Kevin Harvick surges to Busch Pole in Kansas qualifying

Posted on May 11, 2018May 11, 2018 by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Kevin Harvick has been the dominant force in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing this season.

In knockout qualifying on Friday at Kansas Speedway, the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford showed no sign of relinquishing his grip on NASCAR’s foremost series.

Harvick navigated the 1.5-mile speedway in 28.600 seconds (188.811 mph) in the final round of time trials to win the top starting spot for Saturday’s KC Masterpiece 400 (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The Busch Pole Award was a record fourth for Harvick at Kansas, his second of the season and the 23rd of his career.

“This has been a really good place for us through the years, and obviously, when you look at qualifying day, it’s one of those places that fits what we do,” said Harvick, who has a series-best four victories to his credit this season, including last Sunday’s win at Dover.

“It’s been an entertaining day. We’ve had a lot of things to work through today (during practice and inspection), but it’s one of those days when you look at the team and go, ‘Man, those guys are really good at what they do.’ Nobody panics, and it really shows the experience and the patience that all those guys have.”

Harvick edged Ryan Blaney (187.826 mph) for the top spot on the grid by .015 seconds. Kyle Busch (187.552 mph) qualified third, followed by Aric Almirola (187.428 mph) and Brad Keselowski (186.748 mph).

Blaney had the fastest lap of the day in the first round (189.043 mph) but said the handling of his No. 12 Team Penske Ford tightened up in the second and third rounds.

Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Chris Buescher completed the top 10. Buescher was the only Chevrolet driver to advance to the final round, as Fords took seven of the top 12 spots and Toyotas accounted for four.

Buescher claimed his best starting spot since qualifying ninth last year at Sonoma Raceway.

“I’m proud of the effort,” Buescher said. “Our Camaro ZL1 was good all three runs. We didn’t lose a bunch of speed throughout the whole thing, and I’m proud of that. It’s the second best start I’ve ever had in the Cup Series. That’s pretty awesome as well.”

In the second round, Kyle Larson, one of the favorites for the pole, spun off Turn 4 and flat-spotted his tires. Larson failed to post a time in the round and earned the 22nd starting position, but the No. 42 will drop to the rear for the start of the race if the team opts to change tires.

“I was pretty tight that run, and I just got tight getting into the top there and got up in the marbles and got loose,” said Larson, who grazed the outside wall with his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. “I’m just thankful I didn’t get too much damage on our First Data Chevy.

“I haven’t looked at it, but it appears really minor. Wish I wouldn’t have done that because I feel like we had a shot at the pole.”

Seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet made it through pre-qualifying inspection just in time to make a first-round qualifying run. But Johnson will start 23rd after opting not to make a run in the second round.

Jamie McMurray, the last driver to qualify in Round 1 after inspection issues, will start 24th after his car failed to fire for the second round.

The No. 14 Ford of local favorite Clint Bowyer failed to advance through inspection in time to qualify, sending Bowyer to the rear for the start of the race. Likewise, Matt Kenseth will start from the back of the field in his return to competition with Roush Fenway Racing, with his No. 6 Ford also failing to pass inspection. The rest who will start at the back of the field after failing to post a time: Kasey Kahne, Michael McDowell, Matt DiBenedetto and Timmy Hill.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on May 11, 2018July 7, 2020 by Kathy Sheldon

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Clint Bowyer’s excited to be coming into Saturday’s race at Kansas — a place he calls “God’s country” — on a hot streak, and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola says his confidence level is an 8.

Success is breeding success at SHR with all four teams in the top 11 in points and Harvick hunting back-to-back wins in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ KC Masterpiece 400 (Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).

Almirola says hard work is translating into on-track performance because Stewart-Haas is a different kind of team. He would know.

“I’ve been at a lot of organizations fortunately and unfortunately in my career, so I’ve gotten to see some of the good, bad and the ugly of each organization,” the No. 10 driver said before practice Friday at Kansas Speedway. “I’ve been a part of Joe Gibbs Racing. I’ve been affiliated with Hendrick through JR Motorsports and the six weeks that I spent working with Jimmie Johnson on that baby duty deal that I did there. I’ve been a part of DEI. I’ve been a part of RPM and through RPM I’ve gotten to work with Roush.

“So I’ve seen a lot of the garage area and the one thing that stands out to me the most at Stewart-Haas Racing is that from top to bottom the passion for just racing in general is unbelievable.”

