Heading into the second NASCAR overtime, Toyota occupied the top five positions. Both playoff 23XI drivers had their chance, Denny Hamlin chasing his 60th win and two of his teammates looking to secure their spots moving forward.

When the checkered flag flew, Chase Elliott, who restarted 10th, crossed the line first leaving Hamlin reeling from the mess he’d made on the backstretch. Dive bombing his own car, getting tight and taking a win away from his team, himself and his manufacturer. As Elliott celebrated to the roar of the crowd, Bubba Wallace and Hamlin looked off in space as if they’d both just woken up from a nightmare.

Let’s try to make sense of all the chaos from the second race of the Round of 12.

What are friends for?

Remember in 2023 when Hamlin said that if it was between Ty Gibbs and Wallace at Daytona for a playoff spot, that he’d push Wallace. Well as it turns out, he would in fact not do that and somehow find a way to wreck both of them. 

It’s easy to get caught up in the moment chasing your 60th win in a race you dominated, that much is understandable. However, what makes the move so mind boggling is that everyone, including Hamlin, knows he’s better than that.

He’s one of the best drivers in the sport and the “I got tight” excuse isn’t going to cut it in meetings. It’s back to back weeks where Hamlin, who claims he doesn’t even want a championship bro, reeks of desperation. 

When young drivers make mistakes you’ll often “need those friends later” and that’s the situation Hamlin finds himself in. He’s got nobody left to support him, but himself with five races to go, a bad spot to be in when chasing a championship.

The Chase Briscoe conundrum

The driver of the #19 car hasn’t finished outside the top-10 in the playoffs so far and that has gotten him a whopping 14 points above the cut line. While it seems that the playoff system is headed for changes after this season, it’s just so frustrating to watch a broken system that doesn’t reward consistency.

However, simultaneously my driver isn’t in the playoffs, shoutout “The Walking Caution” Kyle Busch, and I want chaos to make things more interesting. The fight at the top doesn’t matter in this system so somebody has to get screwed over and even that feels wrong. It’s a backwards system and I can’t wait for the changes.

Surely this will fix the ratings

Don’t let the finish distract you, this race was a Busch tire carcass and Zane Smith flip away from watching the most boring Kansas race we’ve seen in the Next Gen car. A distinct lack of comers and goers or pit strategy kept the usual suspects out front while a majority of the field couldn’t pass each other.

Usually NBC does a great job, but it was a lackluster show compared to usual. They heavily focused on Hamlin’s power steering issues that never mattered even once and if there were battles throughout the pack, the viewers at home never saw them. 

For a sport that cares deeply about its TV ratings, this product just cannot compete with something like the NFL on a weekly basis. Especially in the amount of commercials, I just never felt a rhythm with this race and that’s a problem. 

Hey look it’s the Roval

The series heads toward another elimination race at the Charlotte Roval next Sunday and it’s hard to be optimistic about this race matter because of a certain Kiwi in the field. It’ll take a massive wreck in this one to get me interested because the playoff cut line isn’t engaging at all.

Wallace and Reddick enter with must-win intentions which should drum up some drama, if 23XI can stop themselves from bringing boats to the track. And that’s about it as far as intrigue goes, maybe SVG will hop in Ross Chastain’s car and pilot that to a victory, could be fun, I’m just throwing ideas out there. 

To get Roval week started I’ll set the over/under of times NBC shows that Jimmie Johnson/Martin Truex Jr. clip at 3.5 and predict that Alex Bowman fans will end up heartbroken when the broadcast eventually mentions his incident last year. The green flag at the Roval drops at 12 p.m. PST.