Lebanon, Tenn. – The Ally 400 ended up a five-overtime affair, and Joey Logano stretched the fuel in his No. 22 Ford to go to victory lane.
For several other drivers though, the extra restarts on Sunday (June 30) cost them good finishes and left their teams with damaged racecars.
Ross Chastain was one of the first drivers to suffer from overtime. On the first overtime attempt, as the field drove into turn 2, Chastain drove on the outside, chasing leader Denny Hamlin. Kyle Larson drove low, came high and Chastain wound up with a 33rd-place DNF.
“Yeah, I was with Denny on the front and I was just going to try and get into him to wash him off the bottom to give myself some clean air cause I knew being stuck in the second row, whether inside or outside, that we weren’t going to have a shot,” Larson told reporters post-race. “And I thought my opportunity to give myself a chance to win was to get clean air on the nose. And yeah I just ran in, got really tight and drove into Ross. So, hate that for sure.
During that caution, Kyle Busch noticeably slowed down yet kept his fourth-place position on track, causing confusion for even the NBC broadcasters.
According to NASCAR, it was deemed a judgment call. NASCAR officials decided Busch slowed his No. 8 Chevrolet to avoid contributing to the incident, thereby reducing the potential for more drivers at risk for injury and less wrecked racecars. If Busch maintained pace, NASCAR felt he could’ve risked damage to his racecar plus any involvement in the caution thereby put people at risk of injury. So because he did everything in his power to avoid contributing to the caution, he was allowed to retain his position.
Unfortunately, Busch’s good fortune was later wiped away. On the lap 321 restart, Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet ran out of fuel. Larson’s bid for victory was over and Busch’s good run ended the same as the previous two races: with a DNF.
“[…] And then the next one [the third one], we ran out of fuel and caused that wreck,” Larson continued. “So, hate that for Kyle [Busch]. I had no warning. So we knew we were really close on fuel and it would be a stretch to make it. I had no low fuel pressure, alarm or anything on my dash so it was a bit…
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