KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) Hendrick Motorsports got off to a slow start in NASCARs playoffs despite starting the three-round title pursuit with the regular-season champion and all four of its drivers in the title hunt.
Something was off immediately as Chase Elliotts 17th-place finish in the playoff opener at Darlington was the best of the Hendrick four and Alex Bowman, who narrowly made the 16-driver field, was immediately in danger of elimination.
Joe Gibbs Racing swept the first three playoff races and Bowman was indeed knocked out when the field was cut to 12 drivers then Ryan Blaney of Team Penske won the opening race of the second round.
It took until Sunday at Kansas Speedway for a Hendrick driver to finally get on the board as Elliott stole the victory in overtime by driving from 10th to the checkered flag in a sneaky, two-lap sprint. The victory locked Elliott into the third round of the playoffs alongside Blaney, with the remaining six slots to be filled after this Sundays race on the hybrid road course/oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The Elliott win at Kansas was unbelievable to everyone including his team. Vice chairman Jeff Gordon was hoarse from the celebrations.
Youll take the win however you can get it. Obviously its a huge spark for the 9 team, but you also want to execute solid races, Gordon said. I think we saw first round we didnt execute very well, and it looked sloppy. I think we realize were on our heels a little bit.
Elliotts win doesnt mean things are suddenly fixed. Elliott is in the round of eight, and Kyle Larson and William Byron head to Charlotte above the cutline and not in imminent danger of elimination.
Still, Byron wasnt very good at Kanasas and ran near the back of the field until a flurry of late cautions changed the entire race. As unbelievable as Elliotts win, Byron inexplicably finished ninth.
The 24 was the one that was kind of the eye opener. They were pretty far off, Gordon said. They come out of here with a top-10 because they didnt give up either. That ones got us scratching our heads, and well go back and diagnose kind of what they went through and why they were in that position. Just glad they pulled a good finish together there to get the points they needed.
Byron, who won the season-opening Daytona 500 and is the regular-season champion, was third last week at New Hampshire so now has consecutive top-10 finishes. He wasnt terrible in the first round of the playoffs, but he wasnt as strong as the Gibbs fleet of Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe. All three won a race in the first round.
Larson also has back-to-back top-10 finishes but has led a combined five total laps the last two weeks.
Gordon believes the Elliott victory and Byrons comeback will help the Hendrick group moving through the next month of the season. He particularly believes Byron can make a title run.
I feel like theyve kind of been in championship form several times this season, winning the regular season points. (Kansas) was uncharacteristic of them, Gordon said. But to see them fight back, that keeps the momentum on their side as well.
This late in the season, this stage and round in the playoffs, its so important to get some things to go your way to give you that extra incentive or just extra motivation to go win a championship and believe that you can do it.
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AP auto racing:
美联社堪萨斯城电 —— 尽管以常规赛冠军身份开启三阶段冠军争夺战，且麾下四名车手全部晋级季后赛，亨德里克赛车运动（Hendrick Motorsports）在NASCAR季后赛中仍开局不利。
情况显然不对劲——蔡斯·埃利奥特（Chase Elliott）在达灵顿季后赛揭幕战中获得第17名，已是亨德里克车队四名车手中最佳成绩；而勉强跻身16强车手阵容的亚历克斯·鲍曼（Alex Bowman），此刻已面临淘汰危机。
乔·吉布斯车队包揽了季后赛前三场比赛的胜利——当参赛车手缩减至12人时，鲍曼确实被淘汰出局——随后潘世奇车队的瑞安·布莱尼赢得了第二轮首场赛事的冠军。
直到周日堪萨斯赛道一役，亨德里克车队车手埃利奥特（Elliott）才终于打破僵局。他在加时赛中上演绝地反击，从第十位发车，凭借隐蔽的两圈冲刺率先冲过黑白格旗，惊险夺魁。这场胜利使埃利奥特与布莱尼（Blaney）共同锁定季后赛第三轮席位，其余六个席位将在本周日夏洛特赛车场举行的混合型赛道（半街道赛半椭圆赛道）正赛后揭晓。
埃利奥特在堪萨斯站的胜利令所有人——包括他的车队——都感到难以置信。副主席杰夫·戈登（Jeff Gordon）甚至因庆祝活动而喊哑了嗓子。
戈登表示：“无论如何，胜利就是胜利。显然这对9号车队是巨大的鼓舞，但我们也希望比赛能稳扎稳打。我认为首轮比赛我们表现欠佳，显得有些混乱。我们意识到自己确实有些被动。”
埃利奥特的胜利并不意味着问题突然得到解决。埃利奥特已晋级八强，而凯尔·拉森和威廉·拜伦以高于淘汰线的成绩前往夏洛特，暂无被淘汰的紧迫危险。
然而，拜伦在堪萨斯站的表现并不出色，大部分时间处于车队末尾，直到比赛尾声阶段一连串的警示旗彻底改变了局势。尽管埃利奥特的胜利令人难以置信，拜伦却匪夷所思地以第九名完赛。
戈登表示：“24号赛车的情况确实令人意外。他们原本落后很多，但最终却跻身前十，因为他们同样没有放弃。这个结果让我们有些困惑，我们会复盘分析他们的比赛过程，弄清楚为何会处于那样的位置。不过很高兴他们最终齐心协力取得了好成绩，拿到了所需的积分。”
拜伦（Byron）在本赛季揭幕战戴托纳500中夺冠，并成为常规赛冠军，上周在新罕布什尔站获得第三名，目前已连续跻身前十。他在季后赛首轮表现尚可，但不及吉布斯车队的丹尼·哈姆林（Denny Hamlin）、克里斯托弗·贝尔（Christopher Bell）和蔡斯·布里斯科（Chase Briscoe）的强势表现——这三位车手均在首轮赢得过比赛胜利。
拉尔森（Larson）同样连续两站跻身前十，但过去两周总计只领跑了五圈。
戈登认为，埃利奥特的胜利与拜伦的强势回归将助力亨德里克车队顺利度过赛季接下来的一个月。他尤其相信拜伦具备冲击总冠军的实力。
戈登表示："我感觉他们本赛季多次展现出冠军水准，赢得了常规赛积分。（对阵堪萨斯的比赛）并非他们的典型表现。但看到他们奋起反击，这股势头依然站在他们这边。"
在赛季的这个阶段，季后赛的这一轮次，让一些事情朝着有利于你的方向发展至关重要。这不仅能带来额外的激励或动力去赢得冠军，更能让你坚信自己能够做到。
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