Posted on by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Shades of Talladega. Only this time Team Penske—driver Joey Logano in particular—joined the Ford domination party.

Saving the fastest lap of the day for the final round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session, Logano navigated 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway in 28.177 seconds (191.646 mph) to claim the pole position for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Logano enters the elimination race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 12 with a 39-point cushion over teammate Brad Keselowski, the first driver below the cutline. But that doesn’t dictate a conservative approach for the No. 22 team come Sunday.

RELATED: Qualifying results

“I’m not much of a play-it-safe guy,” said Logano, who earned his first Busch Pole Award of the season, his second at Kansas and the 20th of his career. “I’m not good at it, for one… This race, I wouldn’t say it’s a wild card. We’ve raced here a lot, and we tend to know how the race is going to play out.

“The plan is to race, like we tend to do. We’ve got a good car, obviously. The car’s got a lot of steam. So it’s a normal race for us. Yes, it’s a cutoff race. Yes, there are points involved. Yes, we’ve got to keep up with that, but it’s just a race. Any time you line up for one of these things, the goal is the same. The goal is to win.”

Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick (191.178 mph) qualified second and, in fact, was second fastest in each of the three rounds. Last Friday, the four SHR drivers claimed the top-four starting spots at Talladega and ran 1-2-3-4 for most of Sunday’s race.

On Friday, Harvick and Talladega winner Aric Almirola qualified second and third, respectively, but the Team Penske Fords of Ryan Blaney and Keselowski, both of whom face an uphill climb to make the Round of 8, were fourth and fifth.

“Days like today are days that really show us all the hard work that comes from the engine shop, and you saw a lot of the same displayed last week at Talladega from the engines to the oils and the preparation of getting the cars up in the front of the field,” said Harvick, who is locked into the Round of 8 on points. “It’s a good start to the weekend. It gets you good pits stalls and allows you to get everything at the start of the race going and allows you to have a little buffer if your car is not handling right.

“Qualifying days and superspeedway races are a huge credit to the engine shop and the things they do. Our guys do a great job with the cars, qualifying or race trim. It makes it a lot of fun.”

Behind the five Fords were the four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas, with Erik Jones qualifying sixth, Kyle Busch seventh, Daniel Suarez eighth and Denny Hamlin ninth. Tenth-place Alex Bowman, who must win on Sunday to advance to the Round of 8, was the only Chevrolet driver in the top 12.

“We were the best in class, I guess,” Bowman said. “We wanted to be quite a bit better than that. I got pretty loose in (Turns) 1 and 2 and had to lift. So we should have been a couple of spots better probably, if we wouldn’t have had that happen.

“But (crew chief) Greg (Ives) made good adjustments. The car got better every run, and we’ll move on from there. We’ve got some work to do run with that other manufacturer towards the front of the field, but I’m confident we can get better and get there.”

Kyle Larson, 11th in the standings and likely in a must-win situation, suffered a setback even before qualifying began. He hit the outside wall on his second lap in opening practice and was forced to a backup car.

Larson, who is 36-points out of eighth place, was 27th in time trials but must drop to the rear of the field for the start of the race because of the change to the backup.

Martin Truex Jr., who currently occupies the final spot inside the Playoffs cut line, qualified 12th in his No. 78 Toyota, one spot behind SHR driver Kurt Busch.

Posted on by Jordan Bianchi

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It doesn’t take much to ramp Clint Bowyer up, but racing on his home track in front of a throng of friends and family takes the excitement level of the Emporia, Kansas, native to a whole other realm. Add in the fact that he’s in the midst of a career resurgence and Stewart-Haas Racing has emerged as one of the dominant teams in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, and Bowyer is giddy about Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (at 2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Kansas Speedway.

Bowyer finished second to teammate Aric Almirola last week at Talladega Superspeedway, a result that moved him 21-points above the provisional cut line entering the Round of 12 elimination race at Kansas. He is now one of eight drivers who would transfer to the semifinals.

RELATED: Kansas schedule | Playoff standings | Practice results

“It is so important and the stakes are high,” Bowyer said. “It is an adrenaline rush for a racecar driver. Rolling into home, a place you want to win at more than anything, and you are racing for something and in the hunt. You don’t have time for any distractions or anything else. It is go time. The money is on the line. You got to go out there and get it.”

And Bowyer doesn’t mask what a win at Kansas would personally mean to him, as it is something he’s not yet accomplished in 20 career starts on the mile-and-a-half speedway.

