Kurt Busch didn’t run particularly well throughout most of Sunday’s South Point Casino 400 at Las Vegas, but a caution in the middle of a late pit cycle suddenly gave him the lead of the race on fresh tires. He was then able to outlast hard charges from Matt Dibenedetto, Alex Bowman, and Denny Hamlin on several late restarts to earn his 32nd career victory and his first at Las Vegas, his home track. It was also his first win of the 2020 season and guarantees his spot in the penultimate round of the playoffs. “This is what kids dream of when they grow up racing, you dream of winning at your hometown track,” Busch said. “For two decades it’s kicked my butt and tonight with this Monster Energy Chevy, I’m in awe.” (Cain, 2020) Busch and nine other drivers stretched their tires a bit further than most of the field in hopes of a caution that would change their whole race. That caution came with 32 laps to go, just laps after many of the leaders had come to pit road. As a result, the ten drivers who hadn’t yet received service were the only lead lap cars and were able to receive service without losing a top ten position under that caution. The faster drivers who had already pit had to take the wave around to get back on the lead lap, except for Alex Bowman, who got the free pass as a result of being the top car one lap down. Busch ran around 15th most of the race, but the mixture of clean air as a result of being the leader and the increased grip in the track at night were the perfect medicine for him to steal a win. “I knew the race would come to us,” Busch said. “We needed to get to nightfall and one of those quirky (crew chief) Matt McCall pit sequences finally unfolded and we got lucky. You have to be lucky and you have to be lucky in any race, but we did it tonight with teamwork, pulling through and not giving up.” (Cain, 2020)

Denny Hamlin clearly had the dominant car all race long, as he led 121 out of the 268 laps. Hamlin, who’s never won at Las Vegas, was passed on track by Alex Bowman after their late green flag pit stops. This was presumed to be the battle for the win until the unexpected caution with 32 laps to go came out, allowing Kurt Busch to steal the win. Hamlin was able to rally to a third place finish through the series of late race restarts, but was unable to get in front of Busch. “Just same thing as happened at Darlington, untimely cautions,” Hamlin said. “That’s what’s keeping us out of Victory Lane. We obviously had a dominant car today and I’m proud of the whole FedEx team for giving me such a great car, by far the best car I’ve had in Las Vegas and maybe a long time at any mile-and-a-half (track). Just really happy with it.” (Cain, 2020) Hamlin, who has 6 wins this season, eliminated concerns that had arisen about his performance after he went three straight races without a top ten finish heading into Sunday’s event. “Really encouraged by the way we ran, obviously just very disappointed we didn’t get a win.” (Cain, 2020)

Austin Dillon was the surprise of the first round of the Playoffs with an unprecedented improvement in performance. This uptick in performance was evident again all race long on Sunday as well, as Dillon finished 6th in both stages. However, he suffered a pit road penalty for a crew man falling over the wall late in the race, sending him to the rear of the field. He climbed back up to 20th after this penalty before having to come down pit road due to a broken power steering belt. Dillon lost 9 laps while his team was repairing the car, ruining what could’ve been a special day for his team. “It’s just unfortunate,” Dillon said. “We were actually probably set up perfectly if that doesn’t happen because we were three cars behind the 1 (Kurt Busch) and we were going to run long, most likely (meaning he would’ve been one of the cars who had yet to pit when the caution came out if the power steering belt had never broke). (Merryman, 2020) The 32nd place finish leaves Dillon 32 points below the playoffs cut line with two races left in the round, which are at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval. “We gotta make it happen at Talladega,” Dillon said. (Merryman, 2020)

Here are the current playoff standings with two races remaining in the round:

Driver                                        Points Above/Below Cutoff

1.Kurt Busch                             ADVANCED

2.Kevin Harvick                        +61

3.Denny Hamlin                       +58

4.Brad Keselowski                    +16

5.Martin Truex Jr.                    +15

6.Joey Logano                            +11

7.Chase Elliott                            +10

8.Bowman                                    +9

_______________________ CUTOFF

9.Kyle Busch                                -9

10.Clint Bowyer                           -20

11.Aric Almirola                           -27

12.Austin Dillon                           -32

Written on September 28th, 2020

Sources:

Cain, Holly. “Kurt Busch Wins Round of 12 Opener at Las Vegas: NASCAR.” Official Site Of NASCAR, NASCAR Wire Service, 28 Sept. 2020, www.nascar.com/news-media/2020/09/27/results-cup-series-playoffs-las-vegas-motor-speedway-race-recap/.