NASCAR Cup Series: Kansas race another missed opportunity for Chevrolet

The most recent “one that got away” from Chevrolet seems to be changing on almost a race-by-race basis in the NASCAR Cup Series. It is now the Digital Ally 400 at Kansas Speedway.

It is not a secret that Chevrolet has struggled over the last few NASCAR Cup Series seasons, specifically since they switched from the SS to the Camaro ZL1 ahead of the 2018 season.

Since the end of the 2017 regular season, Chevrolet drivers have won five of the 58 races that have been contested. They won only four races last seasons, their lowest total since they won only three races in the 1982 season, and they have won just one race through the 2019 season’s first 12 races.

But in reality, they have not been as terrible as this record may show, especially as of late. In fact, they have blown a lot of great opportunities to win races since the 2018 season began, and that has been the case over the last few weeks alone.

First of all, there were five races during the 2018 season that Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson was poised to win in his #42 Chevrolet that he simply could not close the deal on. He ended up finishing the 2018 season without a victory, marking his first winless season since the 2015 season.

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He gave up late leads to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch, the driver of the #18 Toyota, in the April race at Bristol Motor Speedway and the July race at Chicagoland Speedway en route to finished in second place behind Busch in both of them.

He was then involved in a late accident in the May race at Kansas Speedway, which he recovered from to finish in fourth [;ace. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, the driver of the #4 Ford, won this race.

Larson dominated the September race at Darlington Raceway before a poor final pit stop knocked him out of the lead. He could not recover on the ensuing restart en route to securing a third place finish. Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski, the driver of the #2 Ford, won this race.

Finally, Larson dominated the September round of 16 playoff race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval before he was involved in a late crash. Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, the driver of the #12 Ford, won this race.

Larson dominated the 2019 season’s second race at Atlanta Motor Speedway by leading 142 of its first 223 laps, but a pit road speeding penalty sent him to the back of the field, and he could not recover. Keselowski ended up delivering Ford yet another victory.

In the last two races alone, Chevrolet drivers have been poised to drive to victory lane following their first victory of the season in the race at Talladega Superspeedway, which came in the form of a 1-2-3 finish, but they simply haven’t been able to do it.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, who has earned each of the last four victories earned by Chevrolet drivers and is the only Chevrolet driver who has won any of the last 47 races since Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon won the 2018 season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, led a career-high 145 laps in the 400-lap race at Dover International Speedway last Monday after starting from the pole position.

The Toyota drivers combined to lead 133 laps while the Ford drivers combined to lead 90 laps. Yet it was Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr., the driver of the #19 Toyota, who drove to victory lane. Elliott finished in fifth place behind two other Chevrolet drivers, teammate Alex Bowman in second and Larson in third.

Elliott and Bowman appeared to have another 1-2 finish, just like they did in the race at Talladega Superspeedway, coming their way in the race at Kansas Speedway after combining to lead 108 of the race’s 271 laps. But a poor late restart proved costly for Elliott, who fell back to sixth place before recovering to finish in fourth, and Bowman could not hold off Keselowski on new tires at the end of the race.

Bowman, who entered the race at Talladega Superspeedway with a career-high finish of third place in the July race at Pocono Raceway last season, has now finished in a career-high second place in three consecutive races. No winless driver has ever finished runner-up in three consecutive races.

But more importantly, chalk up another victory for a non-Chevrolet manufacturer and yet another race that a Chevrolet driver should have won, another race after which we can say that Dillon is still the most recent non-Elliott Chevrolet driver to win a race despite the fact that he earned his Daytona 500 victory nearly 15 months ago now.

Chevrolet drivers are clearly on the verge of breaking through. Specifically, Hendrick Motorsports have made a ton of progress in recent weeks closing the gap to the Ford and Toyota teams, completely changing the narrative that Chevrolet was a disaster, which they certainly were earlier this season.

But when will they start to make a regular habit of winning races, and which Chevrolet drivers will get to victory lane when they do?

The NASCAR Cup Series is scheduled to resume points-paying action on Memorial Day Sunday, May 26 with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. Fox is set to broadcast this race live beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET.