Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Results | Standings | All of Busch’s wins | Chase Grid

SHOP: Race winner gear



KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Busch finally overcame his gremlins at Kansas Speedway in a race that left Martin Truex Jr. overcome with frustration.



On Saturday night — in stark contrast to many of his prior misadventures at the 1.5-mile track — Busch waited until after the GoBowling 400 to destroy his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, a feat he accomplished during his celebratory burnout.



Busch took the lead for good on Lap 231 of 267 after Truex, who led a race-high 172 laps, brought his car back to pit road on Lap 215 because of a loose wheel, the result of a bolt that broke and prevented the tire from mounting properly during a green-flag stop three laps earlier.


With the fastest car out of contention, Busch had to survive two more restarts, the first on Lap 240 and the second nine laps later after Denny Hamlin tried to thread the needle between Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski and triggered a Lap 241 wreck in Turn 4 that ruined the chances of four strong cars — those of Hamlin, Keselowski, Larson and Joey Logano.


MORE: Hamlin among big names who wreck at Kansas



After the race went green for the final time on Lap 249, Busch held off Kevin Harvick‘s charge to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Kansas, his third of the season and the 37th of his career.



Harvick came home second 1.112 seconds behind Busch. Kurt Busch was third, followed by Matt Kenseth and Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Ryan Blaney, who posted a career-best finish on an open-motor track.



“I can’t say enough about everybody on this team,”  said Busch, who broke the jinx at a track where his average finish is 19.2. “At the beginning of the race, we weren’t very good. (Crew chief) Adam Stevens and the guys just keep working on it. The 78 (Truex) was probably the fastest car but we just kept ourselves in the game. It’s pretty impressive.”



Stevens opted to keep Busch on the track under the fifth caution on Lap 233, after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. scraped the Turn 4 wall to bring out the yellow. The choice to keep the lead and take advantage of clean air proved a wise one.



“I knew our car was best out front,” said Busch, who has now won at all active Sprint Cup tracks except for Charlotte and Pocono. “I had trouble in traffic all night long. I wasn’t the best at being able to pick my way through that stuff, but when we had green flag pit stops, I really got some good holes and was able to make some good time.”



But the call to stay out was a no-brainer, and it certainly worked out for us. I was kind of worried about those guys that had tires behind us, but then they all crashed with tires (on Lap 241), so it was kind of weird.”



After qualifying 26th, Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing team made significant adjustments for the race.



“We overhauled this thing this morning to try to get it close, and they did a great job,” Harvick said, who hit a piece of debris during the final 19-lap green-flag run. With the nose and splitter of his car damaged, Harvick suffered a tight handling condition and Busch was able to pull away.



“Hit a big piece of debris and knocked a big hunk out of the nose and knocked the splitter down,” Harvick said. “From that point on, it was tight. Otherwise I would have drove around him. All in all, it just didn’t play out that way and they were able to win the race.”



And it certainly didn’t play out the way Truex thought and hoped it would. For the eighth time in his career, Truex led more than 100 laps in a Sprint Cup race. For the last seven of those races, he has failed to win (he finished 14th).



“I couldn’t believe it,” Truex said of the loose wheel that ruined his night. “I went around (Turns) 1 and 2, and I was like, ‘The wheel’s loose.’ I kept telling myself that maybe it’s not, maybe it’s just shaking because it has tape on it or something stupid. It was loose, and I knew it right away. Frustrating, but that’s how it goes.



“We’re going to win races for sure. If we keep bringing cars like that, we’re going to win some. It’s frustrating when you’ve had it happen so many times in your career. I swear, you watch guys win races that don’t have the fastest car or on fuel mileage and all this stuff, and it’s like, ‘Damn, someday I’m going to get on one of those or on the other side of one of them.’



“Usually you can dominate and win, but it’s tough, and it happens. It’s part of racing.”



Truex, however, can find solace in Busch’s clear demonstration on Saturday night that luck can change for the better.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Sprint car superstar Dave Blaney, father of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney, was injured during Friday’s qualifying for a World of Outlaws event at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.


Blaney’s car flipped multiple times, and after he was extracted from the vehicle, Blaney was transported to a local hospital where CT scans proved negative. He was released shortly after 12 midnight ET.



Ryan Blaney, along with sister Emma, provided updates via Twitter.



Though Dave Blaney is best known for a phenomenal career in the open-wheel ranks, he also has a combined 597 NASCAR national series starts to his credit, including 473 in Sprint Cup. His lone national series win came in the fall 2006 XFINITY Series race at Charlotte.

