Denny Hamlin wins Kansas after last-lap contact

As Denny Hamlin celebrated his first win of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season after last-lap contact with Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain‘s right fist was making contact with Noah Gragson‘s left cheek.

Hamlin battled Larson for much of the closing laps in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway, and an opportunity opened up after Larson got loose on the backstretch after taking the white flag. Larson attempted to recover but was clipped by Hamlin, causing him to hit the wall again.

“It really started with about three laps to go or so,” began Hamlin’s breakdown of the duel. “I was able to get beside him a few times, but there was one where we caught a couple lapped cars and I got to the inside of him and the lap car chose my lane on the bottom, and that really hurt us. I thought that was our best opportunity to pass him.

“So we were two to go, I knew the only way I was going to have an attempt to get near him was to get a huge run off of turn four, so I ran way up high in turn three, really kind of a Kyle Larson line, way up by the fence, and I just pulled it down and got a huge run, and that run down the front straightaway allowed me to pack air on him getting into the corner and get him up the race track so I could get beside him.

“We were both pedalling the throttle on the exit. I was sideways and he was sideways – I knew it was going to be close whether he was going to clear me, and I’m just trying to grind on his left side, trying to keep the side draft as tight as I could, and it’s just a super sensitive part of the car if you get to the left rear, and obviously it hooked him to the right, and we won. The end.”

Larson still managed to finish second despite the clash. After the race, he explained he “was really loose. I was trying to do what I could to manage it, just was really loose at that end, and yeah, just he was a little bit better than me there at the end. I haven’t seen a replay either, but obviously he was side drafting really aggressively like you would, but he was like touching me it felt like, and it just had me kind of out of control.”

The incident wrapped up a chaotic day almost akin to a superspeedway race, which recent Kansas dates have seemingly resembled. Excluding the first stage break, ten cautions were flown for accidents including Kyle Busch‘s wreck as Stage #2 came to an end. A whopping thirty-seven lead changes between twelve drivers took place, more than the two Kansas races in 2022 combined and the most outside of a superspeedway since the 2011 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte—which had a longer race length than Kansas by 200 more miles—saw thirty-eight.

While their run-in did not produce a caution, Chastain and Gragson collided while racing each other late when the latter bounced off the wall. Gragson confronted Chastain on pit road after the race, the two holding each other before Chastain threw a right hook that landed. Before Gragson could retaliate, the two were separated by NASCAR officials.

“He just fenced us off of (turn) four sixty laps to go in the race,” Gragson charged. “Completely used us up and fenced the shit out of us. I’m not going to tear the Trackhouse guys’ stuff up, I respect their hard work. But nobody confronts the guy. I went down there and grabbed him and showed my displeasure. I’m sick and tired of it, and the guy just runs into everyone. When you got guys like Chase Elliott and other guys telling you to go beat his ass, everyone’s just sick and tired of him but nobody has the balls to go up and get him. I’m tired of it.”

Chastain conceded he “got tight off of (turn) four for sure,” but added that “Noah and I have a very similar attitude on the racetrack, and we train together, we prepare together, we know each other’s every little bit about each other. Definitely crowded him up off of four, and he took a swipe at us in three, and then he came down and grabbed a hold of me, and a very big man once told me we have a no-push policy here at Trackhouse.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	8	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	267	Running
2	2	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
3	1	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
4	17	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	267	Running
5	3	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	267	Running
6	6	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	267	Running
7	21	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
8	4	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	267	Running
9	5	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	267	Running
10	11	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
11	13	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	267	Running
12	33	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
13	18	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	267	Running
14	27	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
15	9	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	267	Running
16	10	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	267	Running
17	14	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	267	Running
18	30	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
19	20	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	267	Running
20	24	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
21	19	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	267	Running
22	26	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
23	35	51	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	266	Running
24	32	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	266	Running
25	29	48	Josh Berry*	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	266	Running
26	23	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	266	Running
27	28	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	266	Running
28	34	15	Brennan Poole*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	264	Running
29	22	42	Noah Gragson	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	262	Running
30	25	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	261	Running
31	15	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	260	Running
32	31	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	260	Running
33	36	78	Josh Bilicki	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	260	Running
34	7	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	176	Accident
35	16	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	162	Accident
36	12	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	157	Accident

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points