“So many emotions for so many different reasons that would be gratifying,” he said. “Being home, being with family and friends and everything that this area means to me. The fan following, the people that helped me hone my skills over there at Lakeside [Speedway] or I-70 Speedway. These are the guys I raced against to learn what it is I do and made me the racer that I am.”

Not since 2012 has Bowyer come into Kansas in the position he currently finds himself, harboring both realistic hopes to win the race and as a viable championship contender. He snapped a 190-race, five-year winless streak in March at Martinsville Speedway, then followed with a win at Michigan International Speedway in June.

RELATED: Bowyer: ‘Pay window’s open and I’m going racing’

Bowyer’s reemergence coincides with SHR fully blossoming in its second year fielding Fords following a long association with Chevrolet. For the first time the team co-owned by Gene Haas and Tony Stewart has seen all four of its drivers, Almirola, Bowyer, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick, reach Victory Lane. And as it stands, each driver would earn a spot in the Round of 8. SHR’s dominance was on full display at Talladega where its drivers ran 1-2-3-4 for the majority of the race, combining to lead 155 of a possible 193 laps.

“We are the team to beat,” Bowyer said. “We are the organization that is on top right now.

“Everyone works hard and are racers and were damn proud of what we accomplished last week. We all know that we have to continue to do that and continue to get better because if we are not, the next team is. There is a lot of work to be done.”

Almirola is assured of advancing to the Round of 8 because of his Talladega win, while Harvick (+63 point above the cutoff) and Busch (+30) are both well positioned to join their teammate.

MORE: All-SHR Championship 4 would be ‘ridiculously awesome’

As for Bowyer, his chances of advancement is a little more tenuous, though completely in his control.

“I am hoping it will be smooth sailing,” Bowyer said. “It never is. When the stakes are high like this and everything is on the line it is never easy. Look at the competition in the garage area. If you think it will be a cake walk, we have a 21-point lead or something and that isn’t enough.”

Posted on by RJ Kraft

KANSAS City, Kan. — Justin Allgaier sits in second in the NASCAR Xfinity Series standings as the Round of 8 kicks off with Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 (3 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Yet, the journey to that point has been quite up and down for the JR Motorsports driver in the past month alone.

“I think if you could have scripted our first round of the playoffs, you would have scripted it the exact opposite of how it went,” Allgaier told NASCAR.com on Friday afternoon.

The regular-season champion finished 32nd due to a crash in the Round of 12 opener at Richmond. Following a 15th-place finish at the Charlotte Roval, he was far from secure in moving on until a third-place effort at Dover.

RELATED: Xfinity Series playoff standings | Who’s in the Round of 8?

“It was difficult because the frustration level obviously is high especially when you’ve done everything you can do in the regular season,” Allgaier said. “We won races. We won the regular-season championship. We gained as many playoff points as we could and all that was gone. …We took the checkered flag (at Dover) and it was ‘OK, we don’t want to be in that position again.’ We looked at this off week of how do we be better for the remainder of these races and what do we do different.”

The 2018 season has been Allgaier’s best to date – he has doubled his career win total in the series to 10 — with five wins and career-highs in laps led (635) and top fives (16). This season is all in perspective for the 32-year-old Illinois native.

“I went a stretch there for three, four years where we didn’t win a race and I’m not even sure that disappointing would begin to cover what the feeling was like,” Allgaier said. “To come around this year, to be with the team that I am with, to have the guys that I have on my car this year and to be in Victory Lane again all are huge contributing factors. Probably the most important part is to have my daughter (Harper) at the race track and my wife (Ashley), just seeing their faces in Victory Lane that really for me is what drives it home.”

RELATED: Full schedule for Kansas 

Allgaier comes into Kansas with five top 10s in seven Xfinity starts here. The Round of 8 also features another 1.5-mile track in Texas and ISM Raceway at Phoenix – a track that will be reconfigured for the November race but Allgaier has won there before.

“I’d like to win here at Kansas because then you don’t have to worry about Texas or Phoenix,” Allgaier said. “It takes some of the pressure off.

“For me, the 1.5-mile tracks has been — we have not run as well on the 1.5-mile tracks as we have on the short tracks. We’ve still been good. We’ve still led a lot of laps. … For us, the mindset is learn as much as we can at Kansas, learn as much as we can in Texas and try to understand what we need to be the best we can be. When we get to Phoenix, we’ve run really well at Phoenix over the course of my career there. Go there, do what we know how to do, hopefully go to Victory Lane, gain some bonus points and lock our way into Homestead.”

