Posted on by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — At the end of a thrilling victory in Saturday night’s Digital Ally 400 at Kansas Speedway, race winner Brad Keselowski’s first thoughts sped to the truck owner who helped further his career.

“I just want to dedicate this win to Mike Mittler,” Keselowski said of the man for whom he drove for two NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series races in 2006. “You know, he helped a lot of guys in their career, and I was one of them. He passed away yesterday. It’s just a huge loss to the NASCAR community.

“He was one of those unsung heroes that works in the garage. He gave his whole life to this sport, and there’s so many of those guys and so many of those fans. It hurts to see those guys go away.”

Keselowski’s other emotion was joy. In a two-lap overtime shootout, he beat Alex Bowman to the finish line by .205 seconds, as the race went four laps beyond its scheduled 267. The victory was Keselowski’s third of the season — matching Kyle Busch for most in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series — his second at Kansas and the 30th of his career.

RELATED: Race results | Stage recaps
SHOP: Keselowski gear

With fresher tires, thanks to a pit stop under caution on Lap 241, the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford grabbed the lead from Bowman on Lap 261, building momentum down the backstretch and passing the No. 88 Chevrolet to the outside through Turns 3 and 4.

“What a great day. On the (last) restart, I just got a great launch and Alex Bowman — he’s going to win a race. He did a great job today. We had a little bit of fresher tires than he did (to facilitate the lead change before overtime), and we were able to make the move on the outside there and caught everything perfect.

“I’m just so thankful.”

Saturday’s race was the first under the lights with the new higher-downforce, lower-horsepower competition package NASCAR introduced this year.

“I’m a little biased because I’m parked in Victory Lane, but this was an awesome race today,” Keselowski said. “This rules package is really made for tracks like Kansas Speedway, and I think the fans saw a great one today.”

The runner-up finish was Bowman’s third straight, following second-place runs at Talladega and Dover.

“Just made some bad calls there through lapped traffic and got tied off, had to lift, and then the 2 (Keselowski) was able to drive around us,” Bowman said. “Wish we were standing here with three wins in a row, and things could have gone differently, and that could be the case, but we’ll keep digging next week and try to go get in the All-Star (Race), go win the All-Star and then go try to win the (Coca-Cola) 600.”

Erik Jones ran third, followed by Stage 2 winner Chase Elliott and Clint Bowyer. Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher completed the top 10.

Pole winner Kevin Harvick led a race-high 105 laps and won the first stage, but Harvick brought the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to pit road on Lap 180 with what he thought was a flat right front tire. The unscheduled stop cost Harvick a lap, which he didn’t recover until Lap 244 as the highest-scored lapped car under caution for debris in Turn 2.

Harvick finished 13th behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Aric Almirola.

Kyle Busch was battling with the front-runners after a Lap 245, but contact with Bowyer’s Ford cut a tire on Busch’s No. 18 Toyota, forcing him to pit road and ending his record-tying streak of top-10 finishes to start the season at 11. Busch came home 30th, three laps down.

Posted on by Staff Report

Chase Elliott landed a Stage 2 victory in Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, foiling Kevin Harvick’s bid for a stage sweep at Kansas Speedway.

Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet set the pace for 26 of the first 160 laps. He grabbed the top spot after a sequence of green-flag pit stops midway through the stage.

RELATED: Stage 2 results

Once pit service for the field was complete, Elliott led the final 16 laps to bag his second stage win of the season in the Digital Ally 400.

Harvick, who started from the Busch Pole and led 88 of the first 160 laps, was second at the conclusion of Stage 2 in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford. Erik Jones was third, with Alex Bowman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounding out the top five.

Chris Buescher waited longer to come to pit road, leading 10 laps just past the stage’s midpoint. The time spent out front marked the first laps led by the JTG Daugherty Racing driver this season.

The full scheduled distance is 267 laps.

