, this might be inappropriate, but it does seem like if NASCAR can build cars and walls that lead to fiery explosions from which drivers miraculously walk away unscathed, that’s an awesome business model. Just saying.
In the first video above—the one where Logano’s tire gave up the ghost and created a minor melee in doing so, you may have noticed Jimmie Johnson took a hit. Here’s what it looked like from the cockpit of the 48:
And here was the end result a dozen laps or so later:
Not good for James.
Now, I know a lot of folks didn’t like Jimmie Johnson back when he came in and pounded everyone’s face into the dirt for six straight years. Folks wanted Jeff Gordon to do that. Folks wanted Dale Earnhardt Jr. to do that. Some folks probably wanted Tony Stewart to do it. But, he does seem like a pretty good dude, and he’s one of the greats, and it’s not his fault NASCAR didn’t successfully market him into an everyman who could bridge the gap between the grass lots at Bristol and casual sports fans in Seattle. So yeah, I hope he makes the playoffs in his last go-round. Lot of story there.
After last night, with Erik Jones grabbing a top-five and William Byron finding the top ten (after leading late, it should be noted) and Tyler Reddick finishing 13th, Johnson’s 18 points back of Byron for the last playoff spot and 35 points back of Matt DiBenedetto, whom he’d need to pass if another behind-the-cut-line driver were to win over these last seven regular season races. Reddick and Jones are between Johnson and the field, further complicating things, though with Bubba Wallace next up, 82 points back, it’s really just a six-man race between Byron, DiBenedetto, Clint Bowyer, Reddick, Jones, and Johnson for what’s currently three spots, but could narrow to two on any given raceday.
Of course, a victory would also put Johnson in.
But Hamlin and Harvick are gobbling those up pretty aggressively.