The veteran knows he has his work cut out for him in a field of tough competitors that includes points leader Christopher Bell, Cole Custer, Daniel Hemric, Matt Tifft, Austin Cindric and JR Motorsports teammates Elliott Sadler and Tyler Reddick.

“I look at the competitors that I’m racing against and there is not anyone in the final 8 that shouldn’t be in the final 4 at Homestead,” Allgaier said. “We are going to get rid of four cars but none of those guys deserve to be out. They all have run extremely well. I think if we can have a chance at Homestead, that’s a big feat and I don’t take that lightly.”

Posted on by RJ Kraft

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – With two wins in his last three starts at Kansas Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. enters Sunday’s Round of 12 elimination race – the Hollywood Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – among the favorites to win at the 1.5-mile track.

Add in his position just above the cutline to advance to the Round of 8 at 18 points to the good and the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota is sitting in a good, albeit tenuous, spot in the playoff picture.

RELATED: Playoff standings | Clinch scenarios for Kansas

“A lot can happen,” Truex told NASCAR.com. “We are not in a great spot but +18 is about as good as you can ask for being the last one in. We’re just go race hard and see what we can do.”

One of his fellow playoff drivers – Ryan Blaney – sits 22 points outside the cutline to Truex and is well aware of how strong Truex has been here of late. “The 78 is lights-out here” was Blaney’s description of Truex at Kansas when he was asked about the drivers he was around on the cutline. He expects the veteran driver to be tough to match on Sunday.

Truex has been in this spot before. He was +13 and in sixth place in the standings heading into the 2016 Round of 12 elimination race at Talladega Superspeedway. The New Jersey native won the pole for that race before an engine issue 41 laps in ended his postseason.

RELATED: Past playoff heartbreaks in elimination format

With the advent of playoff points in 2017, Truex used a bushel of those stockpiled in the regular season to put himself in great playoff position entering each round. In 2018, he has accumulated 38 playoff points entering Kansas that should he advance would carry over to the Round of 8. Yet, Truex knows that guarantees nothing.

“I always said that it doesn’t matter how many playoff points you have, there’s potential for things to happen out of your control,” Truex said.

Last fall, Truex won this race as one of his four playoff victories — among his total of eight in the season – as he went on to win the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Through the first five playoff races in 2018, the defending champ does not have a win, although he been on the cusp of a victory – even yards away from one. He led the most laps at Las Vegas and finished third. At Richmond, he led the most laps again but it was a pit road penalty after two stage wins that set him back – although he rallied back to finish third. He was leading going into the final chicane of the Charlotte Roval until contact from Jimmie Johnson sent him spinning.

“We just keep getting faster it seems like,” Truex said. “I don’t know what we got to do. It’s definitely not been our lucky year. We’ve faced a lot of challenges on that front. We’ve got a great team and we’ve got speed. I’m excited to be here in Kansas and I know we can win here. Now, it’s just a matter of not focusing on where we’re at, just trying to get our job done.”

Posted on by Jordan Bianchi

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It is a situation that seemingly should make a driver feel unease, rankle his nerves and bring about second-guessing on how he ended up being on the brink of elimination from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs barring a win in this weekend’s elimination race.

Yet Kyle Larson isn’t experiencing any of these feelings heading into Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the Playoffs Round of 12 finale that will see four drivers knocked out of the postseason. In fact, Larson is almost relishing the prospect that he and his Chip Ganassi Racing team can now focus solely on doing whatever possible to reach Victory Lane.

RELATED: No. 42 team files final appeal of Talladega penalty

“There is no pressure, really,” Larson said. “There is pressure to not make mistakes and cost yourself the spot where you are [trying to make] the next round — you’re so worried about not making a mistake. Where in our position, we know what we have to do. We can be aggressive. I can run hard all race long. I can just race with little care and our team can make aggressive pit calls.”

Larson is 36 points below the final provisional transfer spot entering the weekend, a position presently occupied by Martin Truex Jr., both the defending race winner and series champion. Although Larson could theoretically amass enough points Sunday to transfer to the Round of 8, his deficit is such that it will be difficult to overcome, essentially creating a scenario where anything short of a win means his championship hopes are over for the season.