Finish Driver Team Points
1 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports 10
2 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing 9
3 Erik Jones Joe Gibbs Racing 8
4 Alex Bowman Hendrick Motorsports 7
5 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing 6
6 Chris Buescher JTG Daugherty Racing 5
7 Kurt Busch Chip Ganassi Racing 4
8 Clint Bowyer Stewart-Haas Racing 3
9 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing 2
10 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing 1

STAGE 1

Pole-starter Kevin Harvick scooted to an opening-stage win Saturday night at Kansas Speedway, securing the green-checkered flag early on in the Digital Ally 400.

RESULTS: Stage 1 results

Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford led 54 of the opening 80 laps and secured his third stage win of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. He gave up the lead twice after making a pair of pit stops, but took the lead to stay on Lap 73.

Chase Elliott wound up second in the opening stage, with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Kyle Larson and Kurt Busch completing the top five.

Harvick started from the Busch Pole and led the opening 32 laps until a pit-stop exchange during a scheduled competition caution. Harvick’s No. 4 Ford dropped back to 10th place after a four-tire stop, handing the lead to William Byron, who joined eight others in taking just two new tires under the yellow flag.

With the benefit of fresher rubber, Harvick vaulted from 10th to fourth in one lap off the restart, then charged past SHR teammate Clint Bowyer’s No. 14 Ford to complete Lap 49.

WATCH: Harvick goes from 10th to first

Denny Hamlin spun with 20 laps remaining in the opening stage to trigger the only other caution period in the stage. Harvick pitted again, briefly ceding the lead to Chase Elliott before passing him late in the opening stage.

Bowyer was credited with leading 12 of the opening 80 laps. Elliott led nine, Byron set the pace for four laps, and Kyle Busch was ahead for one lap.

Finish Driver Team Points
1 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing 10
2 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports 9
3 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing 8
4 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing 7
5 Kurt Busch Chip Ganassi Racing 6
6 Chris Buescher JTG Daugherty Racing 5
7 Brad Keselowski Team Penske 4
8 Clint Bowyer Stewart-Haas Racing 3
9 Erik Jones Joe Gibbs Racing 2
10 Joey Logano Team Penske 1
Posted on by RJ Kraft

Kevin Harvick will start from the Busch Pole in Sunday’s Digital Ally 400 at Kansas Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Should you ignore a potential lack of uses and go all-in with the defending race winner at the 1.5-mile track on your Fantasy Live lineup? We’ve dissected the numbers to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration.

PLAY NOW: Set your lineup | How the game works | Tips to set your lineup

Remember that the garage locks at the end of Stage 2. Once the final stage starts, your roster is locked in.

RJ Kraft’s Fantasy Live lineup for race day at Kansas:
1. Kevin Harvick
2. Alex Bowman
3. Kurt Busch
4. Erik Jones
5. Clint Bowyer
Garage: Ryan Blaney

RELATED: Odds for Kansas | 10-lap averages | Podcast: Fantasy Fastlane
MORE: Which cars lost their starting spots?

Analysis: I had to rip up most of my planned plays following the inspection failures of Daniel Suarez, Aric Almirola, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. All of them were going to be in my lineup, but let’s not dwell on the negative. Let’s focus on the opportunity that provides others to drive into my race-day lineup.

Harvick has been in a class by himself as he led the 15- and 20-lap board (h/t@mikejoy500) and is the defending race winner. I understand the usage concerns here, but if you have six or more left, he’s a must-start. At five, I’d still play him — four is where I’d draw the line. Another option is to stack your bonus picks with the 4 car in an effort to save a use if you are low on how much you have left for Harvick. For me, I’m at five uses left and he’ll be in my lineup and will be manning all my bonus picks. Bowman was in my planned lineup at the start of the week and I’ve seen nothing to change that thinking. Bowman was fifth and fourth on the 15- and 20-lap boards. Add in his back-to-back runner-up finishes, a solid Kansas history of late and plenty of uses left to me and he’s a solid play.

