Throughout the 2024 NASCAR season, Ken Martin, director of historical content for the sanctioning body, will offer his suggestions on which historical races fans should watch from the NASCAR Classics library in preparation for each upcoming race weekend.
Martin has worked exclusively for NASCAR since 2008 but has been involved with the sport since 1982, overseeing various projects. He has worked in the broadcast booth for hundreds of races, assisting the broadcast team with different tasks. This includes calculating the “points as they run” for the historic 1992 finale, the Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The following suggestions are Ken’s picks to watch before this Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN BET at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
2012 Hollywood Casino 400:
The freshly repaved Kansas Speedway turned out to put on a wild race, as the fifth event of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs produced the yellow flag 14 times.
Despite all of the cautions, the race turned out to be mostly smooth for the playoff field. Two drivers, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart, bounced back from separate issues to recover for top-10 finishes.
Johnson, who entered the race second in points, was just one driver who found himself in trouble. He hit the wall near the halfway point of the event, bringing out the sixth caution flag of the day. The No. 48 team repaired his car over a handful of pit stops and came back to finish ninth.
Stewart had two separate issues that plagued him throughout the event, after starting deep in the field in the 33rd position. He was caught speeding on pit road early on and later spun with just about 100 laps remaining. Stewart managed to finish fifth.
Matt Kenseth, who was racing in his final season for team owner Jack Roush, led 78 laps and held off a late charge from Martin Truex Jr. to capture the victory. It was announced one month earlier that Kenseth would leave his longtime team and join Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2013 season.
Paul Menard and his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet had an impressive third-place finish, their best finish of the season. The only other non-playoff driver to finish in the top 11 was Regan Smith.
Smith was driving the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. and finished seventh after starting 39th.
The standings following the race saw Brad Keselowski leave with a seven-point advantage over Jimmie Johnson with Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne rounding out the remainder of the top five with just four races remaining on the schedule.
2015 Hollywood Casino 400:
The elimination-style playoff format had already proved to be intense throughout its first year of existence and the 2015 playoff race at Kansas was no different.
Matt Kenseth dominated the contest, leading 153 of the race’s 269 laps but chaos ensued when Joey Logano and Kenseth battled for the victory as the final laps passed by.
The two drivers were racing for the win and Kenseth tried to hold off Logano but contact sent Kenseth out of the way, bringing out the caution.
The final restart of the day saw Logano stay out front of the field and capture his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory.
Kenseth wasn’t as lucky. He was not able to recover from the late slide and finished 14th. If he could have held on for the victory, it would have clinched Kenseth a spot in the next round of the playoffs. Thanks to a 42nd-place finish at Charlotte the previous week, he needed to win at Talladega if he wanted to move on and continue his quest for his second series title.
The incident proved to be a battle of opinions between the two drivers as they disagreed on what happened on the track.
Logano called it “good hard racing,” saying that Kenseth raced him hard and he followed suit.
Kenseth on the other hand, was far from agreeing with Logano. He blamed Logano for wrecking him, saying it was not a great decision for him. He said that he was always a fan of Logano but not anymore.
Eleven of the 12 remaining playoff drivers finished 16th or better, leaving a tight points battle for the final playoff spots in the next round up for grabs heading into the wild card that was Talladega.
With just the first eight drivers moving on to the next round, second through 10th place in the standings were only separated by 20 points.
2022 Hollywood Casino 400:
As the playoff drivers looked to cash in on a victory to move on to the second round, Bubba Wallace played spoiler.
Wallace, who was driving the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, led the final 43 laps en route to the second victory of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
Normally the driver of the No. 23 car for the team, Wallace moved over to drive its No. 45 car following Kurt Busch’s injury as the No. 45 car was eligible for the owners’ championship.
He held off his car owner Denny Hamlin, who was looking for a victory to help move him on to the second round of the playoffs. Hamlin still managed to leave Kansas sitting third in points with a comfortable advantage of almost 40 points with one race remaining in the round.
Three playoff drivers found themselves leaving Kansas in a tough position following a rough day.
Tyler Reddick, who won the pole for the race, crashed and slipped to 12th in the standings, leaving him in a must-win situation at Bristol the following week.
Kyle Busch also had a tough day, finishing 26th, putting him 13th in points, and 2014 series champion Kevin Harvick finished last following an early accident. He sat 16th in the standings, almost 40 points below the elimination line.