Kansas winners and losers

A look at the winners and losers from Sunday’s Cup race at Kansas Speedway.

Denny Hamlin — He said a few weeks ago on his podcast he was about to hit a hot stretch. He has three top-five finishes in the last four races, including Sunday’s win at Kansas. The victory was his first Cup win since the Coca-Cola 600, nearly a year ago. Hamlin has climbed from 12th in points before his hot streak to fourth. He scored six playoff points Sunday with the victory and a stage win.

William Byron — Rebounded from being down two laps after hitting the wall and getting caught speeding on pit road to finish third. Sunday’s result gives him three consecutive top-10 finishes.

Martin Truex Jr. — Led 79 laps and finished eighth, scoring his fourth top 10 in the last five races, including his his Dover victory.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — He finished 12th to claim his fifth consecutive top-15 finish. He had no more than four consecutive top-15 finishes last season.

Kyle Busch — He crashed on a restart when he got bottled in traffic and tried to move out of it. The result is that Busch finished  35th and dropped from eighth to 12th in the points.

Austin Cindric — His 31st-place finish is his fourth consecutive result of 26th or worse. He also was penalized two laps for a wheel coming off his car. He will have two pit crew members suspended for two races for the wheel violation.

Ford — The manufacturer had only one car in the top 10. Joey Logano finished sixth. Ford had only two cars in the top 10 at Las Vegas, another 1.5-mile track.

Ross Chastain punched Noah Gragson on pit road Sunday at Kansas Speedway after Gragson approached Chastain, complained about how Chastain raced him and grabbed Chastain’s uniform.

Video shows Gragson approaching