The biggest bugaboo for Kurt Busch has been a starting spot, but the inspection failures move him to ninth in the lineup and he’s been solid all year on 1.5-mile tracks. Jones has been up and down all year, but I like taking advantage of a sixth-place starting spot with him, especially when he had the fifth-most points at this track last year. I’m not crazy about playing Bowyer, but it’s hard to argue against a second-place starting position and the No. 14’s 10-lap averages were good. I said on the podcast he was an avoid for me, but the allure of stage points following all the inspection woes is too great to pass up. Keselowski was also a consideration, but I want to be a bit mindful of my usage on him since I am throwing it to the wind with Harvick.

For my garage play, I’m going to go with Blaney. I like the Kansas history and the lap averages were solid in final practice. He moves up to start 13th and I like the speed he had over, say, Denny Hamlin or Jimmie Johnson. William Byron is also a sneaky play here as he’ll start third, but I’m reluctant to trust him back-to-back weeks after a solid result at Dover.

Almirola has had plenty of speed all weekend, but at just five uses left, I don’t want to risk using him when he starts at the back. I like Larson and the speed he’s shown as well, but I think he’s more likely to make a mistake flying up from the back and that’s a risk I’d rather not take. Suarez misses my lineup because he’s not nearly as attractive a play starting in the back quarter of the field as opposed to when he’s slated to start fourth. If Truex’s lap averages were better, I’d have no problem righting a wrong I committed at Dover and sticking him in the garage. However, those lap averages were pretty pedestrian and that leads me toward sitting him.

Each week in this space, we’ll also highlight two Props Challenge items for players.

MORE: Play the Props Challenge today

1. Kurt Busch has an average finish of 10.5 the last six races at Kansas. Will he finish in the top 10 on Saturday? Initially, I was leaning no on this at the start of the week. However, the 2004 champion qualified ninth and has performed well on 1.5-mile tracks this season — a perfect 3-for-3 in top 10s so far. Given the long run speed he has shown as well, this seems like a solid yes.

2. O/U 19.5 lead-lap finishers at Kansas. I’m going under here for two main reasons. The three races contested on 1.5-mile tracks so far this year have seen an average of 16.7 cars finish on the lead lap and the high for one race was 18. The past three Kansas spring night races have averaged 19 lead-lap finishes with the over being hit just once. The numbers and trends indicate the under and there’s where I’m going.

Posted on by Staff Report

Stewart-Haas Racing saw two of its four cars go to the back for Saturday night’s Digital Ally 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and five of the top eight from qualifying had their times disallowed after failing pre-race/post-qualifying inspection for the enhanced weekend at Kansas Speedway. All told, 11 cars saw their qualifying times disallowed.

Aric Almirola (No. 10 Ford) was slated to start second and Daniel Suarez (No. 41 Ford) was slated to start fourth, but both cars failed inspection on the first attempt and saw their times tossed out. They lined up behind every car that passed on the first go-round.

RELATED: See every car in the field | Kansas lineup | Full Kansas schedule

Chase Elliott (No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet), the most-recent Kansas winner, as well as Martin Truex Jr. (No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota), a two-time Kansas winner and last weekend’s victor at Dover, also failed inspection. Kyle Larson’s No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet also did not pass the first time through. Elliott qualified fifth on Friday, Truex qualified sixth, while Larson was eighth-fastest in single-car qualifying.

Ty Dillon (No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet) also was among the drivers whose cars failed inspection. He was set to start 15th Saturday night. Two-time Kansas winner and reigning series champion Joey Logano (No. 22 Team Penske Ford) also failed inspection. He was set to start 20th.

The cars of Elliott, Larson and Logano each failed a second time through inspection and that meant each of those teams lost a crew member.

Others who failed inspection on the first attempt: Michael McDowell (No. 34 Front Row Motorsports), set to start 23rd; Landon Cassill (No. 00 StarCom Racing Chevrolet), set to start 25th; Joey Gase (No. 46 MBM Motorsports Toyota), set to start 38th; Timmy Hill (No. 66 MBM Motorsports Toyota), set to start 39th.

