By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — In the last few feet of race track in the second overtime Sunday afternoon, Chase Elliott came from oblivion to steal the Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN BET and earn a berth in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

As his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sped wide open through the final corner on Lap 273 at Kansas Speedway, Elliott’s car bounced off the side of Denny Hamlin’s Toyota on the way to the finish line.

Elliott, who restarted eighth for the final two-lap shootout, got to the stripe 0.069 seconds ahead of Hamlin, who led 159 laps and drove the final stretch of the second Round of 12 Playoff race without benefit of power steering.

“Everything worked out perfect for me,” said Elliott, who picked up his second win of the season, his second at Kansas and the 21st of his career. “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…

“I wasn’t going to lift, so I didn’t know what was going to happen. I figured at the end of the day, it was what it was at that point. We were both wide open corner exit. Wherever I ended up, I ended up. At that point, we were all committed.”

Hamlin was spent after man-handling his car around the 1.5-mile track in the closing laps of the race.

“Just super disappointing,” said Hamlin, who swept the first and second stages. “I wanted it bad. It would have been 60 (career victories) 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.”

The good news for Hamlin is that he increased his margin over the current Playoff cut line to 48 points entering next Sunday’s Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. Barring disaster, Hamlin is all but assured of advancing to the Round of 8.

Christopher Bell finished third, followed by pole winner Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace, who led the field to green for the final overtime restart but faded to fifth after battling side-by-side with Hamlin on the final lap.

Wallace was leading as he approached the white flag in the first overtime, but a violent four-car collision in Turn 3 on Lap 267 necessitated a caution that slowed the field before Wallace could reach the flag stand.

“Two years ago, I’d probably say something dumb,” said Wallace, who drives for the 23XI Racing team Hamlin co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan. “He’s a dumbass for that move (on the final lap). 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.”

Despite the fifth-place finish, Wallace leaves Kansas 10th in the standings, 26 points below the elimination line for the next round.

He was tantalizingly close to his second win of the season before John Hunter Nemechek knocked the Ford of Zane Smith into the outside wall in Turn 3 in the first overtime.

The impact from Nemechek’s Toyota turned Smith’s Ford sideways against the outside wall, with Smith’s car sliding on the driver’s side through the corner before barrel-rolling down the banking and coming to rest upright on four wheels.

“It was a wild ride, no doubt,” Smith said. “Before I knew it, I had a decent restart going and I just get wrecked by the 42 (Nemechek). He just drives through me and then I was sliding on the wall.

“I was just mad at that point from how our day was going, and this just pissed me off even more, because that’s what really hurt was just flipping down the track. It was violent, no doubt, but we had such a fast Speedy Cash Ford today. It’s just a bummer.”

Playoff driver Austin Cindric was collected in an 11-car wreck in Turn 1 on Lap 217 and heads to the Charlotte Roval 48 points below the elimination line and almost certainly needing a victory to advance.

Playoff drivers Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick ran sixth and seventh on Sunday but head to Charlotte in very different positions. Larson is 54 points ahead of ninth-place Ross Chastain, while Reddick is 11th in the standings, 29 points below the cut line.

Keselowski finished eighth at Kansas, followed by Playoff driver William Byron, who fought and ill-handling car until his No. 24 Chevrolet came to life in the final run.

Despite a pass-through penalty on the first lap for an inspection failure, New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen followed Byron, posting his first career top-10 finish on a NASCAR oval.

Photo Credit: Sean Gardner/Getty Images