Denny Hamlin bumped Kyle Larson off the lead heading onto the backstretch of the final lap Sunday, giving him a clear path to the finish line at Kansas Speedway and ending his 33-race winless drought in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Hamlin went to the front on the record 38th lead change of a chaotic race at Kansas for his fourth victory at the track and the 400th win overall for Joe Gibbs Racing. It was Hamlin’s first victory since last year’s Coca-Cola 600.
“I was trying to side-draft him and clipped his left rear,” Hamlin said of the last-lap pass. “I’m glad he was able to finish.”
Larson had held Hamlin off for about 30 laps, despite fighting a rapidly loosening car. Hamlin had pulled up to his bumper with three laps to go but fell away crossing the start-finish line, then lined up for one more try that he made stick.
“I was really loose,” Larson said. “He was able to finally get my inside off two. It seemed he was side-drafting me aggressively. I don’t know if he finally got me turned sideways, but turned me into the outside wall and he got the win.”
William Byron spent more than 50 laps riding around two laps down before rallying onto the lead lap, and even fighting for the lead down the stretch before finishing third. Bubba Wallace, who won the fall race at Kansas, was fourth and Ross Chastain rounded out the top five.
Chastain, who has drawn the ire of many drivers this season with his aggressiveness, found himself in another heated confrontation on pit road after the race. He had gotten into Noah Gragson with about 60 laps to go and sent him for a spin, and Gragson walked up to the Trackhouse Racing driver afterward to make his displeasure known.
Chastain eventually threw a right-handed punch, Gragson tried to throw a punch of his own and crew members had to separate them.
“I’m sick and tired of it,” Gragson said of Chastain’s driving style. “The guy runs into everyone. When you have guys like Chase Elliott and other guys telling you to beat his ass, everyone is just sick of him.”
Chastain accepted some of the blame for the spin.
“I got tight off four for sure,” he said. “Noah and I have a very similar attitude on the race track. We train together, we prepare together, we know every little bit about each other. I definitely crowded him out of four.”
Verstappen wins F1 race in Miami
Max Verstappen used an easy Sunday drive to keep Red Bull undefeated on the season, as the reigning two-time Formula One champion drove from ninth to the victory at the Miami Grand Prix.
Red Bull has won all five races so far this season, and teammate Sergio Perez’s second-place finish in Miami was the fourth 1-2 finish for Red Bull this year. Verstappen has three wins this season, while Perez, the pole sitter in Miami, has two.
The win was the 38th of his career for Verstappen, who tied Sebastian Vettel for most victories for Red Bull. At this pace, he’ll smash Vettel’s record by the end of what many critics are already complaining is a boring Red Bull-dominated season.
“I call that simply (expletive) lovely,” Verstappen said on his radio. “That was a good race, a good race all around, so thank you very much. That was really, really good, also good for the team, again.”