Week 30 GFT NASCAR AI Driver Rankings: Reddick wins at Kansas, joins Larson locked into Round of 12
10 September 2023
By Bob Francis, Managing Editor
Go Full Throttle Racing News
KANSAS CITY, KS — Tyler Reddick punches his ticket into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12 with a thrilling win in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. In another nail-biting late restart, Reddick was in 5th place on the bottom of row 3, then coming to the White Flag he made a hard left out of turn 4 in his №45 23XI Racing Toyota down track to the apron and shot to the lead for the win. Denny Hamlin (car co-owner of the winning 45 car) finished 2nd in his №11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. But not to be overlooked was Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones in the famed №43 Chevrolet finishing 3rd.
The Top 10 Finishers:
Kyle Larson finished fourth after leading a race-high 99 laps and winning the first stage. Logano came home fifth, Chase Elliott was sixth, followed by Kyle Busch, pole winner Christopher Bell and Brad Keselowski. Another non-playoff eligible driver, Alex Bowman, drove his №48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a 10th place finish.
PLAYOFF IMPLICATIONS:
Sunday also brought bad news for some Playoff drivers who are now in danger of being eliminated next Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Regular Season Champion Martin Truex Jr. started to slow on the backstretch during Lap 4 and then slammed the wall in Turn 3, the result of a cut tire. Goodyear determined it was a puncture, likely from debris on the track surface. Truex’s early exit and last place (36th) finish wiped out his point advantage and dropped him below the cut line in NASCAR’s Playoff points totals.
Bubba Wallace also faced issues Sunday. Wallace was running second on Lap 108 when his right rear tire failed, putting the №23 Toyota into the outside wall. A bent tow link took a number of laps to repair and Wallace eventually finished 32nd.
After loading the Kansas results and our Bristol data from last year, here is how our GFT models see the rankings heading into Saturday night’s final race in the Round of 16.
Movers: Reddick’s win moves him up 2 spots to P2. Larson holds at P1 as both drivers are locked into the Round of 12. Byron’s 15th place finish only dropped him 1 spot to P3. Truex was hurt the most with his early exit, falling 7 spots down to P12. Important to note once again Erik Jones who’s 3rd place pushed him up into our Top 25 rankings for the first time.
GFT MANNUFACTURER BOX SCORES
Chevrolet = 16
Toyota = 9
Ford = 8
Hendrick Motorsports leads all teams with 10 wins
Up Next:
BASS PRO SHOPS NIGHT RACE SATURDAY, SEP. 16–7:30 PM ET
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