That Larson finds himself on the wrong side of the line is because of good, though not great, finishes in the past two races — a 12th in the second-round opener at Dover International Speedway and an 11th last week at Talladega Superspeedway — combined with a 10-point penalty for a rules violation at Talladega. Even without the penalty, he says his mindset would be no different this weekend. It’s all about winning.

“Obviously, a 10-point penalty doesn’t help, but I felt like with even being 26 points back, we were going to probably have to go into this week and get a win to make it into the next round,” Larson said.

Further complicating matters was a crash during practice on Friday that saw Larson get loose in Turn 2 and pancake the outside wall. The contact was substantial enough Chip Ganassi Racing had little recourse but to pull out a backup Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Larson, who regardless of where he qualifies will now have to start at the rear of the field on Sunday.

RELATED: Friday practice results | Playoffs standings

And still Larson’s confidence remains steadfast.

“I’m sure the backup car will be fine,” he said. “I’ve been in a backup car before here and went fast. Dig deep, work hard and see where we’ll be Sunday.”

The predicament Larson is in is not insurmountable. Drivers rising up to score a victory to stave off elimination is not an unusual occurrence since NASCAR instituted the elimination-based Playoff format prior to the 2014 season. Kevin Harvick has come through on multiple occasions, while Brad Keselowski pulled off a rousing win at Talladega in 2014.

Working in Larson’s favor is that Kansas presents an ideal track for him to get that needed win. He excels on multi-grooved, intermediate-sized speedways, and in the spring race here had one of the fastest cars, leading 101 laps and winning the second stage despite starting last in the 38-car field. His bid for victory was dealt a blow, however, when Ryan Blaney collided into the No. 42 car during a late restart. Larson still overcame the considerable damage to net a fourth-place finish.

“At Chip Ganassi Racing, the mile-and-a-half tracks have been our best tracks,” Larson said. “I know we’ll be fast and lead laps, and we just have to capitalize on that and win the race.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Ryan Blaney blazed to the top of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series leaderboard to pace opening practice on a chilly, overcast Friday at Kansas Speedway.

Blaney’s Team Penske No. 12 Ford posted a chart-topping 192.130 mph lap on the 1.5-mile track. The 24-year-old driver has qualified on the front row for two of the last three Kansas races.

RELATED: Practice 1 results | Full schedule for Kansas

Kyle Busch logged the second-fastest lap, clocking 191.768 mph in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott completed a top-five sweep by playoff-eligible drivers in the series’ first on-track activity of the weekend.

Kyle Larson crashed with 16 minutes remaining in the 50-minute opening session, crunching the outside retaining wall in Turn 2. He drove his Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet back to the garage with significant right-side damage, forcing the team to unload a reserve car.

“I’m good, just mad at myself,” Larson said after his release from the infield care center. “Got loose and had it corrected, then it’s like the second time I corrected, I don’t know if I got on the splitter or what, but then it didn’t turn and went straight. Just hate it that we wrecked a primary car there. I’m sure our backup car will be fine. We’re always pretty good here at Kansas, so we should be fine. I’ve been in a backup car here before and been really fast. We’ll just dig deep and work hard and see what we can do on Sunday.”

Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) is the final event in the three-race Round of 12 in the Monster Energy Series Playoffs. The field of championship-eligible drivers will be trimmed from 12 to eight after Sunday’s race.

Two teams were docked 15 minutes of practice time at the end of the session, both for being late to pre-race inspection:

  • The No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  • The No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota of Martin Truex Jr.

Busch Pole Qualifying for the Monster Energy Series is scheduled for Friday at 7:10 p.m. ET (NBCSN).

Posted on by Pat DeCola

KANSAS CITY — Spencer Gallagher, a charismatic driver who has been a regular in NASCAR national series competition the last four seasons, has announced he will retire from racing at season’s end.

“I will no longer be competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series; I will be stepping out of that role as a driver and taking on a more managerial role at GMS,” Gallagher said Friday afternoon at Kansas Speedway. “As of right now, we are absolutely intent on continuing our Xfinity effort on, and we aim to win a championship.”

RELATED: Full schedule for Kansas

Gallagher, 28, is competing this weekend in the Xfinity Series’ Kansas Lottery 300 (Saturday, 2:55 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM).

“It has been an incredible journey getting to watch this team grow and flourish and become something incredible from very humble beginnings. I can’t wait to be there personally. This is not me stepping back from NASCAR. If anything, it’s stepping further into it,” said Gallagher, who will join his father, Maury, on the management team at GMS. 