Posted on by Jason Christley

STAFFORD, Conn. — Doug Coby was going for his fourth NAPA Spring Sizzler 200 victory Saturday. Craig Lutz was chasing his first career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win.

In the end, it was the veteran Coby who made the winning move – diving under Lutz with just over 10 laps remaining – and then fending off the fierce challenge in the closing laps to return to Victory Lane in the iconic event that’s earned the moniker, “The Greatest Race in the History of Spring.”

It was Coby’s 26th career win on the tour and his 12th at Stafford. His first career win came in the 2006 Spring Sizzler, Stafford’s iconic early-season event. He also won the race in 2012 and 2016.

“This is the race everybody wants to win,” said Coby. “That was the hardest I’ve ever drove a race car, to hold off Craig. I just kept drive harder and driving harder.”

Following Lutz, Ron Silk, Max Zachem and Eric Goodale rounded out the top five.

“This is what you dream about,” Lutz said. “He’s obviously one of the best here. To be able to run with him for the last 10 laps was run. This was probably the most disappointing second-place I’ve had, because I feld like all day we had a really good car.”

It was the third career runner-up finish in 56 career starts for the Miller Place, New York, driver — including one in last year’s NAPA Fall Final at Stafford.

RACING-REFENCE: NAPA SPRING SIZZLER 200 RESULTS

Justin Bonsignore came home sixth. Bonsignore was fastest in practice back on April 26, the weekend the event was originally slated. Rain postponed three times, finally pushing it from Friday night ot Saturday afternoon. Bonsignore was then fastest in final practice and won the Mayhew Tools Dominator Pole Award.

Patrick Emerling was seventh, followed by rookie Sam Rameau, Timmy Solomito and Blake Barney.

RELATED: PHOTO GALLERY – LOOKING BACK: SPRING SIZZLER HISTORY

With Coby’s second win in four races in 2019, the five-time tour champion has opened a 17-point lead on second-place Patrick Emerling and 20 over Silk. Blewett and defending tour champion Bonsignore are fourth and fifth, respectively.

RACING-REFERENCE: WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will be back on track in seven days with the Jersey Shore 150 at Wall Stadium Speedway on Saturday, May 18.

Img 8631b

Posted on by Pat DeCola

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – For Chris Buescher, every lap is a lesson.

Now, in his fourth full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, the JTG Daugherty Racing driver continues to make gains, incremental they may be, week in and week out. He doesn’t take any lap, any race, any practice or debrief session for granted, knowing that to be successful at the sport’s highest level racing for a mid-tier team, he needs to fight for every inch just to stay afloat, let alone get ahead.

Keeping that rookie-like, eyes-and-ears-wide-open mindset is going to be key to his trajectory, along with the consistency and growth he’s building at JTG. Even if there might be a gray hair or two creeping in.

RELATED: Full schedule for Kansas | JTG Daugherty Racing unveils new sponsorship plan

“Yeah, I’m feeling old,” the 26-year-old told NASCAR.com on Friday at Kansas Speedway, site of Saturday’s Digital Ally 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “It’s a good thing, to be here that long and to have that feeling. Definitely don’t feel like a veteran; I learn every time we go out on the race track. There’s always something coming to you. … It’s been nice to be around and to have the continuity that I have with JTG Daugherty Racing. Really, the first time in my career where nothing has changed for me on the NASCAR side for a couple of years. We’ve been able to keep our core group together and stay with the same team.

“It’s really something that’s been a lot of fun and I’ve really enjoyed it. We’ve been able to build on something. I think that’s what’s got the beginning of this year firing off better for us. Not exactly where we want to be, but much better than where we’ve been.”

The consistency and long-term outlook Buescher and JTG invested in each other are starting to pay dividends. Buescher came out strong in the second race of the season, notching his first top 10 since Daytona last July and first at a track shorter than 2 miles since finishing sixth at Kansas … in 2017.

That doesn’t happen by accident.