Posted on by Kathy Sheldon

RELATED: Watch Buescher’s Talladega tumble


KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Chris Buescher‘s Sprint Cup restrictor plate racing career has started off with a pair of loud bangs, and they weren’t Victory Lane fireworks.



The Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate took a hard hit in the 2016 season opener at Daytona International Speedway, with a nose-first crash into the SAFER barrier. Afterward, Buescher said it was the hardest hit he had ever taken in racing.



Then last week in the GEICO 500, the 23-year-old Front Row Motorsports driver went rolling down the backstretch of Talladega Superspeedway after his No. 34 Ford made contact with Kyle Larson‘s No. 42 Chevrolet.



“It’s been a little bit of a rocky start to the season with a couple accidents and a little bit of bad luck,” Buescher told NASCAR.com on Friday, assessing his 2016 season so far.



Seven cars wound up being caught up in that second accident in Talladega, which was triggered by contact between Austin Dillon and Jamie McMurray just past the halfway mark of the race.



Buescher says the Daytona hit was exponentially worse.



“There was no sudden loss of momentum at Talladega,” Buescher said. “It looked spectacular. But it did not have near the impact.”



Carl Edwards and Brian Scott both became up-close spectators for Buescher’s wreck last weekend.



“I went by (Chris) Buescher flipping down the back straightaway and I just — I mean, he was flipping the entire time I was going by and I thought, ‘Man, I hope nobody hits him in the roll cage,’ ” Edwards said Friday at Kansas Speedway. “I went and looked at his car afterwards and those are very risky situations.”



Buescher said that Scott was going to be the car that hit him if the No. 44 driver couldn’t get his Ford slowed down fast enough behind the tumbling No. 34.



“Brian Scott was right behind us the whole time as we were flipping and was like, ‘Man, it’s amazing how quickly your car slows down as it’s flipping through the air.’ He said, ‘I’m on the brakes, I’m downshifting, doing everything I can to slow down and I’m still catching you.’ “



Buescher said he has been upside down once before, but that was in a Legends car, and he actually finished that race in the top 10.



“It was a much lazier flip, and it just kind of on its roof all the way around the corner. We just flipped it over and finished like sixth or something like that. It wasn’t a big deal.”



Another wreck illustrating the difference between force and optics came later in the Talladega race, as Matt Kenseth‘s No. 20 Toyota went up in the air but Danica Patrick‘s No. 10 Chevrolet went directly into the SAFER barrier, leaving the Stewart-Haas Racing driver bent over against the inside wall and experiencing a pinch when she breathed. Patrick had chest X-rays in the Talladega care center and was cleared.



Kenseth was unhurt, and Patrick said Friday that she “got a couple bruises but I feel really good. I think I’m very fortunate that I’m short. I’m lucky there was a SAFER barrier. And you gotta thank the man above for an accident like that and not having any problems.”



Patrick said the steering wheel and the pedals all came crushing in toward her. Buescher said that the way he has seen and heard Patrick talk about handling major wrecks helped him.



“I tried to tuck in,” Buescher said of his ‘Dega barrel roll. “Danica might have been the first one that I realized starting doing it, just tucking in during situations where you’ve lost all hope of saving it.



“I was just hoping no one was going to hit us. It’s that second impact that’s really gonna hurt.”



Scott did get slowed down, the rest of the field avoided them, and Buescher’s Ford landed on all four wheels, the driver quickly radioing, “I’m OK.” Buescher was not injured in the wreck.



“I actually didn’t have anything afterwards. Went to the chiropractor just to check up on everything. I had to go a lot more after Daytona.”



Buescher was ultimately scored as finishing 37th at Talladega and 39th at Daytona. He enters Saturday’s GoBowling 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in 34th place in the standings and looking to top his series-best finish of 20th as his Front Row Motorsports team continues to jell.

Posted on by Kathy Sheldon

RELATED: Watch the last lap at Richmond

 

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch have put that bump-and-run finish at Richmond International Raceway firmly in their rearview mirrors, a Twitter photo earlier this week and Edwards’ comments Friday at Kansas Speedway indicate.

 

On Wednesday, Busch retweeted a photo of himself and Edwards holding a card congratulating Edwards on the April 24 Richmond win from Kyle’s sponsor, M&M’s/Mars.

 

Edwards explained Friday how the photo came about, letting fans know there were no hard feelings after Edwards nosed Busch out of the way for his second consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory this season.

 

“Mars sends a really nice box of chocolates to the winner of each race, and they sent me that congratulatory box of chocolates,” Edwards explained at Kansas Speedway. “Kyle and I had talked that morning and I saw him in the shop, so I went over there and asked him if he’d sign the box, and he laughed and did and we took the picture. I thought that was pretty neat.”