“This has been a big decision; this has been something I’ve been thinking about for a long, long time. GMS started out surrounded around Spencer Gallagher, but since then it has grown to be something so much more and it’s something so much bigger now. I think it’s time to take the next step and really see what this team can do. I think to do that, my greatest utility to GMS lies elsewhere other than the driver’s seat. I think there’s a lot of really talented drivers out there and we have an incredible team. I want to see this team grow and I want to see this team grow to flourish.”

Since making his NASCAR national series debut in 2013, Gallagher has competed in 60 Camping World Truck Series events and 55 Xfinity Series races — all for GMS Racing. The Las Vegas native also made his lone appearance in the Monster Energy Series earlier this year, finishing 35th at Watkins Glen for BK Racing. 

The decision was not an easy one for Gallagher, arguably in the prime of his driving career. Gallagher landed his breakthrough Xfinity Series win earlier this year, converting a last-lap pass to prevail at Talladega Superspeedway on April 28. He was suspended four days later for a violation of NASCAR’s substance abuse policy, then reinstated on July 4.

Gallagher’s family life held the most weight in the decision-making process.

 “I can share with you on a personal level, candidly, I’ve spent 10 years out here on this coast away from my family,” he said. “A couple months ago it occurred to me that, God forbid, should one of my parents kicks the bucket tomorrow and I’ve spent the last 10 years out here driving race cars … I don’t know if I could ever forgive myself.

“Beyond that, and I’m serious when I say that I think there are big opportunities for myself, for GMS and for all of us within this sport and industry and I intend to pursue them aggressively. Being outside of the driving role allows me to do that further.”

As far as what he expects to bring to the table in his managerial role, Gallagher played coy but promised “big things.” He indicated that his connections in Silicon Valley could play a part in the evolution of motorsports not just for GMS, but NASCAR as a whole. 

Gallagher also mentioned that making the move up to the Monster Energy Series is “always on the table for us,” a move that has been rumored since last year. 

“The genesis of (the decision) was I started looking at all the cool technologies and opportunities that exist within this industry. I think racing is an incredibly fascinating intersection of the auto industry and the high science and technology industry. And that’s what I come from. For those who don’t know, before I did this, I was a professional nerd, and a good one. And I think a lot of my prior skill sets are transferable to this industry. I can’t talk about any of the stuff I’ll be doing until I’m doing it, but trust me when I say, I’ve got big things planned for GMS and this industry as a whole.” 

When pushed for a hint at what he might have in store for the industry moving forward, Gallagher paused, then offered a classic “Spencer-being-Spencer” kind of response.

“I’ve got big plans for us,” he said, smiling.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR announced before the season that it will standardize at-track team rosters across all three national series in 2018, providing a structure for the number of personnel working on each vehicle during the course of a race weekend.

Official team rosters for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) have been released. Click the print icon above, or the link below.

ROSTERS: Kansas fall race

RELATED: Overview of 2018 rules updates

Posted on by Staff Report

Chip Ganassi Racing officials announced Thursday that the team would appeal the L1-level penalty issued to the No. 42 team following last weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

“After reviewing the penalty, the rule and the procedure that we used during the race in Talladega, we feel strongly that we did nothing wrong,” a team statement read. “Subsequently, we have decided to appeal the penalty. Despite going through the appeal process, we will do everything in our power to keep our team focused on the race this weekend in Kansas and the balance of the season.”

Three members of the independent National Motorsports Appeals Panel will hear the appeal Friday at 8:30 a.m. local time at Kansas Speedway.

RELATED: No. 42 team issued L1 penalty

According to Wednesday’s penalty report, the team was ruled to be in violation of Section 10.9.9.d of the NASCAR Rule Book, which covers the Damaged Vehicle Policy and mechanical repair. That rule states that regardless of how damage to a car occurs, the team only is permitted to reattach original body parts of the car to their original locations with fasteners and/or tape only.

As part of the penalty, the team lost 10 driver and 10 owner points. Crew chief Chad Johnston was fined $25,000 and car chief David Bryant was suspended from the next Monster Energy Series event this weekend at Kansas Speedway, pending the appeal. The car chief’s suspension will be deferred until the appeal is completed, however.

The points penalty dropped Kyle Larson to 36 points below the cutoff line heading into the Round of 12 finale at Kansas Speedway.