It speaks to the long hours and straight grind the team put in over the offseason to adjust to the 2019 rules package – one that Buescher claims plays right into his team’s wheelhouse – and if it weren’t for a pair of unfortunate crashes at unpredictable Daytona and Talladega, he’d potentially be on the brink of playoff contention. Removing those two results, his 18.6 average finish in the other nine races would put him on pace for a career-high by nearly three full positions.

RELATED: Buescher’s season stats | Season standings 

“Our mile-and-a-half stuff’s been much better this season. We’re not at the point where we can go win these things every weekend, but we’re sneaking up on it,” said Buescher “Like I said, lots to learn. Every time you go on track, you learn something.

“ … I think for us, we think that top 15s should be a weekly occurrence. That puts us out-running, really, a handful of top-notch, big-team cars without setting an unrealistic expectation to go win every race. We’d love to, but that’s where we figure we should be able to run. … Everyone through the offseason did a great job of finding more speed in these cars and not just speed, but drivability. …

“You’re not going to find a half second overnight, and we don’t really need a half a second. We’ve definitely closed the gap. I think when you look at this past offseason, our organization as a whole probably made the biggest jump in average finishing and running spots through the changes that were made. We can go race, so that’s been awesome. We just have to keep ahead of it and that’s hard to do in this industry. Man, it changes every weekend. It’s frustrating sometimes. Stuff goes in circles. You find something, you’ll try it. Then it’ll go away for eight, 12 weeks and all of a sudden it’ll come back around and you’ve got to try and regroup and get it back in the race car. That’s tough to do.”

The question now is if these gains will result in a potential berth to the NASCAR Playoffs in 2019 – or if Buescher and JTG have a 10-race homework assignment waiting for them come September.

Buescher admits a path to the postseason on points will be a stretch given his results at the superspeedways, so attention instead turns to the road courses where his former teammate, AJ Allmendinger, buttered his bread.

“It’ll be tough either way we go. We still believe we can get into the playoffs one way or another. It’s going to be hard. … We look at road courses. One thing immediately, coming over (to JTG), obviously AJ is a great road racer and before him, Marcos Ambrose was a good road racer and they really dialed in the package with the team that works really well for those races.

“I remember, I had been to Sonoma once before and then I came to this organization and we went there a second time and I went from running about 30 something to qualifying ninth. I didn’t learn this overnight, but we have race cars that work, mechanically, really well. We look at those as a high spot for us, a good opportunity. I’m no road course ace, but I really do enjoy them and they’re something we have a lot of fun at. Puts us in a pretty good spot when we go out to Sonoma and Watkins Glen.”

Playoffs or not, it’s clear that JTG is building a slow-burning fire that has longterm potential to catch ablaze, and it has its kindling in place with Buescher and rookie teammate Ryan Preece. The goal isn’t to win the title this season; it’s to lay the foundation for championships to come.

“We’re working on building this organization up,” Buescher said. “It’s not a small team, it’s not a super team. We’re somewhere in the middle and we do really well with the resources that we have. It’s a solid program, it’s just growing. It grows every week. Offseasons are hard to keep up, for one. It’s even harder to make leaps and bounds and get ahead and that’s what we were able to do this offseason, so that’s awesome. It’s really exciting when we look at these next few years going forward.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Ross Chastain broke through for his first career NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series victory on Friday night at Kansas Speedway, and his fellow NASCAR drivers were quick to shower him with praise.

For Chastain, the victory was a welcome vindication after his incredible 2018 story. With superb performances in limited NASCAR Xfinity Series action with Chip Ganassi Racing last year — including a victory at Las Vegas — Chastain earned a full-time ride in Ganassi’s No. 42 Chevrolet for 2019, only to see that car shut down for the year by circumstances beyond the driver’s or team’s control.

That made Friday’s victory all the sweeter, and is why drivers such as Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson were quick to offer congrats.

