Joe Nemechek and Ricky Rudd put on a show last year at Kansas. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Despite rules changes, expect Rudd to be strong

Like so many single- and two-car stables, the Wood Brothers use testing and racing data from similar tracks to balance their schedules. Kansas, which is almost identical to Chicago, is not a track where the No. 21 team tested this year, but it does have a good baseline from which to work.

Jeff Gordon Credit: Chris Stanford/Getty Images

Inside the Numbers Best average finishes at Kansas among those with four starts No. Driver Avg. 1. J. Gordon 5.0 2. T. Stewart 8.5 2. R. Wallace 8.5 4. R. Rudd 8.8 5. R. Newman 9.5 6. J. Mayfield 13.2 7. J. Nemechek 15.5 8. D. Earnhardt Jr. 16.5 9. J. Burton 17.0 9. K. Harvick 17.0 11. M. Martin 17.8 12. T. Labonte 19.0 13. R. Gordon 20.0 14. B. Labonte 21.0 15. Ku. Busch 21.5 15. J. Spencer 21.5 17. E. Sadler 21.8 18. M. Kenseth 23.0 19. S. Marlin 26.5 20. K. Schrader 27.2 21. D. Jarrett 27.5 22. M. Waltrip 28.5 23. T. Bodine 31.5 24. W. Burton 33.8

Ricky Rudd finished seventh at Chicago in July -- one of his seven top-10s this season -- and last year he was the runner-up to Joe Nemechek at Kansas. The information culled from those two races is what the Wood Brothers will use to set up the car for the Banquet 400 on Sunday (1:30 p.m. ET, NBC).

"I put Kansas in that group of tracks like Chicago, Vegas, California, Michigan -- the intermediate tracks," Rudd said. "It's not that I wouldn't have liked to have tested there, but I think we can work off the Chicago performance a couple months ago. We'll go [to Kansas] with probably the same type of setup. Usually the two tracks relate to each other pretty well."

In four starts at the 1.5-mile track, Rudd has two-top five finishes among three top-10s with an average finish of 8.8 -- fourth best among drivers who have started every race at Kansas.

Rudd's 8.8 is his best average finish at the 28 tracks he's raced during his Cup career.

"If anybody hits the setup on a given day, no matter if you are a big or little team, anybody can win a race out here -- if you hit your setups right," Rudd said. "[Last year] we were just about perfect. We nearly won the race. We could have won the race. It just didn't work out that way."

Rudd said the rule changes may affect the car, but based off the Chicago run, he is expected to be competitive this weekend.

"The bodies have all been changed around since last year and that is the key thing," he said. "As the rules changed last year with the spoilers, that required some major body movements on the chassis.

"Based off of our Chicago performance -- top 10, and we were going to be better than that but we had to overcome a pit road speeding penalty that was assessed to us, and we came back pretty good -- I'm thinking that the Chicago car will probably go to Kansas. It should be a good run."

Set 'em up, Joe

Joe Nemechek stormed through Kansas Speedway with the fury of a late-spring tornado, becoming the first driver to win the Nextel Cup pole, the Cup race and the Busch Series race.

Joe Nemechek dominated at Michigan in August, but a flat tire foiled his bid to win. The team is taking the same car to Kansas. Credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images

So what to do for an encore? Nemechek again is entered in both races, so if he's to top last year's performance, it'll have to start with Busch qualifying on Friday (5 p.m. ET, SPEED).

"It was a dream weekend, I don't know how else to describe it," Nemechek said. "I was on a different cloud when I left Kansas last year. There's nothing like winning -- an awesome feeling -- and to do it twice in one weekend along with a pole made it extra, extra special.

"We've come close to winning at least five times in the Nextel Cup Series since last year's race in Kansas," he said. "We let a few [races] slip away and the ugly racing misfortunes -- like a flat tire and blown engine -- cost us some other victories. But we continue to keep the Army spirit up and go on to the next race, thinking that this will be the weekend. We never feel that we can't win."

The MB2 Motorsports team is bringing one of its best cars to Kansas. It's the same car that finished sixth and eighth at Michigan this season and also won the pole at Michigan in August.

"I like the Michigan car. The first time I sat in it, I felt really comfortable," Nemechek said. "I'm really pumped because this is the car that has the aerodynamic and horsepower package to win this weekend. It's that good. It wouldn't surprise me if we successfully defended our Kansas title."

With seven races remaining, Nemechek said he needs a streak of good finishes to finish in 11th place, the highest finish attainable for a non-Chase driver. Entering Kansas, Nemechek is 15th in the standings, 99 points out of 11th.

"We finished ninth in Talladega last week and need more top-10 and top-five results to secure that 11th-place season finish at the end of the year," he said. "The races from here on in have been pretty good to us in the past."