The Toyota drivers ran first through fifth on the final lap of double overtime, but it was a Chevrolet driver named Chase Elliott who celebrated the win at Kansas Speedway. He took advantage of collisions while going from eighth to first.
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Bubba Wallace had the lead on the final lap of double overtime, but he had Denny Hamlin hounding him from behind. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver/23XI Racing team owner got beside Wallace entering the final turns, but then he slid up. This put Wallace's No. 23 in the wall.
Hamlin took the lead heading to the checkered flag, but Elliott had a bigger run. He got beside Hamlin, door-slammed the No. 11, and crossed the finish line first. He captured his second win of the season and punched his ticket to the Round of 8.
The finish to that race was ______ pic.twitter.com/FJQ5Tb72XF
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) September 28, 2025
"Everything worked out perfect for me," Elliott said. "Had a great push through (Turns) 1 and 2. That kind of all started with the 6 (Brad Keselowski). Big run off of 2. Seas kind of parted and just was able to keep my momentum up. That was really it.
"Obviously, we still had pretty good tires compared to those guys, but what a crazy finish. Hope you all enjoyed that. I certainly did. Really proud of our team. Had a really solid weekend, win or no win. Really nice to qualify really well."
MORE: Full Kansas Speedway results
Hamlin finished second despite having no power steering in his Toyota while Christopher Bell moved into third place. Chase Briscoe finished fourth while Wallace settled for fifth place. The only non-Toyota in the top five was the race winner.
"Just super disappointing. I wanted it bad," Hamlin said. "It would have been 60 (wins) 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't finish it there on the last corner. Obviously, got really, really tight with the 23 (Wallace), and it just got real tight and we let the 9 (Elliott) win."
Wallace showed how much he has changed as he has matured. Instead of going off on a rant about his boss, he took a different approach. He first praised his team for the rebound after they fell from seventh to 19th in the opening stage.
Although he did take a jab at Hamlin during his post-race interview with NBC Sports.
"We missed it on the fire-off speed," Wallace said. "So I just really appreciate the team. Two years ago I'd probably say something dumb. I mean he's a dumbass for that move, for sure. I don't care if he's my boss or not.
"But we're going for the win. I hate that we gave it to Chevrolet there. Toyotas were super fast and proud to be driving one. I thought it was meant to be and then it wasn't. And all in all, the positive though, we were minus 26 coming in — or minus 27 coming in. Minus 26 leaving. We gained a point."
