 | | Jeff Gordon is looking for this third Kansas win; Jimmie Johnson his first. Credit: CIA Stock Photo |
By Ron Lemasters Jr., Special to NASCAR.COM
September 29, 2006
08:12 PM EDT (00:12 GMT)
Leaving Dover with no reasonable expectation of winning the title didn't necessarily mean that Kasey Kahne was going to roll over and mail in the rest of the Chase. By winning the pole for Sunday's Banquet 400, Kahne took the first step toward making his Great Plains journey a productive one.  |  | | Credit: CIA Stock Photo |
| |
| Banquet 400 |
| Chase qualifiers |
| Pos. |
Driver |
Speed |
Time |
| 1. |
K. Kahne |
178.377 |
30.273 |
| 3. |
J. Johnson |
176.887 |
30.528 |
| 8. |
M. Kenseth |
176.177 |
30.651 |
| 10. |
J. Burton |
176.022 |
30.678 |
| 11. |
J. Gordon |
175.942 |
30.692 |
| 12. |
Dale Jr. |
175.919 |
30.696 |
| 13. |
Ky. Busch |
175.530 |
30.764 |
| 14. |
K. Harvick |
175.308 |
30.803 |
| 19. |
M. Martin |
174.774 |
30.897 |
| 25. |
D. Hamlin |
174.390 |
30.965 |
|
 |
Based on the most recent race at Kansas Speedway, if you start in the top 10, you have a 50-50 shot of finishing there. In that race, five top-10 starters also finished in the top-10, and five drivers who started 16th or worse were right there with them. Based on those facts, it's probably best to stay out of the middle. On Friday, Kahne did little to convince anyone that the 1.5-mile program at Evernham Motorsports had gotten worse. He won practice, won qualifying and is the odds-on favorite to win the race -- all the things that Jimmie Johnson swore needed to be done for him to get back in the thick of the points battle. Kahne topped the practice charts, two-tenths of a second faster than Johnson, and the margin stayed the same when the clocks were running for real. Kahne's lap at 30.273 seconds, 178.377 mph gave him his best start at Kansas (his previous best was 12th in 2004). Kahne averaged 22.000 in two previous starts there, and his finishing average is fourth among Chasers at 15.500. Johnson was third in the lineup, behind Kahne and Evernham teammate Scott Riggs, running a lap of 30.528 seconds, 176.887 mph. Johnson's average start is second-best among the Chase drivers at 7.250 -- although Denny Hamlin's 7.000 average is after just one start -- and his finish is also second-best 13.750. Johnson's start is a big improvement on last year's 22nd-place effort, and he was sixth at the end of the Banquet 400 last season. Kansas has not been kind to Johnson; he's crashed his primary car twice there in practice. Matt Kenseth is not a particularly good qualifier at Kansas -- he did win the pole there last year but his average start is 18.600 -- but Friday was a good day for him. He put his Ford eighth with a lap at 30.651 seconds, 176.177 mph. He's been all over the map at Kansas, starting first and finishing fifth last year and starting 37th and finishing 36th in 2003 on his way to the title. His 19.400 finishing position is seventh-best in the Chase. Jeff Burton continued his strong performance of late, putting the No. 31 Chevy 10th with a lap at 30.678 seconds, 176.022 mph. That's a career-best performance for the Dover winner, whose previous best start was 15th in 2002. His average start is 26.200, ninth among Chasers. His average finish is 19.200, sixth in the Chase, and his best finish so far was 11th in the inaugural 2001 event. He's already ahead of the game, statistically speaking, and he led a covey of five consecutive Chasers in the lineup. Jeff Gordon is Mr. Kansas, having won the first two Kansas races and never finishing worse than 13th. He put his Chevy 11th with a lap at 30.692 seconds, 175.942 mph. That's slightly off his average start of 10.400, but his average finish is the best in the Chase at 6.000. He also has led a bunch of laps (169), which is important for the bonus points. Next in the Chase lineup is Dale Earnhardt Jr., who timed in 12th at 30.696 seconds, 175.919 mph. The better Earnhardt Jr. qualifies, the better he finishes at Kansas. He has a pole (finished sixth) and a third-place start there (finished 18th), and he was eighth in qualifying in 2004 before finishing ninth. Last year, however, he qualified 38th and finished 34th, and in the inaugural, he started 22nd and finished 33rd. His average start is a fourth-best 14.400, while his average finish is an eighth-place 20.000. Kyle Busch rebounded from a disappointing Dover race by qualifying 13th at 30.764 seconds, 175.530 mph. Busch has neither started nor finished particularly well at Kansas, averaging 27.500 per start and 29.000 per finish. He also is ahead of the game statistically. Kevin Harvick was 14th in his Chevrolet, mustering a 30.803-second lap at 175.308 mph. Harvick has just one top-10 finish, a sixth, at Kansas, and his best start was 15th back in 2001. Harvick has finished 24th and 35th in his last two starts, and he needs to pick it up if he wants to erase that 36-point deficit after Dover. Mark Martin, the defending race champion, was 19th in his Ford, timing in at 30.897 seconds and 174.774 mph. Martin won last year -- from the 19th-starting spot -- and finished sixth in 2001 but in between, his finishes were 20th (twice) and 25th. He's never qualified better than ninth (2002) and he averages 21.400 per start. He finishes at a 14.400 clip, however, good for third among Chasers. Rookie Hamlin started seventh last year, but fell all the way to 25th this time around. His lap of 30.965 seconds, 174.390 mph ballooned his average to 16.000 for next season. He has to hope that the reversal of fortune comes true on Sunday, because he was 32nd in last year's event. Hamlin was also the only Chaser not to pick up time from practice. Kahne's lone Dodge led the way, while the eight Chevrolets were second, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 25th. Kenseth's Ford was third and Martin's 19th. Kansas can be a fuel-mileage track, just like Dover and Michigan, so track position will play a big role as it does every week. Pit road at Kansas will be a welcome sight after last week at Dover, which means that pit selection will be for strategy only and not survival. | 
