Five to Watch: Quaker State 400 at Kentucky

We're back in the Bluegrass State this weekend for some Saturday night racing on the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway. With two practice sessions and qualifying in the rearview mirror, all that's left is the 400.5-mile, 267-lap Quaker State 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, NBC Sports App, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Here are five story lines to keep in mind as we go racing under the lights.

Sticky stuff: Kentucky Speedway applied a traction compound (VHT) and deployed the Tire Dragon in all four turns for the tripleheader weekend. In Turns 1 and 2, it was applied everywhere except the bottom groove and moves all the way up the track to the outside wall. NASCAR and the track made the decision to apply the 'sticky stuff' to try and create better competition at the recently repaved and reconfigured track. "We are definitely using it in (Turns) 3 and 4. (Turns) 1 and 2, we are right on the edge of being wide open and having to lift a little in (Turns) 1 and 2," explained Paul Menard, who is scheduled to start 14th on Saturday. There were two common themes throughout the garage on the addition of the traction compound: Unknowns and exciting racing.

Putting on a show: Stewart-Haas Racing may still be a winless team in 2019 but with the dominating performance the organization put on during Friday's qualifying session, that may come to an end on Saturday. Daniel Suarez won the provisional Busch Pole Award with a fast lap of 184.590 mph, marking his second career pole. His SHR teammate Aric Almirola will start on the front row with him. Kevin Harvick will start from the fifth position and Clint Bowyer will start seventh. "We just have to do the right things and make the right calls and not make any mistakes and keep it all in one piece," Harvick said. Track position is crucial and the SHR organization is in a good spot. "I feel we are one step ahead. We have track position and a good pit stall," said Suarez.

Hopeful Hendrick camp: There won't be any Hendrick Motorsports drivers starting in the top 10 for Saturday’s Quaker State 400, but that might not be an indicator of their finishing spots. The four drivers didn't make the qualifying laps they had hoped, with William Byron starting 12th, Jimmie Johnson 13th, Chase Elliott 20th and Alex Bowman 22nd. With the group's recent improvement, they seem to know what they need to do to be better when it comes to race time. Bowman, who just nabbed his first Cup Series win at Chicagoland Speedway two weeks ago, said his biggest concern right now is lack of speed but the team is hard at work making adjustments. "Our car has been a little off this weekend, but we are confident that once the race gets started, we'll be good," he explained.

Truex taking notes: When you think about a driver with four wins, seven top fives and 11 top 10s under his belt already this season, inconsistency isn't the word that comes to mind. But, for Martin Truex Jr., it is. "I think (we need to work on) just being a little bit more consistent," Truex said. "It seems like we have a good race or we win and then we have a bad one, then we win and then we have a bad one. Approaching the playoffs, you want to be consistently running up front and be able to be fast and perform well at each different kind of race track." A lot has changed for the driver of the No. 19. "Definitely a lot on our mind coming here just because of this year and what it's been all about. It's so different," he explained. Truex is a back-to-back race winner at Kentucky (2017-18) and will start from the eighth position on Saturday so he is definitely someone to watch.

Stop the streak: Since its debut in 2011, Kentucky Speedway has seen only four different winners in eight races. Those drivers all came from the Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing camps except for Martin Truex Jr., who was the race winner in 2017 and 2018 with Furniture Row Racing, which was previously a JGR-affiliated team. There has never been a winning driver from any other team. Will that change this weekend? Possibly. Stewart-Haas Racing dominated qualifying and took four of the top 10 starting positions. Their operation could be the one to shake things up.