In addition to unparalleled drive, Almirola says camaraderie sets SHR apart.

“Everybody wants to just pull their weight and that’s something that’s rare in this industry because this industry is a very dog-eat-dog world and that’s just not the case at SHR,” Almirola explained. “Everybody is there to pull their own weight and to do the best that they can at their job to try and help make their part of the race car go faster, and that collective effort, I think, is what has Stewart-Haas Racing on top right now.”

Team owner Tony Stewart, long one of NASCAR’s most passionate competitors, has full confidence in Almirola as he strives to get that first win in the No. 10.

MORE: Bowyer, SHR ink new sponsor | Harvick predicts next ‘megastar’

“I want to win and we’re only 11 races in,” Almirola said. “So Tony has been just a very calming voice. He’s been like, ‘Be patient. Your time is coming.’ ”

Bowyer’s time is here again, feeding that team-wide confidence as well. The last time he was sitting fifth or higher in the standings was September 2013. A win at Martinsville and a runner-up finish to teammate Kevin Harvick last week at Dover puts the No. 14 team fifth in the standings and in an overly positive mindset of thinking about where the next win will come, not when the next win will come.

“Things are finally gelling and working the way they’re supposed to work at a multi-car team,” Bowyer said Friday. “Having all four cars running well up front for our partners on the side of the cars, our manufacturer, it just speaks volumes about everybody pushing in the same direction and the adjustments we made in the offseason and putting a year under our belts and learning from that.”

Kurt Busch is knocking on the door of a win, too, with a runner-up finish at Talladega. The No. 41 has speed, starting in the front two rows four times in the season’s first 11 races. Busch sits at No. 6 in the standings entering Saturday’s race.

Posted on May 11, 2018 by Holly Cain

Dressed in the Roush Fenway Racing, Wyndham Rewards livery Matt Kenseth showed up at Kansas Speedway Friday ready to turn his very first laps in a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series car since last November’s season finale.

The former series champion, 46, addressed the media shortly before his season-opening practice session – the only one he will get prior to qualifying for Saturday night’s KC Masterpiece 400 (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Kenseth ‘anxious’ for opportunity | Pieces of Kenseth’s schedule revealed

In a typically low-key, understated manner the two-time Kansas winner managed expectation for his first time on track this season, now with the Roush team he started his full-time premier series career with in 2000 and had left for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2013.

“I don’t have any expectations for the weekend, to be honest with you, because I just don’t know,” Kenseth conceded. “I haven’t been in the car yet and I don’t know how fast we’ll get up to speed. What are the things we’re gonna fight, that type of thing, so I don’t really know.

“I came into this weekend pretty much with no expectations, just kind of open-minded and take it one practice at a time, one session at a time, that type of thing, and go from there.”

There is plenty of positive backstory here at Kansas for Kenseth. His two appearances in Victory Lane were an impressive if unusual back-to-back combination: the fall 2012 race in his last year with Roush and the spring 2013 race in his first year with Gibbs. He also has earned three pole positions at the track and his 106.5 driver rating is second only to Jimmie Johnson here.

So in many ways, the 1.5-mile Kansas high banks looks like the perfect place for Kenseth to make his 2018 season debut. He was 28th fastest in opening practice Friday, and 22nd best in a 10-lap average.

STATS: Full practice speeds | 10-lap averages

“Just trying to get a little bit caught up an re-acclimated there with the system and the people and what’s changed and that kind of thing, and been anxious about today and getting back in the car,” Kenseth allowed. “I’m hoping everybody can get through tech and we can get on track in time. There’s not a lot of practice today, so I’m pretty anxious about getting in the car and seeing where we’re at and what my comfort level is, where we are on speed and what we’ve got to work on for tomorrow, that type of thing, so I’m just ready to get going.”

Kenseth, the 2003 champion, will be splitting time in the No. 6 Ford Fusion with Trevor Bayne who steered the car the first 11 races of the season. Kenseth confirmed he will drive for the next four races after Kansas – the non-points All-Star race at Charlotte next week, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte over Memorial Day weekend, then at Pocono and Michigan. How the two will share the car the remainder of the season hasn’t been revealed yet.

When legendary team owner Jack Roush announced Kenseth was re-joining the team, he said he has high expectations about what the former champion could bring to re-energize the two-car operation that’s two wins last year by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Daytona and Talladega were the first since 2014.

