Date: Oct. 22, 2017
Event: Hollywood Casino 400 (Round 32 of 36)
Series: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Kansas Speedway in Kansas City (1.5-mile oval)
Format: 267 laps, broken into three stages (80 laps/80 laps/107 laps)
Start/Finish: 9th/19th (completed 267 of 267 laps)
Point Standing: 18th with 793 points
Race Winner: Martin Truex Jr. of Furniture Row Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-80):
● Clint Bowyer started ninth and finished 14th.
● Raced as high as fifth by lap 44.
● Dropped to 14th after pit stop when his team elected to take four tires instead of two tires.
● Bowyer reported his rear grip seemed to go away in the later part of the stage.
Stage 2 Recap (Laps 81-160):
● Started 12th and finished 11th.
● Bowyer moved to ninth at the lap-100 mark.
● Crew told Bowyer his lap times were one of the four best on the track.
● Made routine, green-flag pit stop on lap 123.
● Late caution created a one-lap shootout, and Bowyer missed a top-10 stage finish by inches.
Stage 3 Recap (Laps 161-267):
● Started 18th and finished 19th.
● Bowyer pitted before the start of the stage and dropped to 18th.
● Stayed on the track during the caution at lap 177 and moved to fifth.
● Despite running at the front of the field, Bowyer’s chances for victory ended on lap 197 in a multicar crash coming off turn two.
● The No. 14 suffered significant damage, but the crew made repairs, after NASCAR lifted the red flag, to return Bowyer to the track.
● Bowyer’s wounded car maintained a respectable speed and finished the race.
● Sunday marked the third consecutive week Bowyer’s race has been ruined by another car’s accident.
Notes:
● There were 10 caution periods for a total of 49 laps.
● Twenty-two of the 40 drivers in the Hollywood 400 finished on the lead lap.
● Martin Truex Jr. won the Hollywood 400 to score his 14th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his seventh of the season and his second at Kansas.
● Truex leads the championship standings with 4,069 points and holds a 27-point advantage over his nearest pursuer, Kyle Busch.
Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 14 Haas Automation Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“We had a pretty good Ford today and deserved a top-fve finish, but there just wasn’t anywhere to go in the wreck. My guys did a good job fixing us up so we could finish the race. I really wanted a good finish here in Kansas. We haven’t had a thing go right in three weeks, but there is a lot of racing left in the season. We’ve shown speed.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
