Hamlin wins, Elliott advances in double overtime at Kansas

Hamlin led the way on the restart to the second overtime and quickly put some distance between himself and Elliott. 

After taking the white flag, Elliott tried furiously to get alongside Hamlin by Hamlin edged him by 0.128 seconds to win Sunday’s Hollywood 400.

The win is Hamlin’s fifth of the 2019 season and 36th of his career and second at Kansas.

"This is a great feeling. That car was awesome to dominate that whole second half," Hamlin said. "I have to thank everybody who pushed me on the restarts, Kyle (Busch), (Chase Elliott) at the end. Good to see (Elliott) make (the playoffs) by points anyway.

"I'm just really happy for this whole. It's been great. We've been running really good. I cannot wait to get to Martinsville."

Asked if he felt more and more like his first championship could be a reality this season, Hamlin said: "It's step-by-step, week-by-week. I'm not getting too far ahead of ourselves. We concentrate every week as if it's the most important one. The win here kind of shows that."

Hamlin said the key to holding on to his lead through the overtimes was remaining on the bottom of the track and getting good pushes on the restarts.

"It was all about the push I got from (Elliott) and really (Busch) those last couple of restarts. That was the most important thing for us - to get a good restart. Once we got out front, we could hold it wide-open. Our car was built for downforce, so it worked out that it was just fast enough to win."

Kyle Busch finished third, Kurt Busch was fourth and William Byron completed the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 were Martin Truex Jr., Erik Jones, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson.

Three drivers advance to the semifinal round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs through wins – Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney.

Joining them in the Round of 8 are Truex, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Elliott, who edged Brad Keselowski by three points for the final spot.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, all of the lead-lap cars elected to pit with Hamlin the first off pit road.

On the restart on Lap 167, Hamlin was followed by Blaney, Elliott, Truex and Kyle Busch.

Blaney got around Truex on Lap 171 to move into the second position behind leader Hamlin.

On Lap 193, Kyle Busch used the high-line to get around Blaney and take over the second spot as Blaney dropped to third.

With 65 laps remaining in the race, Hamlin’s lead over Kyle Busch held steady at 2.4 seconds. Blaney remained third, Truex fourth and Byron ran fifth.

Parker Kligerman tagged the wall on Lap 204 but there was no caution. Kligerman made his way down pit road under green for repairs without incident.

Several teams began a round of green-flag pit stops on Lap 214 as the window opened to make it to the end of the race on fuel. Among the first of the lead-lap cars to pit were Jones and Harvick.

During his stop, Aric Almirola was penalized for an uncontrolled tire and had to make a pass-through penalty on pit road under green. 

Once the cycle of stops was completed on Lap 226, Hamlin returned to the lead followed closely by Kyle Busch and Blaney.

With 30 laps remaining in the race, Hamlin’s lead over Kyle Busch remained about 1 second. Blaney was third, Jones fourth and Byron fifth.

On Lap 248, Hamlin nearly avoided a collision with the lapped car of Paul Menard, which allowed Kyle Busch to close to within a half-second of the leader.

On Lap 253, Blaney – who had tagged the wall on the frontstretch – then blew his right-rear tire coming off Turn 2 to bring out a caution.

All of the lead-lap cars elected to pit with Hamlin the first off pit road. On the restart on Lap 259, he was followed by Larson, Johnson, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch. The first three took only two new tires, Kyle Busch was the first car with four new tires.

With five laps remaining, Hamlin held a small lead over Kyle Busch with Elliott having moved to third.

Elliott moved into second with four laps to go.

Bubba Wallace spun in Turn 2 after losing a wheel in an incident that also collected Matt Tifft and Ryan Preece on Lap 265. 

Keselowski, who had taken the wave-around to get back on the lead lap the previous caution, pit for four new tires. On the start of overtime, it was Hamlin followed by Elliott, Kyle Busch, Jones and Johnson.

Just as Hamlin was about to take the white flag, Suarez and Hemric wrecked coming off Turn 4 to bring out the caution and send the race into double overtime. To start the second OT, Hamlin led followed by Kyle Busch, Elliott, Jones and Byron.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led	Retirement	Points	Bonus
1	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	277		153		53
2	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	277	00.128	4		50
3	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	277	00.266			41
4	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	277	00.493			33
5	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	277	00.543	1		39
6	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	277	00.796	33		46
7	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	277	01.005			32
8	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	277	01.125			31
9	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	277	01.405			33
10	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	277	01.407			27
11	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	277	01.537	7		26
12	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	277	01.786			25
13	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	277	01.948			24
14	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	277	02.233	60		23
15	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	277	02.246			22
16	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	277	02.589	1		22
17	22	Joey Logano		Ford	277	02.604	4		34
18	21	Paul Menard		Ford	277	02.858			22
19	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	277	03.003	2		23
20	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	277	03.032			17
21	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	277	04.090	2		29
22	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	276	1 lap			15
23	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	274	3 laps			14
24	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	274	3 laps			13
25	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	273	4 laps			12
26	38	David Ragan		Ford	273	4 laps			11
27	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	272	5 laps
28	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	272	5 laps			9
29	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	271	6 laps
30	51	J.J. Yeley		Ford	271	6 laps
31	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	270	7 laps	4	Accident	6
32	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	270	7 laps	6	Accident	13
33	27	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet	268	9 laps			4
34	52	Garrett Smithley		Ford	267	10 laps
35	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	263	14 laps		Accident	2
36	53	Josh Bilicki		Ford	262	15 laps
37	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	203	74 laps		Vibration
38	66	Joey Gase		Toyota	107	170 laps		Accident
39	77	Timmy Hill		Chevrolet	95	182 laps		Too slow
40	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	72	205 laps		Accident	1