Kenseth realizes the great hope Roush and the team have in him. And, he said, he has dearly missed being a part of the sport.

“I would say the fans and the competition, the thing you miss the most is always the competition,” Kenseth said. “That’s why we all started racing on Friday and Saturday nights with a couple hundred people in the stands against all the rest of the drivers is because you like to compete. I think when you’re not competing, if there’s one thing you could pick out, that’s probably the part you miss the most.

“As far as how the last six months have been, they’ve been great honestly. I don’t think I’ve ever had a better period in my life, so that’s been really good. …

“ … I feel good about the direction that Roush Fenway Racing has taken the last couple years,” he continued. “Certainly, all the Fords are very competitive this year. The 17 (of Stenhouse) has shown a lot of speed on and off. You don’t see it necessarily in all the finishes, but certainly they’ve been better, so, like I said, I feel like we’re headed in the right direction.”

Posted on May 11, 2018May 11, 2018 by Staff Report

Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick set the pace early at Kansas Speedway, leading Friday’s lone Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series mega-practice at the 1.5-mile track. The veteran, who has four wins in the first 11 races this season, topped out at 186.149 mph once he went to qualifying trim.

Harvick was the lone driver to eclipse the 186-mph mark, but he had a couple of familiar faces atop the scoring pylon once practice ended. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson (185.982 mph) finished second behind Harvick, and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch — who has won three races this year, himself — was third on the board with a top speed of 185.166 mph.

Busch’s JGR teammate Erik Jones was fourth at 184.634 mph, followed by Harvick’s SHR teammate Clint Bowyer (184.489 mph) in fifth.

A third Gibbs racer, Daniel Suarez (184.464 mph), jumped into sixth place with just two minutes remaining in practice. Aric Almirola, Chris Buescher, Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. completed the top 10. Truex Jr., who swept the Kansas races last season, climbed to 10th on his final run of the afternoon.

Matt Kenseth, making his return to both the track and to Roush Fenway Racing, logged his first laps in the No. 6 Ford and finished 28th on the speed chart at 179.706 mph.

The day initially called for two Monster Energy Series practices, but early rainstorms altered the day’s schedule. NASCAR officials reconfigured the Monster Energy Series slate to just one practice that lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours, and included a brief delay to tend to a weeper.

WATCH: Unique measures to drain water

The No. 42 team of Larson and the No. 88 team of Alex Bowman both were given 30-minute practice penalties for failing pre-race inspection three times last week at Dover. Additionally, the No. 3 team of Austin Dillon, the No. 4 team of Harvick and the No. 31 team of Ryan Newman all were given 15-minute practice penalty holds for failing pre-race inspection twice last week at Dover.

Qualifying for Saturday’s race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is scheduled for later today at 6:45 p.m. ET (FS1).

Posted on May 11, 2018July 7, 2020 by Kathy Sheldon

For 15 consecutive seasons, Dale Earnhardt Jr. held the “Most Popular Driver” torch with pride. Now, all eyes are on the current drivers to find out who fills the vacancy.

Kevin Harvick already has an idea on who the fans will gravitate toward when voting comes around this year.

And it’s a name on which many are likely to agree.

MORE: Full Kansas schedule | All your fantasy questions answered

“I would say the next guy that’s going to take that reign is going to be Chase Elliott,” the Stewart-Haas Racing veteran said Friday at Kansas. “When you look at our sport, there’s only a few guys that come through this sport that have the name, the history, the heritage of that NASCAR family. … and Chase is one of those guys.”

The Hendrick Motorsports driver pilots the No. 9 Chevrolet, a number quite familiar to the Elliott family and NASCAR fans alike. Bill Elliott, Chase’s father, wheeled the No. 9 to Victory Lane 38 times throughout his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career.

“Awesome Bill from Dawsonville” also happened to win the Most Popular Driver Award 16 times, the most all-time for any driver.

However, Harvick also sees more than just a last name when it comes to the 22-year-old driver, who is still vying for his first Monster Energy Series victory.

“He’s done a great job of carrying himself. He’s the next Dale Jr.,” Harvick said. “… Is he going to win enough to be the megastar? At some point.

“He’s a star right now. Winning takes you to that next level of being a bigger star. Chase Elliott winning is better for our sport.”

Posted on May 11, 2018May 11, 2018 by Team Release

ITsavvy, one of the fastest growing resources for integrated IT products and technology solutions in the United States, has joined Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), the championship-winning NASCAR team.

The multiyear partnership will be highlighted on the No. 14 Ford Fusion driven by Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer. ITsavvy will be the primary sponsor of Bowyer and the No. 14 team Sept. 21-22 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway and Nov. 9-11 at ISM Raceway near Phoenix. At all other races, ITsavvy will serve as an associate sponsor.

“The crossover between what ITsavvy does and what we do is strong, and ITsavvy can tell a great story with Stewart-Haas Racing,” said Mike Verlander, vice president of sales and marketing, SHR. “Walk through our race shop and throughout the garage and you’ll see how our race cars and our entire industry relies on technology. From engine diagnostics to fuel-mileage calculations, our business is dependent on technology solutions. The senior-level introductions our sport can make will lead to new business opportunities for ITsavvy. Every company needs what ITsavvy provides, and we’re excited to facilitate those introductions.”

Founded in 2004, ITsavvy is a single-source, end-to-end IT partner. The Addison, Illinois-based company combines a comprehensive, value-added reseller business of more than a million computer, hardware and software products with an industry-leading advanced solutions group. ITsavvy has access to $8 billion in daily inventory in 46 distribution centers around the country with the ability to ship in-stock items the same day they are ordered.

“It’s our goal to build an ongoing business relationship with every entity we partner with, and in NASCAR it starts with Stewart-Haas Racing,” said Mike Theriault, president and CEO, ITsavvy. “We are a business-to-business company, and speed and attention to detail are critical to what we do because it’s incredibly important for our clients. Our role with Stewart-Haas Racing allows the team to maximize its performance with our products and technology solutions in a high-speed environment. It provides ITsavvy with an incredibly strong testimonial in an industry where nearly half of America’s Fortune 100 companies invest. We can help these companies the same way we’re helping Stewart-Haas Racing.”

ITsavvy is filled with technology solutions experts, which makes its pairing with SHR appropriate. Since its debut in 2009 as a two-car NASCAR Cup Series team, SHR has grown to become a four-car NASCAR Cup Series team while also fielding a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series team and one part-time Xfinity Series team. Celebrating its 10th year in 2018, SHR has won two NASCAR Cup Series championships and 48 races. It staffs nearly 400 people and boasts an engineering staff of 50.

“Working with ITsavvy gives us a competitive advantage that directly translates to our performance on the racetrack,” said Tom McDonough, IT director, SHR. “Anytime you can align with an IT leader, it makes a positive impact on the success of our operation. Most people don’t realize how complex our IT needs are day-in and day-out, and having a vested partner in the IT solutions industry is a huge benefit to our operation.”

“If it makes my racecar faster than everybody else’s car, then I’m all for it,” said Bowyer, a winner of nine NASCAR Cup Series races, including earlier this season at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. “While these are stock cars, the technology inside them is impressive, and the research and development that goes into all the parts and pieces we use to build these cars is cutting edge. The days of paper and pencil are long gone. Heck, we’re not even using tape measures anymore. It’s all digital measurement, and we keep all that data on computers. Technical support and race support go hand in hand, and to have an in-house partner in ITsavvy makes our program that much better.”

“ITsavvy and SHR operate in different environments, but we share the same attributes – technology, precision, speed, teamwork and success,” added Tony Stewart, three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and SHR co-owner. “We strive for success and we do it as a team, but we rely on technology to help us find and leverage any advantage that makes our racecars fast. ITsavvy helps us manage all of our technology to where we can quickly turn theory into reality.”

Posted on May 11, 2018May 11, 2018 by Staff Report

IndyCar racer Conor Daly will join Roush Fenway Racing to pilot a third Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Road America this August, the team announced Friday.

The 26-year-old, an IndyCar Series regular the past two seasons, will try his hand at stock car racing in his first NASCAR national series start when the the series hits Wisconsin later this summer. Daly finished 18th each of the past two IndyCar campaigns, driving last year for team owner A.J. Foyt.

Daly will join Ryan Reed and Wisconsin native Ty Majeski in Roush’s lineup for the event. Daly, like Reed, competes at the highest levels of racing while managing his Type 1 diabetes. Lilly Diabetes will sponsor all three cars.

“I’m very excited for this opportunity to be partnered again with Lilly Diabetes and to be able to drive a Jack Roush Ford,” Daly said in a team release. “I’ve raced at Road America almost every year since I was 16 and have won there. I have driven almost every form of car, but this will be my first stock car experience. I’ve been an avid follower of NASCAR and have been friends with Ryan for a long time and been to many races to support him.”

Daly and others, including Reed, made the announcement together at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Roush Fenway Racing Twitter account began plugging a “mystery driver” Thursday on the social media platform, offering a series of hints to drum up intrigue prior to the official announcement Friday.

“Lilly Diabetes has done so much for me and I’m excited to have them represented in full force at Road America,” Reed said of the triple sponsorship for Road America. “Conor and I have been friends for a while and this is awesome that we’ll get to compete together as teammates. I can’t wait to see him behind the wheel of one of our Xfinity cars.”

Tune in Saturday, Aug. 25 to watch Daly make his NASCAR debut at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

MORE: Buy Road America tickets

Posted on May 11, 2018June 29, 2018 by Staff Report

NASCAR announced this offseason 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 Saturday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) have been unveiled.

Simply click the “print” icon above, next to the headline and social media icons, to get the full list.

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Zack Albert

On May 13, 2017, a terrifying crash deep into a seasonable Sunflower State night for NASCAR left three cars in a mangled mess and one driver airlifted to a nearby hospital.

The race — the Go Bowling 400 — continued that Saturday evening at Kansas Speedway without the three drivers: Joey Logano, Danica Patrick and the injured Aric Almirola. But for two of them, including one out-of-the-fray observer in Darrell Wallace Jr., the crash was part of a shape-shifting churn that would alter the arc of their racing careers.

RELATED: Full schedule for Kansas

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to Kansas Saturday (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), a race scheduled almost a year to the day after the 2017 melee, one of last season’s most severe incidents. A broken brake rotor caused Logano to lose control of his No. 22 Ford, which hooked Patrick’s No. 10 and sent both careening into the outside retaining wall.

With fluid littering the 1.5-mile track at the end of the high-speed frontstretch, Almirola’s No. 43 piled into the multicar tangle with an impact forceful enough to lift the rear tires off the asphalt. Almirola suffered a compression fracture to his T5 vertebra, sidelining him for an eight-race stretch that included the non-points All-Star weekend.

One year later, the situation for three drivers with ties to the wreck have emerged in far different career paths. A breakdown of who landed where (in order of how the dominos fell) and the upshot from one of 2017’s biggest turning points.

• • •

DANICA PATRICK

Jonathan Ferrey | Getty Images

Position then: Driver, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford

Position now: Inching toward retirement from motorsports, with only the Indianapolis 500 for Ed Carpenter Racing left on her racing schedule.

How it happened: Patrick had reached a career crossroads by 2017, her fifth full season in NASCAR’s top series, and questions about her future in the sport followed her week to week. Patrick announced in September that she would part ways with SHR at season’s end, and she dropped the news in an emotional press conference before the November finale in Miami that she would hang up her helmet after one last try at two crown-jewel races — the Daytona 500 and Indy 500.

Quotable: “I am just frustrated for the lack of breaks I get. It seems like every time things are going better and something happens I get crashed or am in a crash.” — Patrick, May 13, 2017

The upshot: The Kansas race marked one of 10 crash-related exits for Patrick during the 2017 season, and her one-off entry into this year’s Daytona ended with the same outcome. Her uneven performance was balanced by her seemingly boundless marketing appeal, which has secured her a multifaceted post-driving career as a businesswoman with her hand in the fitness, health, apparel and winemaking industries. Though her departure from stock-car racing was a tearful one, Patrick was able to dictate the terms of her farewell, a privilege that isn’t afforded to every driver.

ARIC ALMIROLA

Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

Position then: Driver, Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford

Position now: Driver, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford

How it happened: The reveal of Patrick’s break with SHR included acknowledgement that the shift was “due to a new sponsorship arrangement in 2018.” That sponsor was Smithfield Foods, which had announced just hours earlier that it would end its six-year run with Richard Petty Motorsports to join Stewart-Haas. That information meshed with the same-day news that Almirola wouldn’t return to RPM in 2018. Almirola and Smithfield — linked since 2012 — eventually made the jump together, but the official introduction of Almirola as the No. 10’s newest driver came two months after Patrick’s bombshell.

