KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Saturday’s (Sept. 28) Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway had it all: an exciting finish, short runs, long runs, exciting restarts and frustrated drivers.
When it was all said and done after 200 laps and 300 miles, there were three sets of playoff drivers that were angry or at odds with each other.
Cole Custer and Chandler Smith stole all the headlines, as Smith put Custer in the wall while trying to defend the lead in the final stage. Custer eventually passed Smith with 10 to go after a long and grueling battle, only for Smith’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Aric Almirola to zip by the No. 00 car with four to go and take the checkered flag.
Further in the pack, it was Sammy Smith frustrated with AJ Allmendinger and Riley Herbst frustrated with Austin Hill. Both sets of drivers exchanged words on pit road after the race, with some conversations more cordial than others.
Smith versus Allmendinger had been brewing since the start of the day, as Allmendinger got into the back of Smith and sent him into the turn 4 wall on lap 2. The No. 8 car was never the same after the damage, and Smith limped the car home to a 22nd-place finish off the lead lap.
“There’s not much to it really, [Allmendinger] kind of just drove through me on lap 2 or whatever,” Smith said. “I don’t get it. It’s frustrating, it’s just lap 2 and he packs me full of air through the whole corner and then he expects me to not be loose.
“He’s like, ‘oh, you were loose’. Oh, no crap I’m going to be loose when you packed air on me and then decide to hit me off the corner into the wall. It’s frustrating, but he’s got some long days ahead of him himself.”
Allmendinger didn’t have a great day himself, struggling to a 17th-place finish. He frustrated with his own performance throughout the day and also shared his side of the incident.
“It’s racing early in the race,” Allmendinger said. “[Smith] was free, I was getting run into. I would never want to do that on purpose. There’s nothing I’m going to say to make it better, he’s got the right to be mad. I tried to do everything I could to stay off of him, he was so loose right in front of me, but I get it.”
The incident between Herbst and Hill occurred on the final lap of stage two. In an attempt to block Sheldon Creed as they raced toward the green-and-white checkered flag, Hill moved up the track, only to make contact with the left rear of Herbst’s No. 98 car. Herbst then embarked on a spin through the infield grass, costing him vital stage points and upsetting the balance of his car.
Hill finished seventh, Herbst finished 10th, and Hill took full responsibility for the crash.
“I’m trying to get up in line really tight behind the No. 98 because I was going to try to block the No. 18 because I knew he had a run,” Hill said. “Obviously, it’s coming to the stage end for points, and every point matters.
“Right as I looked down, I hit [Herbst] and turned him across my nose; it was 100% my fault. He was mad obviously after the race, he came up behind me there. And so as soon as we stopped [on pit road], I let him get all of this stuff off and I just went to show how sorry I was.”
Hill was apologetic to Herbst and tried to diffuse the situation best as he could post-race, and he hoped that the incident wouldn’t damage the relationship they had on the track.
“If [Herbst] had something coming for me down the road, I completely understand,” Hill said. “He said he didn’t, but Riley and I, we’ve always raced each other very clean, very well. … hopefully it doesn’t hurt our friendship going forward and how we work together on the racetrack.”
Herbst was happy to rebound from the incident but still expressed frustration at Hill for his costly mistake.
“Just frustrating, but glad we came home with a top 10 and rallied back,” Herbst said. “Probably had a fourth-, fifth-, sixth-place car but didn’t get that, didn’t get any second stage points because we got spun. Frustrating to say the least.
“… We’re friends, we respect each other and race each other with a lot of respect, but he made a mistake which cost us a lot of points.”
Why were there so many post-race fireworks after Kansas? Perhaps it has to do with the races up next: the always chaotic and unpredictable Talladega Speedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL with a brand new configuration.
With so many unknowns heading into the final two races of the Round of 12, Kansas was the golden opportunity for drivers to capitalize with a good points day before the chaos. That opportunity was squandered for several drivers in the playoff field, and the stove just got hotter.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf