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.

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

Brad Keselowski sits 18 points below the cutline heading into the Monster Energy Series Playoffs Round of 12 elimination race at Kansas Speedway. The No. 2 team can advance to the next round on points with some help, but crew chief Paul Wolfe is eyeing something much bigger.

“I think with the situation we’re in, we’ve just got to focus on going to Kansas and doing everything we can to win,” Wolfe told NASCAR.com. “There aren’t very many scenarios with the points that are likely to play out to do that, so I think we need to go there and do everything we can to win that race. That’s going to be our chance to move on to the next round.”

RELATED: Playoff standings

In order to have an opportunity at victory in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Wolfe says the team must be more aggressive than usual to be in position.

What qualifies as “in position?” Running in the top five all day long.

“To play a conservative setup or things like that just to go make sure we can gain some points is really not my mindset,” Wolfe said. “I’ll be as aggressive as I can with the setup. If the opportunity allows in the race, where I may need to be aggressive on my strategy, that’s going to be my play this weekend and hopefully it’s enough.”

RELATED: Full schedule for Kansas

If Wolfe can get a little risky and put the No. 2 Ford in position to win with a strategy call on pit road in the closing laps, he knows he has a driver who can handle it. Keselowski’s ability to thrive under pressure gives Wolfe confidence to make those calls.

“We know, as a team, if we can put Brad in situations, give him the opportunity toward the end of these races, we know he’s capable of getting it done,” Wolfe said. “… Only certain drivers can handle that type of pressure, whether it’s putting him out there toward the end of the race on two tires in the lead or those types of scenarios, there’s certain drivers who can step up and not make mistakes and can go race at another level.”

BLOG: Keselowski in his own words

Keselowski and team are in this position despite a string of three consecutive wins at Darlington, Indianapolis and at the playoff opener in Las Vegas. The victories boosted Keselowski’s playoff points considerably, and for a time he was considered to be the fourth member looking to break into the “Big 3.”

Mishaps at the Charlotte road course and last weekend at Talladega, though, dropped the driver in the standings.

“There’s a confidence piece that goes along with it, especially leading up to the playoffs and being able to put together a string of wins like we did in such big races with a lot on the line,” Wolfe said. “I think it proved and just gave everyone some confidence that we know what we’re doing.

“We execute like we know how to, and we’re as good as anybody.”

Posted on by David Smith

Kyle Larson’s 2018 has not been what many expected. Some regression from a career-best four-win season last year could have been assumed, but 31 winless races and, now, on the brink of playoff elimination would’ve made skeptics out of wide-eyed optimists.

Larson had choice words for his team following a disappointing 11th-place finish last week at Talladega, lamenting the lack of competitiveness this season on drafting tracks.

Considering the track type distribution of horsepower from his No. 42 Chevrolet this year, his frustration seems warranted. He ranks sixth in Central Speed, down from third last year. His speed ranks 13th on the drafting tracks of Daytona and Talladega specifically, and just 10th on short tracks. It’s the intermediate facilities — the 1.5-mile tracks most prevalent in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series — on which Larson has excelled, and this weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway, a track fitting the 1.5-mile description, can’t get here soon enough.

RELATED: No. 42 team penalized

Larson ranks second in Central Speed on intermediates, trailing only Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Ford, and that singular strength may rescue him from elimination. He sits 36 points out of the eighth-place cutoff spot and likely is in need of a race win in order to advance to the Round of 8. He profiles as a driver capable of pulling off the feat.

On moderate intermediates, Larson ranks as the most efficient passer in the series. In all, he’s accumulated an adjusted pass differential of plus-97 positions on the track type, which is 77 spots more than expected from a driver with a similar running position. While restarts certainly helped steady that number — he’s netted 60 positions on restarts across all tracks — he’s also a reliable long-run passer. He earned a single-race pass differential of plus-35 after starting from the rear of the field at Kansas in the spring (due to an unapproved tire change), despite the event having less than the average number of restarts. He finished fourth.

It’s appropriate that the very track type that has defined Larson’s season may also be the one that saves it.

Larson isn’t alone among bubble drivers hoping Kansas magnifies primary strengths.

RELATED: Kansas clinch scenarios

Martin Truex Jr. Kansas 2017 win
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

Martin Truex Jr. (18 points above the cutoff)

An atypical finish at Dover (15th) and a predictably bad outing on a drafting track (the fifth consecutive Talladega race in which they finished 23rd or worse) place Furniture Row Racing in a precarious position this weekend, but they should be counted on to defend their position above the cutoff line. Truex flashed the fastest car of the opening round of the playoffs and, across the last two seasons, made his bones on moderate intermediates like Kansas. In fact, Truex hasn’t finished worse than second at Kansas since the fall of 2016.

Matt Sullivan | Getty Images
Matt Sullivan | Getty Images

Brad Keselowski (18 points below the cutoff)

Keselowski’s late-race heroics during his recent three-race win streak dazzled, but considering his lack of dominant speed in the three outings — his car failed to rank as the fastest in any of those events and ranked as the 11th-fastest at Indianapolis — there was nothing to suggest he’d overcome the Big Three’s yearlong stranglehold on the competition.

KESELOWSKI BLOG: My three wins

He rolls into Kansas ranked eighth in Central Speed and despite his clear penchant for late-race restarts, he fares well with fewer restart attempts. His average finish in races with less than the average number of restarts (12.6) is more than five spots better than his usual result on races heavy on restarts (17.7). A Kansas race light on cautions would suit him and allow crew chief Paul Wolfe to flex some muscle on green-flag stops.

Ryan Blaney
Brian Lawdermilk | Getty Images

Ryan Blaney (22 points below the cutoff)

Blaney’s No. 12 Ford ranks as the fastest among Team Penske’s stable, both overall and on 1.5-mile tracks. For as good as Blaney has been in 2018 — he already has surpassed his career high in top-five finishes in a single season (7) — it could have been better if he’d closed out a few of his empty performances in the early part of the year, namely his 37th-place finish at Kansas this past spring. In that race, he led 54 laps and claimed a Stage victory with the second-fastest car. Omitting Kansas, Blaney’s average finish on the remaining moderate intermediates (7.5) ranks sixth among all drivers.

RELATED: ‘No reason to panic’

David Smith is the Founder of MotorsportsAnalytics.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidSmithMA

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will see the NASCAR Playoffs field trimmed from 12 drivers to eight at the end of the race. The stakes are raised in an elimination line with drivers fighting for their postseason lives.

Entering Kansas, Brad Keselowski (-18), Ryan Blaney (-22), Kyle Larson (-36) and Alex Bowman (-68) are on the outside looking in. Bowman certainly is in a win or go home spot, and Larson likely is as well. Keselowski and Blaney could get in on points — with some help — but a win is the surest way of advancing.

Which playoff driver currently on the outside looking in has the best shot to advance? NASCAR.com’s RJ Kraft and Pat DeCola make their case for two different drivers on the playoff chopping block.

RELATED: How Talladega shaped the playoff picture | Standings entering Kansas

KRAFT: Blaney has the better stats of late at Kansas, but I am taking his Team Penske teammate Keselowski as the driver that finds his way through and advances to the Round of 8. Keselowski won the most recent 1.5-mile race — which was the playoff opener at Las Vegas. He has the fourth-most stage points this season and scoring those will be a must Sunday for the 2012 champion to keep his championship dreams alive.

There are two other major factors for me. First, the No. 2 crew has faced playoff adversity before and has come out just fine. In the 2014 elimination race at Talladega, Keselowski was on the outside looking in and won to make his way into the next round.

The biggest reason I like the Michigan native to advance, though, comes down to who is atop his pit box in Paul Wolfe. Keselowski’s crew chief has no fear of zagging while others zig and he will do something outside of the box to put his driver in the best position to advance. Case in point: In all three of Keselowski’s 2018 wins, he did not lead the most laps, but Wolfe, Keselowski and his pit crew got him in advantageous positions to strike late.

RELATED: Clinching scenarios for Kansas | Full schedule for Kansas 

DECOLA: This particular head-to-head is especially interesting, because I can’t disagree with anything you just said. Keselowski has shown a tendency — arguably more than any other driver — to rise to the occasion and conquer the insurmountable. I think this weekend, however, is when we see Kyle Larson elevate himself to that category.

For starters, if it weren’t for Blaney initiating contact with Larson in the closing laps of the spring Kansas race, it’s likely we’d be looking at the No. 42 Chevrolet as the most recent track-winner and favorite to win this weekend. He dominated that night (race-high 101 laps led) but came up just a bit short, in fourth, after contact with the No. 12 derailed him.

The knock on Larson has been that he can’t seem to win on a 1.5-mile, intermediate-length track. While that’s true so far (his five wins have come at Michigan, Auto Club and Richmond), the notion that he’s sub-optimal at the 1.5-milers simply isn’t true. Every driver seems to acknowledge that he’s head and shoulders above the field at Miami whether he’s in the Championship 4 or not, and his average finish in eight intermediate races this year is a pristine 9.0. Take out a 36th-place result following a wreck at Texas — when, by the way, he was running fourth after starting from the back — and that number shrinks to a microscopic 5.1 average finish on 1.5-mile tracks in 2018.

Larson not only is capable at these type of layouts, he’s secretly one of the best.

KRAFT: Larson has been solid at the 1.5-milers — earning the fourth-most points this year. However, after Wednesday’s L1-penalty, he is essentially in a must-win spot at Kansas. Despite the good numbers at 1.5-mile tracks, he has as many wins as I do on that track type in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition — ZERO. Yes, he may have been snakebitten in certain instances in those races but that is still a major red flag, especially when the race is at a 1.5-mile track with his season on the line.

DECOLA: I mean, you’ve got me there. That donut in the wins column speaks louder than any ancillary stats he’s piled up on the intermediates.

Now in his fifth (!) full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, we’ve all been waiting on Larson to round into championship-contender form for awhile. He’s shown flashes of brilliance — like his four-win 2017 campaign — and at times this season it appeared he was set to slide into that next-driver-to-beat-after-the-Big-3 role.

MORE: No. 42 team issued L1 penalty

But the time is now for the No. 42 team and Kyle Larson. The group can’t afford to let this weekend slip from their grasp — it would leave them with more questions than answers heading into the offseason after yet another campaign that didn’t meet their pre-Daytona expectations. They’ll get it done on Sunday.

(Or maybe it’ll be Kes, Blaney or Alex Bowman — who knows!)

Tune in this weekend to find out. The drama is guaranteed.