DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Playoff hopes and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup championship dreams are on the line this weekend as the series heads to Kansas Speedway for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. Et on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The outcome of this race will determine which eight of the current 12 Playoff contenders will advance to the next round.
Only Dover International Speedway race winner Kyle Larson and Talladega Superspeedway winner Ryan Blaney show up in Kansas City calmed by the knowledge they’ve earned an automatic bid to the Round of 8. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin – a four-time winner this season – holds an eight-point advantage over his JGR teammate, six-race winner Martin Truex Jr.
A third JGR teammate, regular-season champion Kyle Busch, is third in the standings, 15 points behind Hamlin. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, a three-time winner this season is next followed by Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski (seventh) and Joey Logano (eighth).
Logano currently sits in the eighth and final transfer position with an 18-point advantage over ninth-place Alex Bowman. Hendrick Motorsport’s Chase Elliott is 10th, 22 points behind Logano. Clint Bowyer is 11th, 24 points back. And Hendrick Motorsport’s driver William Byron is 12th, 27 points beyond the cutoff.
Alex Bowman was runner-up to race winner Brad Keselowski in the May Kansas 400-miler, with Chase Elliott and Kansas-native Clint Bowyer finishing fourth and fifth respectively. Elliott is the defending winner of this Playoff race
It all presents dramatic possibilities at the 1.5-mile high banks in the country’s Heartland.
Eight current Playoff drivers are among the top-10 in Driving Rating, led by three-time winner Harvick. Logano, Truex and Keselowski are the only other multi-time winners among the current Playoff field with a pair of Kansas trophies each. Hamlin and Kyle Busch are the only other former Kansas winners among the 12 Playoff drivers.
Three-times the winner of this race was not among the Playoff contenders – Joe Nemechek in 2004, Tony Stewart in 2006 and Greg Biffle in 2007.
Historically-speaking, there is good motivation among those drivers who are trying to race into the Round of 8. Three Hendrick Motorsports drivers are in that group of four still vying for a chance to advance and the organization is the winningest at Kansas Speedway with seven wins. Elliott won this race last year and three-time Kansas winner Jimmie Johnson – who is not part of the Playoff mix for the first time in his seven-championship career – won last in 2015.
In recent years, Kansas has truly been a venue featuring parity among teams and manufacturers. In the last decade, Team Penske has three wins and Stewart-Haas, and Hendrick Motorsports have two apiece. Truex won twice in this time period with Furniture Row Racing – the only season sweep (2017) ever at Kansas. And Joe Gibbs Racing, which currently features the top-three drivers in the standings, has only one win in that time – Kyle Busch in Spring, 2016.
That’s five Ford wins (Penske and Stewart-Haas), three Toyota wins (Truex and Joe Gibbs Racing) and a pair of Chevy wins from Hendrick.
It all makes for an incredibly suspenseful race filled with highly-motivated competitors. And drama to come.
“I can’t wait to get to Kansas this weekend,” said Bowman, driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “I feel like I gave that one away in the Spring. I know that the car we are taking there is really good. That’s one of my favorite tracks, regardless of everything.
“I am looking forward to getting there and it definitely is a race that puts on a great show. This track is probably the best place to showcase the current rules package.”
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
