2023 Kansas Speedway AdventHealth 400 Driver Ratings

Crash NASCAR journalist Chad Smith goes through the field to hand out driver ratings for the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing at Kansas
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing at Kansas

Denny Hamlin: 10

Hamlin has Kansas figured out, and his last-lap pass today was icing on the cake after a strong weekend overall.

Kyle Larson: 10

After getting spun on Lap 5 of the race, Larson did a marvelous job to get back up front and led the most laps, just came up a bit short after brushing the wall.

William Byron: 9

Byron also had his trouble early in the race and was able to recover from two incidents to finish 3rd after starting on pole.

Bubba Wallace: 9

A much-needed momentum booster for Bubba and the team at a place where he won last year.

Ross Chastain: 7

Another top-five, but also another incident on track that seems to be reaching a boiling point with other drivers.

Ross Chastain
Ross Chastain

Joey Logano: 6

He finished 6th but he gained track position by not pitting late in the race and was not one of the stronger cars as Ford struggled today.

Chase Elliott: 7

Solid run for Elliott, who needs finishes like this (and a win, of course) to get into the Playoffs.

Martin Truex Jr: 7

He followed up his win last weekend with another strong top-ten run.

Tyler Reddick: 6

He was unable to put the No. 45 Toyota in victory lane at Kansas for a third straight time, but it was a solid day for Reddick, outside of the contact with Larson at the start of the race.

Tyler Reddick
Tyler Reddick

Austin Dillon: 6

Like Logano, Dillon picked up some track position with a nicely-timed caution flag, but collected a much-needed 10th place finish.

Kevin Harvick: 7

He was never at the front, but none of the Fords were.

Daniel Suarez: 5

It was another race where he was outperformed by his teammate.

Ryan Blaney: 5

His day started out okay but he quickly faded with most of the other Fords.

Chris Buescher: 5

A mediocre day for RFK Racing, as Buescher and Brad were stuck in the middle of the pack for most of the afternoon.

Brad Keselowski: 5

See above.

Noah Gragson: 1

He had contact on the track, later spun out by himself, finished 29th, and got punched in the face on pit road. Not sure if the day could have gone much worse for the brash rookie.

Noah Gragson
Noah Gragson

Austin Cindric: 2

A flat tire early in the race ruined his day.

Chase Briscoe: 2

Another Ford struggling for speed, but this team also had some mistakes on pit road that cost them.

Ty Gibbs: 4

Gibbs ran up front for the majority of the race but contact with his teammate (Truex) in the final stage sent him spinning.

Kyle Busch: 2

Another brutal day for Kyle, who was penalized for speeding on pit road, penalized for a loose wheel, had contact on the track with Wallace, and eventually spun out in Stage 2.

Christopher Bell: 3

Like Gibbs, Bell was battling inside the top-five before he crashed at the end of Stage 2.

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