{"id":262632,"date":"2025-09-29T01:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T01:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/262632\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T01:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T01:35:09","slug":"chase-elliott-steals-win-at-wild-hollywood-casino-400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/262632\/","title":{"rendered":"Chase Elliott steals win at wild Hollywood Casino 400"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/p>\n

\"chase<\/p>\n

<\/a>Chase Elliott. Photo: Sean Gardner\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In a wild finish that came down to the final inches,\u00a0Chase Elliott<\/strong>\u00a0stole a dramatic NASCAR Cup Series Playoff<\/strong> win<\/strong><\/a> in the Hollywood Casino 400<\/strong> on Sunday, securing his spot in the Round of 8<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Elliott, driving the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet<\/strong>, edged out a frustrated\u00a0Denny Hamlin<\/strong>\u00a0by a minuscule\u00a00.069 seconds<\/strong>\u00a0after two overtimes at Kansas Speedway<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The victory is Elliott\u2019s second of the season, his second at Kansas, and the 21st of his career.<\/p>\n

The finish was pure chaos. Restarting eighth for the final two-lap sprint, Elliott rocketed forward. He pulled alongside the race-long leader Hamlin through the final turn on Lap 273 and, with his car wide open, bounced off the side of Hamlin\u2019s Toyota on the way to the finish line, just beating him to the stripe.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything worked out perfect for me,\u201d Elliott said of the final run. \u201cHad a great push through [Turns] 1 and 2. That kind of all started with the 6 [Brad Keselowski<\/strong>]. Big run off of 2. The seas kind of parted and I was just able to keep my momentum up. That was really it\u2026 I wasn\u2019t going to lift, so I didn\u2019t know what was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The loss was particularly stinging for Hamlin, who had dominated the day, leading\u00a0159 laps<\/strong>\u00a0and sweeping both the first and second stages. In the closing laps, he was forced to wrestle his car around the 1.5-mile track after losing power steering.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust super disappointing,\u201d a spent Hamlin said after the race. \u201cI wanted it bad. It would have been 60 [career victories] for me. The team just did an amazing job with the car, just really, really fast. Gave me everything I needed. Got the restart I needed. Just couldn\u2019t finish it there on the last corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the heartbreak, the runner-up finish significantly boosted Hamlin\u2019s playoff standing. He increased his margin above the elimination line to\u00a048 points<\/strong>\u00a0heading into next Sunday\u2019s Round of 12 elimination race<\/strong> at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The race was forced into overtime after a violent four-car collision in Turn 3 on Lap 267.\u00a0Bubba Wallace<\/strong>\u00a0was leading as he approached the white flag in the first overtime, only for the caution flag to fly before he could take it.<\/p>\n

The wreck began when\u00a0John Hunter Nemechek<\/strong>\u2019s Toyota tagged\u00a0Zane Smith<\/strong>\u2019s Ford, sending Smith sideways into the outside wall. Smith\u2019s car rolled onto its driver\u2019s side before barrel-rolling down the banking and finally coming to rest upright.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a wild ride, no doubt,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBefore I knew it, I had a decent restart going and I just get wrecked by the 42 [Nemechek]. He just drives through me and then I was sliding on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallace, who co-drives for the 23XI Racing team<\/strong> owned by Hamlin and Michael Jordan<\/strong>, faded to\u00a0fifth<\/strong>\u00a0in the final run after battling with his co-owner on the last lap.<\/p>\n

Wallace is now 10th in the standings,\u00a026 points<\/strong>\u00a0below the elimination line. Behind the leaders,\u00a0Christopher Bell<\/strong>\u00a0finished third, followed by pole winner\u00a0Chase Briscoe<\/strong>\u00a0in fourth.<\/p>\n

Another Playoff contender,\u00a0Austin Cindric<\/strong>, was collected in an 11-car wreck on Lap 217. He is now\u00a048 points<\/strong>\u00a0below the cutoff line, almost certainly needing a win at the Charlotte Roval<\/strong> to advance.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0Kyle Larson<\/strong>\u00a0finished sixth and is a comfortable\u00a054 points<\/strong>\u00a0ahead of ninth-place\u00a0Ross Chastain<\/strong>.\u00a0Tyler Reddick<\/strong>\u00a0finished seventh but sits 11th in the standings,\u00a029 points<\/strong>\u00a0below the cut line.<\/p>\n

Shane van Gisbergen<\/strong>, despite an early pass-through penalty, impressed with a\u00a010th-place<\/strong>\u00a0finish, marking his first career top-10 on a NASCAR oval.<\/p>\n

The Cup Series goes to Charlotte next weekend for the running of the Bank of America ROVAL<\/strong> race and the cutoff for the Round of 8.<\/p>\n

NASCAR Cup Series Race
Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN BET
Kansas Speedway
Kansas City, Kansas
Sunday, September 28, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. (4) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 273.<\/li>\n
  2. (2) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 273.<\/li>\n
  3. (5) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 273.<\/li>\n
  4. (1) Chase Briscoe (P), Toyota, 273.<\/li>\n
  5. (7) Bubba Wallace (P), Toyota, 273.<\/li>\n
  6. (3) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 273.<\/li>\n
  7. (12) Tyler Reddick (P), Toyota, 273.<\/li>\n
  8. (31) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 273.<\/li>\n
  9. (11) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 273.<\/li>\n
  10. (24) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 273.<\/li>\n
  11. (9) Ross Chastain (P), Chevrolet, 273.<\/li>\n
  12. (23) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 273.<\/li>\n
  13. (33) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 273.<\/li>\n
  14. (21) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 273.<\/li>\n
  15. (15) Chris Buescher, Ford, 273.<\/li>\n
  16. (10) Erik Jones, Toyota, 273.<\/li>\n
  17. (30) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 273.<\/li>\n
  18. (22) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 273.<\/li>\n
  19. (29) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 273.<\/li>\n
  20. (27) Cole Custer, Ford, 273.<\/li>\n
  21. (35) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 273.<\/li>\n
  22. (32) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 273.<\/li>\n
  23. (14) Noah Gragson, Ford, 273.<\/li>\n
  24. (37) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 273.<\/li>\n
  25. (8) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 272.<\/li>\n
  26. (19) Ryan Preece, Ford, 271.<\/li>\n
  27. (16) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 271.<\/li>\n
  28. (17) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 271.<\/li>\n
  29. (6) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 269.<\/li>\n
  30. (26) Austin Cindric (P), Ford, 269.<\/li>\n
  31. (28) Zane Smith, Ford, Accident, 266.<\/li>\n
  32. (25) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, Accident, 266.<\/li>\n
  33. (13) Josh Berry, Ford, Accident, 266.<\/li>\n
  34. (36) JJ Yeley(i), Chevrolet, 261.<\/li>\n
  35. (18) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 236.<\/li>\n
  36. (20) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, Accident, 216.<\/li>\n
  37. (34) Cody Ware, Ford, Accident, 52.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Average Speed of Race Winner:<\/strong>\u00a0123.106 mph.
    Time of Race:<\/strong>\u00a03 Hrs, 19 Mins, 35 Secs.
    Margin of Victory:\u00a0<\/strong>.069 Seconds.
    Caution Flags:<\/strong>\u00a09 for 48 laps.
    Lead Changes:<\/strong>\u00a020 among 11 drivers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chase Elliott. Photo: Sean Gardner\/Getty Images In a wild finish that came down to the final inches,\u00a0Chase Elliott\u00a0stole…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":262633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[4422,1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-262632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-chase-elliott","9":"tag-nascar","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115285021339448987","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}