See more reaction below:

https://twitter.com/Mc_Driver/status/1127042229678288898

Posted on by Nick Giffen

The Action Network specializes in providing sports betting insights/analytics and is a content partner with NASCAR. Check out more NASCAR betting analysis here.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Kansas for the second Saturday night race of the year (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Kansas is a 1.5-mile oval with variable banking that was repaved after the first of two races in 2012. That makes it a relatively low tire-wear track, and the practice times reflect the limited tire wear. Kevin Harvick dominated final practice, posting the best 10-, 15-, 20- and 25-lap times in Happy Hour, with very little fall off in time as the number of laps increased.

Kansas is also the third 1.5-mile oval with low tire wear that the Cup Series has been to this year while running the 550-horsepower package with aero ducts. The other two races were at Texas and Las Vegas. I’ll also lean heavily on data from those two races to find the top values for this weekend’s race.

One thing to keep in mind: NASCAR performs its post-qualifying technical inspection at 2:30 p.m. ET, so it’s possible cars that have great qualifying positions lose their starting spot if they fail. That means they will start from the rear of the field. If books over-react to this news, it could provide quite a bit of betting value mere hours before the race starts.

Let’s dive into the three best betting values to win tonight’s race, along with a few additional props.

RELATED: The two driver matchups to bet

A quick primer on the odds below: A $100 bet at +375 odds would profit $375, while a $200 wager at -200 odds would pay out $100.

Kevin Harvick +375 to Win

The DraftKings Sportsbook is offering nearly 4-1 odds on a Harvick win, and that’s simply too good to pass up. Harvick is going as low as +250 at places like the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.

Harvick has everything going for him. His track history is amazing, with finishes of second, second, second, third and first over his last five spring races. His practice times — as mentioned at the top — were dominant. He qualified on the pole position, meaning he’ll have clean air to work with at the start of the race, and the best pit stall throughout the race.

Finally, his history at comparable tracks is positive, as well. Harvick had the top green-flag speed at Las Vegas, one of the other two comparable races run under this rules package.

The biggest concern for Harvick would be a mishap or penalty on a late pit-stop. His odds aren’t amazing, but it’s so hard to find a clear favorite at this price these days that the value is too good to pass up, especially if you can supplement your card with midweek picks, other futures from this column and race props.

This bet loses value at +300 odds.

Joey Logano +1375 to Win

Logano hasn’t shown much speed this weekend, which I think has moved his odds more than necessary.

Logano opened at +700 at Westgate on the strength of the third-best average green flag speed ranking at the two similar tracks, Las Vegas and Texas. Only Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin rank better than the defending series champion. I should also note that Logano suffered an issue midway through the race at Texas, despite running near the front most of the race until then, so his green flag rank of 10th at Texas would likely be even better.

Logano has top-five finishes in each of his three most recent incident-free spring races at Kansas, and also has two wins and four top-eight finishes in his five most recent fall races at the track. He’s a threat to win, despite the relatively pedestrian practice times.

Ryan Blaney +2225 to Win, +500 for Top 3 Finish

Over the last eight Kansas races, the Big 3 of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. pave the way in NASCAR analytics most predictive statistic — Driver Rating. The next driver on the list: Ryan Blaney. His 104.0 Driver Rating includes five top-seven finishes in his last six incident-free Kansas races.

Blaney’s only blemishes come in his first ever Cup Series start back in 2014, and a crash with 20 laps to go after leading 54 laps in last year’s first Kansas race.

Blaney has had incidents at both the comparable tracks, which make his statistics look worse than they are. He had an overheating issue at Texas after leading 45 laps and claiming the second-fastest green flag speed. At Las Vegas, early tire issues derailed his day after he moved from 13th to ninth on the opening stint of the race.

His practice times weren’t spectacular in Happy Hour (eighth in 10-lap and sixth in 15-lap average), but in opening practice he did clock the third-best five-lap average when temperatures were a bit cooler.

The night race will have temperatures closer to opening practice than final practice. I wouldn’t bet Blaney to win any lower than +1600.

The top three line at DraftKings of +500 is nice value, but you may be able to squeeze out a bit more as other books add top-three odds throughout the day Saturday.

