Chase Elliott to start at the rear in Kansas playoff race after engine trouble

Chase Elliott will start at the rear of the field in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at Kansas Speedway after an engine issue cropped up in Saturday’s practice session.

Elliott managed the 15th-fastest lap in practice for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), but the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sat on pit road with its hood up in the second half of the 20-minute session. After his team worked in the engine compartment, Elliott was able to participate in Busch Light Pole Qualifying, but posted the slowest lap in the 38-car field at 166.950 mph — some two seconds off the front-runners’ pace.

Elliott will start last in the opening race of the Round of 12 in the Cup Series postseason. A representative for the No. 9 team indicated that the crew was still evaluating the mechanical issue as qualifying rolled to its completion, and the team said it would change engines before Sunday’s event, according to a post from its social media channels.

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“We went through all the things that you can check on pit road,” said Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion. “Obviously, when you have an engine issue like that, it can be difficult to identify what exactly is broke. For me, I came off Turn 2 and basically just felt like it went down a cylinder, audible change, and lost a lot of power, so I knew something was wrong and came in as quick as I could, just to try to keep from messing it up any worse. But such a bummer. What a terrible time to have something go wrong. The Hendrick engine shop has been so good throughout my career. I don’t even think I’ve filled up a hand of engine issues that we’ve had over the course of my entire career, so I hate it, but would much rather have it happen today than tomorrow.”

Elliott advanced through the opening Round of 16 in the postseason, and he enters the three races that make up the Round of 12 ranked seventh among the remaining dozen title contenders. He sits six points ahead of the provisional elimination line entering Sunday’s 400-miler.