Denny Hamlin passed Kevin Harvick for the lead with 13 laps to go and went on to win Thursday night’s Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.
Hamlin beat Brad Keselowski to claim his series-leading fifth win of the season.
The top five was completed by Martin Truex Jr., Harvick and Erik Jones.
More: Race results, point standings
More: What drivers said after Kansas
Hamlin’s win, his second in a row at Kansas, snapped a three-race streak of finishing 12th or worse.
“I don’t know that we had the best car, we definitely had a top-three car all day,” Hamlin told NBCSN. “Just went and got it there at the end. I saw (Kevin Harvick) get loose and usually when you’re loose, you’re not able to run up high. That was a benefit for us to be able to get that momentum going. The pit crew did an amazing job getting us out there ahead of everyone else that had four tires. Proud of this whole FedEx team. We’ve had a rough three weeks. We were leading at Indy when we blew a tire and this team is really hitting on all cylinders right now.”
Hamlin’s five wins are tied for his most through 19 races in a season (2010).
For Keselowski, who led four times for 30 laps, he earned his 14th top-10 finish of the year.
“I thought Denny and I were probably pretty close to equal the second half of the night,” Keselowski said. “It was just a matter of who got out in front. We didn’t get out in front on the restarts there and he was able to take advantage and bring home the win. All in all, it was still a really good day.”
STAGE 1 WINNER: Kyle Busch, earned his first stage win of the year.
STAGE 2 WINNER: Brad Keselowski
WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Brad Keselowski is the only driver to finish in the top 10 in all eight races at 1.5-mile tracks this season … Martin Truex Jr. earned just his second top five in the last eight races … Erik Jones earned his fourth top-seven finish in the last seven races. Has finished top seven in the last five races at Kansas … Aric Almirola placed sixth for his eighth straight top-10 finish, the best streak of his career … Daniel Suarez placed 18th, tying his best result of the year.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished last after he dropped out in the first stage due to an electrical fire in his car. It’s his fifth DNF of the year … Bubba Wallace finished 37th after he spun on Lap 100 due to a flat tire and later ran into a spinning Matt Kenseth on Lap 171, ending his day … Matt DiBenedetto, Austin Dillon, Joey Logano were eliminated in a crash on a restart that also involved Jimmie Johnson. Johnson briefly continued, but was unable to make minimum speeding, ending his night … Ryan Preece earned his fourth consecutive DNF following a violent multi-car crash on a Lap 182 restart … Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch each suffered flat tires with 40 laps to go, forcing them to pit. Blaney finished 20th and Busch placed 11th.
NOTABLE: With Stenhouse’s DNF, JTG Daugherty Racing has had one of its drivers finish last in four straight races.
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: “The head of a race car driver is a scary place to be. Mine alone is scary enough, the last thing I want to do is try to pretend like I know what’s going on in his.” – Brad Keselowski when asked about Denny Hamlin’s mindset in pursuing his first championship.
WHAT’S NEXT: Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway at 3 p.m. ET Aug. 2 on NBCSN.
