NASCAR Kansas Fall 2023 Recap

While the Truck Series was about to shrink its playoff field, the Xfinity Series was getting ready to set their playoff field, and the Cup Series continued on their first round, Here is a recap of the tripleheader this past weekend at Kansas Speedway.

Beginning with the Craftsman Truck Series, it was a three-wide battle on the final restart between Corey Heim, Zane Smith, and Christian Eckes, as Eckes took the lead and led only the final two laps to score the victory at Kansas. This marks Eckes’ fourth career win. Smith dropped to fifth place after getting sideways during that battle, while Taylor Gray was able to work his way to a second-place finish, and Matt DiBenedetto, who was on the bubble of advancing finished third.

While it was a good result, it wasn’t enough for DiBenedetto to advance to the Round of 8, as he was five points short. 2021 Champion Ben Rhodes clinched the final spot. DiBenedetto recently announced that he will not be returning to the No. 25 Rackley W.A.R. Chevrolet in 2024 and is looking for opportunities across all three series. Matt Crafton, a three-time champion, was also eliminated from championship contention as he slapped the wall on Lap 69, resulting in a disappointing 33^rd place finish, nine laps down, and 11 points from advancing. 

“That was wild,” Eckes said after the race. “I didn’t know if I was going to win it or not. We had, like, a sixth-place truck all day, but when that caution came out, I knew we had a shot at it, and here we are.”

“We haven’t won in a real long time – so I wanted to set a tone. Went all the way to the Round of 10 – second, third, first (in the first three playoff races). So can’t beat that. Proud of all these guys.”

Had DiBenedetto made up two more spots, he would have advanced to the Round of 8.

“Honestly, this team fought so hard, worked their tail off to give me a good-looking truck and a good handling truck all night,” DiBenedetto said. “So, man, we made the most of it, for sure. Just so thankful for these guys and Rackley Roofing.”

Nick Sanchez won the first stage, while Carson Hocevar, who finished sixth, won stage two and punched his ticket to the Round of 8. 

The Craftsman Truck Series will share a weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series, as they will race on Thursday, September 14th at 9 pm EST.

When the checkered flag fell Saturday afternoon at Kansas Speedway, the playoff field of 12 drivers was set for the NASCAR Xfinity Series as John Hunter Nemechek cruised to his sixth win of the season, making him the one to beat for the Championship.

However, thanks to Nemechek’s win, Parker Kligerman was able to take a big sigh of relief as that and his fourth-place finish was enough to get the final spot in the Xfinity Series playoffs. Riley Herbst came into the race with a one-point advantage 

“I was definitely the biggest John Hunter fan on the last run there,” said Kligerman, who finished 25 points ahead of Herbst for the final playoff spot. “I’m really proud of this whole Big Machine Racing team. We executed at a high level.”

“With what I’ve seen do for the last 12 weeks, I felt like, if we could just get in the playoffs, and we bring this going forward, we’re going to race for a championship.”

Despite Nemechek winning both stages and winning the race, Austin Hill finished fifth and claimed the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Regular Season Championship.

“I’m looking forward to getting the Playoffs started next week at Bristol. We came in here trying to get the Regular Season Championship. I thought that we were going to have a 60-point day this weekend, and that’s what we did. We controlled what we could control. We did everything that we possibly could.” Nemechek said after the race. So, let’s go to the playoffs – I’m ready.”

Just happy that we were able to bring home the Regular Season Championship, get the extra 15 bonus points, which is huge,” Austin Hill said. “But we’ve got to go to work. We’ve got to be better. The 20 (Nemechek) was the class of the field all day.”

“Really kind of stunk up the show there, so we’ve got to go back to the drawing board, figure out what we’ve got to do better for next time.”

Brandon Jones finished second, who needed to win to make the playoffs, Sheldon Creed finished third, with Parker Kligerman rounding out the top five. Josh Berry, Brett Moffitt, Derek Kraus, Joe Graf Jr, and Kaz Grala rounded out the top ten.

Here is the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Field for 2023:

1. #20 John Hunter Nemechek (2049 Points)
2. #21 Austin Hill (2039 Points)
3. #7 Justin Allgaier (2026 Points)
4. #00 Cole Custer (2017 Points)
5. #1 Sam Mayer (2015 Points)
6. #16 Chandler Smith (2009 Points)
7. #8 Josh Berry (2009 Points)
8. #2 Sheldon Creed (2008 Points)
9. #18 Sammy Smith (2006 Points)
10. #27 Jeb Burton (2006 Points)
11. #11 Daniel Hemric (2003 Points)
12. #48 Parker Kligerman (2002 Points)

23XI Racing has definitely shown that they have Kansas Speedway figured out, as the No. 45 Toyota has now made a trip to victory lane in three of the last four races. Kurt Busch won the Spring 2022 race, Bubba Wallace won the 2022 fall race, and now Tyler Reddick picks up his second win of the 2023 Season with a crucial victory that will advance him to the Round of 12. Reddick did it holding off the co-owner of 23XI, Denny Hamlin (who also won the spring race this season at Kansas), as Hamlin led for 63 laps until a late caution involving Chris Buescher sent the race into a late restart. 

Reddick restarted on the inside of row three for the final restart, as Daniel Suarez was out in front, who was the only driver not to pit for tires. Suarez quickly faded as Erik Jones had a shot at the lead, battling defending champion Joey Logano. However, Reddick made a power move that made him shoot down to the apron coming to the white flag to take the lead and win the race.

“Just an outstanding job by this whole 23XI team,” Reddick said during his celebration.

“We had really good pace, but just couldn’t get ahead of Denny there, but chaos ensued, people stayed out, some took two tires, and the bottom lane opened up. Pretty crazy.”

Denny Hamlin would finish second as the finish left him 49 points ahead of teammate Martin Truex Jr., the first driver below the current Round of 12 cut line. Truex wrecked out of the race early on lap four with a cut tire.

“Well, the 5 (Kyle Larson) was just laying back so much,” Hamlin said. “I was trying to back up to him. Should have just kind of focused forward, probably.”

“It gave the 45 an opportunity to get up there in front of us. Just kind of sleeping on the restart, looking in the rearview instead of looking in the front.”

Erik Jones would finish third, as Kyle Larson and Joey Logano finished in the top five. Larson led for 99 laps, the most in the race, and won stage one. 

For Martin Truex Jr., despite winning the Regular Season Championship, that advantage was gone as he had a 36th-place finish and now sits four points below the cut line heading into Bristol.

“Just unfortunate and very unlucky,” Truex said after exiting the infield care center. “I took off really tight, and I knew something was up, and then cut a right rear. Not really sure what happened, obviously, but it blew in the worst place possible.”

“I hate it for my guys. We had an awesome Bass Pro Toyota Camry. We were going to have a great day, just not sure what we need to do to get some luck here.”

Bubba Wallace sits 19 points below the cutline, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is 22 points below, and Michael McDowell is 40 points below. Those three drivers most likely needing a win in order to stay in the hunt for the championship. Kevin Harvick, in his final full-time season, currently holds the final spot.