Quotable: “I think that was really big for (Smithfield) to want to stay in the sport and want to stay connected to the fan. Fortunately, they loved me enough and thought that I was a good enough brand ambassador to want me to come drive their race car at Stewart-Haas Racing, and I feel like over the last several years they’ve been happy with all the results from Monday to Saturday in the grocery store, they just wanted more results on Sunday on the race track, and I think that’s really what it’s all about.” — Almirola, Feb. 14, 2018

The upshot: Almirola has ridden the wave of Stewart-Haas Racing’s out-of-the-gate success at the start of the 2018 season. Though he hasn’t reached the wave’s crest like teammates Kevin Harvick (four wins) or Clint Bowyer (one win), his gains have been steady. Almirola already has four top-10 finishes this season, just two shy of his total in last year’s injury-shortened 29-race campaign. The change of scenery also extends to his 11th-place rank in the Monster Energy Series standings; his best result in the season-long points with RPM was 16th place in his lone postseason appearance in 2014.

DARRELL WALLACE JR.

Jerry Markland | Getty Images

Position then: Driver, Roush Fenway Racing No. 6 Ford in NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Position now: Driver, Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Chevrolet in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

How it happened: Super-sub Regan Smith was called upon as an immediate fill-in for the injured Almirola, but barely three weeks after the Kansas wreck, Roush Fenway shuttered the Xfinity No. 6 and simultaneously announced that Wallace would make the transition to a substitute role in RPM’s No. 43. Wallace held his own in the four-race audition for the Petty team, which tapped him in October for a full-time ride in 2018.

Kansas quotable: “Things changed from this day last year. My season was kind of questionable around this time and then, obviously Aric had his wreck to where opportunities opened up. It’s crazy how things work out. Sometimes it’s fortunately and sometimes unfortunately, but looking back on it, this time period coming up surrounding this race and the following races after that was a couple weeks I’ll never forget.” — Wallace, May 8, 2018

The upshot: Almost a third of the way into his rookie campaign, Wallace savored an emotion-filled runner-up result in the Daytona 500 and has shown glimmers of promise in a handful of other races. Besides those peeks at performance, RPM has found an X-factor with a young, engaging personality who has enticed fans and sponsors alike with his interactions and command of social media. Plus, King Richard himself has given Wallace a stamp of approval. Their partnership is already a win-win scenario that only promises to get better when the team builds speed.

Posted on May 10, 2018May 10, 2018 by Holly Cain

Kevin Harvick essentially told his fellow Monster Energy NASCAR Cup season dominator Kyle Busch — I’ll take your three race victories and raise you one. And after taking his fourth win last week at Dover, Harvick can expect that Busch will be ready to try and match the effort this weekend at Kansas Speedway.

Harvick and Busch have won seven of the season’s first 11 races and the two former Cup champions have another four runner-up finishes between them, too, dominating the 2018 season start in a way like no other in recent memory.

This week’s KC Masterpiece 400 at Kansas Speedway (May 12 at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) presents an exceptionally-good challenge for both Harvick and Busch, however, judging by their historical work on the 1.5-miler.

MORE: Full Kansas schedule | Entry list

Harvick has a pair of wins (2013 and 2016) and has won three pole positions (2013-14) and is ranked second-best in terms of overall driver rating (106.4). Busch won at Kansas in 2016 — on his 17th try. And while his average finish at the track is uncharacteristic 17.1 – he has vastly improved that number with five top-fives in the last six races.

Last year Martin Truex Jr. swept both Kansas race victories en route to the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.

“Before three years ago, I’ve not had many opportunities to win at Kansas and hopefully we can get into Victory Lane there again this weekend with our M&Ms Carmel Toyota,” Busch said. “As you’ve seen so far this year, there are certain circumstances that can go against you and you just have to persevere and keep fighting until the checkered flag falls. We’ve won some races even though we hadn’t had the dominant car in a few of those.

“I think we’re pretty equal, honestly,” Busch said of Harvick. “I think I’ve got to give them the notch a little bit. I think they’re a little bit better than we are.

“… A lot of it all comes down to execution when things are this tight with the 4 (Harvick) and us. They were able to execute better at the start of the year on their streak and also last week And we’ve been able to execute in order to get our wins.

“We haven’t been dominant each week, but we’ve been able to execute as a team – myself as a driver – to be able to get those wins.”