Keep an Eye On: Alex Bowman +6300 to Win and Top-3, Top-5, Top-10 Values

Kansas is a race where I don’t love anyone but a handful of top drivers to win, but this value on Bowman is pretty crazy. Bowman has two top-10 finishes at Kansas in three career starts with Hendrick Motorsports (HMS). In final practice, Bowman posted times inside the top five in both 15- and 20-lap average.

As far as odds to win, I think you can make a small play on him at anything longer than +5000, but I’d rather hold out until more books post odds on top-three, top-five, or top-10 finishes.

At the time of publication, he’s going off at +135 to finish top 10 at the DraftKings Sportsbook. I would bet him at +135 for a top-10 finish if that’s what it came down to, but I ultimately think we’ll see a better price later in the day.

The reason why? DraftKings seems to be more bullish on Bowman than most books, posting him at +3300 to win, which likely implies his top-10 odds are also a bit shorter than others might post.

Instead, I’d wait to see if a book that has him around  +5000 or longer to win also lists him with more palatable odds to finish inside the top three, five, or 10. I would buy Bowman if he comes in equal to or better than:

• +140 for a top 10
• +500 for a top five
• +1200 for a top three

Finding lines that meet these thresholds is likely to occur as books that are more bearish on him start to list these types of bets.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Elation and heartbreak were barely more than a lap apart when Ross Chastain took the checkered flag to win Friday night’s Digital Ally 250 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway.

Chastain took the lead on Lap 165 of 167 after Stewart Friesen ran out of fuel — the result of a miscommunication between the driver and crew chief Trip Bruce. Chastain crossed the finish line .483 seconds ahead of runner-up Ben Rhodes to secure his first victory in the series in his 66th start and the first for Niece Motorsports and owner Al Niece.

RELATED: Race results

Friesen, on the other hand, rolled home in 15th, a lap down and a study in frustration as a first victory in the Truck series continued to elude him.

For Chastain, the victory was a welcome vindication after his rags-to-riches-to-rags story of 2018. With superb performances in limited NASCAR Xfinity Series action with Chip Ganassi Racing last year — including a victory at Las Vegas — Chastain earned a full-time ride in Ganassi’s No. 42 Chevrolet for 2019, only to lose it when the team’s sponsorship collapsed.

“Aw, man, this is what sports is all about,” Chastain said, barely able to contain his emotions. “We had the world by the tail last fall, and everything got taken away from us. We didn’t quit, though … I’m going to celebrate this one a lot more than I did the last one.

“I thought, after the last one (in Las Vegas), they were going to come a lot more easy. But it’s not easy … I hate to see Stewie lose one like that. I know he’s been trying to win, but, yes — we got it!”

Friesen came to pit road for his final stop under green on Lap 126 but left his stall after taking right-side tires only on a planned four-tire stop. Though Friesen had a lead of more than five seconds over Grant Enfinger when he got back up to speed, the shortness of the pit stop didn’t allow the crew to fill the fuel cell.

Friesen’s chances looked better when the third-place truck of Brett Moffitt got loose under Enfinger’s Ford and cut Enfinger’s right-rear tire, forcing both trucks to pit road for unscheduled stops. And when the No. 33 Chevrolet of Josh Reaume stopped on the track on Lap 146 to cause the sixth and final caution, Bruce figured Friesen had enough fuel to finish the race.

WATCH: Moffitt spins

Within three laps of the checkered flag, however, Friesen ran out.

“It’s been a dream to race at this level and thanks to all the car owners that have given me a chance after all these years,” Friesen said. “I came with nothing but a helmet bag. Just a little miscommunication that we need to work on.

“We just can’t close it. I figured I’d screw up a restart at the end, rather than run out of fuel. They said that we were to the good. I didn’t know we were taking four (tires). I thought for sure we were taking two. Just a lot of silence on the radio. That’s it.”

Notes: With the victory, Chastain extended his streak of top-10 finishes to start the season to seven, all with Niece Motorsports. … Toyota drivers Todd Gilliland, Austin Hill and Brandon Jones finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively. … Pole winner Matt Crafton ran sixth, followed by Enfinger and Moffitt.