Joey Logano wins the 2014 Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway

While numerous championship contenders saw strong runs come undone due to assorted issues, Joey Logano persevered to win the Hollywood Casino 400 Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

Fast throughout the afternoon, Logano used a strong restart with 29 laps to go to capture the lead from Ryan Newman. Although Kyle Larson mounted a late charge, he could never get close enough to pull even with Logano, who led a race-high 122 laps.

The win was Logano’s fifth of 2014 and guarantees his advancement to Round 3 of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Four drivers will be cut from the playoffs Oct. 19, after the Round 2 elimination race at Talladega Superspeedway.

“Getting us to the next round, that’s awesome,” Logano said. “This is so much fun, I’m having a blast this year, and we’ve got a real shot to win this championship. I feel like we’re one of the teams to beat.”

Larson, a rookie still in search of his first career win, has finished second, sixth, second and third in consecutive weeks. Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five Sunday.

“Another second and can’t be too disappointed with it,” said Larson, who did not qualify for the Chase. “The wins will be coming, so I just have to be patient and with every time I am in the top three, it’s just going to make the wins feel that much better.”

Misfortune befell several Chase drivers Sunday, putting their playoff prospects in severe jeopardy with two second-round races remaining. The most notable involved Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski.

The carnage began when Johnson crashed on Lap 85 following contact with Greg Biffle, resulting in significant damage for the defending Sprint Cup champion. Johnson would finish 40th, his worst result in a Chase race since 2005.

“We’ve got to be on our game at Charlotte and Talladega,” Johnson said. “There is still a lot of racing left. ... Certainly need W’s, I would assume, going forward.”

While Johnson was in the garage undergoing repairs, he was joined by Earnhardt and Keselowski, each of whom sustained right-front tire failures and impacted the outside wall.

At the time of his incident, Earnhardt was leading; Keselowski was running in the top five when his tire let go. Keselowski placed 36th, Earnhardt 39th.

“We blew a tire,” Keselowski said. “I don’t really know why. Just Russian Roulette and it was our turn.”

Other Chase drivers encountering trouble included Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne. Harvick and Kenseth made unscheduled pit stops due to what they thought were flat tires; Gordon battled an undiagnosed vibration and contact with Jamie McMurray; and Kahne scraped the wall.

“Today was a real survival day,” Gordon said. “We did that. It just felt like we could have finished a lot better than that. We had a good race car. We actually really had a great race car.”