Logano wins wild race at Kansas

Joey Logano celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Hollywood Casino 400

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A wild Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway saw several Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup contenders run into trouble, while Joey Logano emerged unscathed after having to fight off rookie Kyle Larson for the victory.

With the win in the opening race of the Contender Round, Logano has automatically punched his ticket into the Eliminator Round.

Logano led 122 laps for his fifth win of the season. The 24-year-old Team Penske driver came into this season with just three career Sprint Cup Series victories. He has recorded three wins in the past seven Sprint Cup races.

Larson scored his fourth straight top-10 finish and his third top-five finish in the past three races. Kyle Busch overcame a pit-road speeding penalty and his bad history at Kansas for his best finish ever at the track, with a third-place result.

Rounding out the top five were Martin Truex Jr., who had his best finish with Furniture Row Racing, and Carl Edwards.
Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski were among several Chase favorites to find trouble at Kansas.

A wreck on Lap 84 derailed Johnson's chances at Kansas, where he previously had 11 straight top-10 finishes. Johnson was involved in a four-car wreck that brought out the caution on Lap 85 and the six-time champion's car suffered severe right side damage. His weekend was already off to a tough start after he spun in qualifying, which resulted in the 32nd position in the starting lineup. Johnson would finish the afternoon in 40th place, 87 laps down.

"It just means we've got to be on our game at Charlotte and Talladega," Johnson told ESPN after the incident. "And there's still a lot of racing left. This stuff can happen so we'll see how the other Chasers fare. If I can get taken out today, somebody else can later in this event or at Charlotte so we'll do our best to get back on track and then certainly need W's I would assume moving forward."

Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. also encountered some trouble at Kansas. Earnhardt led 45 laps and held the lead when he smacked the wall on Lap 122. Earnhardt finished in 39th place, 63 laps down.

"The whole surface of the tire unwound like a string," Earnhardt told ESPN. "It just came off the car and it popped off in the corner. I felt it coming apart through the corner, and the surface of the tire is gone. The whole cap came off. Must have been a recap.

"I got to hand it to the guys. Man, that was a great race car. We hadn't been running very good the last several weeks, and man, we came in here with a great attitude and a great fast car. This is the car we won Pocono with both times. It's a good car. Hopefully we didn't hurt it too bad, and we'll just try to go to the next one. This will hurt us in the points obviously, but we've got a lot of racing left, a lot of races to win. We're running good."

Brad Keselowski had a right front tire go down and smacked the wall on Lap 158. He had spent most of the first half of the race in the top 10 before his incident. The 2012 champion finished in 36th place, 45 laps down.

Kevin Harvick also reported having a right front flat tire but after pitting the team reported the tires looked OK. The two-time winner in 2014 reported that the car "just quit turning." The polesitter led 61 laps before pitting from third place and coming out in 23rd, one lap down. Matt Kenseth also appeared to have the same issue several laps later. Both cars appeared to be fine.

Kasey Kahne hit the wall on Lap 234 due to a tire going down. He was a lap down after pitting shortly before a yellow caution flag came out on Lap 230.

The tire trouble led Goodyear's Director of Race Tire Sales, Greg Stucker, to tell ESPN, "We have to sit down with the teams."

The Sprint Cup Series will return to action at Charlotte Motor Speedway next weekend with the fifth race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and the second of the Contender Round. The Bank of America 500 will be held on Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. The Charlotte race is the only scheduled night race in the Chase.

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