 

At the time of the Richmond finish, Busch was looking for his third win in four Sprint Cup events.

 

On Friday, Edwards was effusive about his teammate’s skill and perseverance.

 

“Obviously, Kyle and I still race really hard. I think that’s obvious. But for a long time, racing against him and not being a teammate, I didn’t really understand how good Kyle is,” Edwards said between Sprint Cup practices for Saturday’s GoBowling 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “But seeing it firsthand and watching him come back last year after that injury, which for anyone would be devastating … from then all the way up to the championship, I think he exhibited a lot of toughness. It was very impressive.”

 

When asked about Busch’s record of winning at all but three current Sprint Cup tracks (Kansas, Charlotte and Pocono), Edwards succinctly summed up his teammate’s talent.

 

“Nobody will argue that Kyle Busch is one of the greatest drivers in the sport.”

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: See more Darlington throwback schemes

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Thirty-five years after he walked away from the sport, Bruce Hill walked back in.

At Kansas Speedway of all places.

“If somebody would have told me back then that there would eventually be a speedway in Kansas I would have told them they needed a straightjacket,” Hill said Friday.

They didn’t race at Kansas when Hill, now 66, debuted in NASCAR’s premier series at the end of 1974. Or Las Vegas, or Texas, Chicago, Sonoma or Loudon, New Hampshire.

Hill was considered an outsider, specifically a Yankee — from Kansas.

“I had to laugh,” Hill said. “I had never been called a Yankee, but I was pretty far north, I guess.”

The 1975 Rookie of the year is on hand this weekend as a guest of Sprint Cup Series driver AJ Allmendinger and the No. 47 JTG-Daugherty team. Allmendinger will run a throwback paint scheme later this year at Darlington Raceway honoring Hill for his rookie accomplishment.

The original paint scheme actually came from Johnny Ray, another name some fans might not recognize, but if you’ve seen the semi rig steamrolling its way around Talladega Superspeedway towing the American flag during pre-race festivities, well, tip your cap to former racer Johnny Ray.

Hill made 100 starts in NASCAR’s premier series from 1974 through 1981, earning three top-five and 21 top-10 finishes.

“I was like a lot of guys back then that ran out of money and had to get out of it and couldn’t stand to go back without being involved in it,” he said. “It’s been a fun experience, brought back a lot of memories.”

His first start came at the end of the ’74 season, in a car he had purchased from owner/driver Bobby Allison. The leader of the Alabama Gang had signed on late that year to drive for team owner Roger Penske.

“It was the 12 car, the Coca-Cola (sponsored) car,” Hill said. “We decided since we were in Kansas it didn’t matter where we were going to go race, it was going to be a long trip. We saw we could still make it to a race at the end of the year in Ontario.

“So we went out there and made the field. There were 80-some cars there, that’s the way it used to be with all the West Coast guys there. I thought ‘Uh-oh.’ We were still running the big blocks; that’s when they were making the switch (to small blocks). We had to run a restrictor plate and that thing would quit running halfway down the straightaway. There was nothing you could do about it. Those small blocks were flying by me.”

But Hill persevered and was running inside the top 10 late in the race before blowing a tire and finishing 13th.

“That’s when I realized, ‘I think I can do this,’ ” he said.

His final race came at Michigan International Speedway. He finished 33rd, completing only 21 laps before being sidelined by driveshaft issues.

Today, Hill stays busy raising quarter horses at his home in Topeka, Kansas. He may no longer be racing, but he’s still involved in horsepower.

“Part of the experience this morning has been seeing people that I haven’t seen for about 35 years,” he said. “… I just hadn’t seen these guys in a long time.

It’s been a neat deal just talking about the history of the sport. Some people really follow the history and some maybe not, but there is a lot to it. A lot of people have been involved through the years that a lot of people don’t know about.

“This is a cool deal.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

Rules outlining the 2016 versions of the Sprint All-Star Race and Sprint Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway were announced Friday, and NASCAR’s annual All-Star Race will once again include a dramatic final segment to determine a $1 million prize winner.

 

There are three segments in this year’s Sprint All-Star Race — a 50-lap opening segment, a 50-lap second segment and a 13-lap final dash to the finish with a unique rule.

 

For the first time in the event’s history, the starting order for the final segment will be determined following a random draw that decides if the top running nine, 10 or 11 cars have to pit for a mandatory four-tire stop between Segment 2 and Segment 3. Pit road will be closed for all other cars, and those for which pit stops were mandated must resume position for the final sprint, lining up behind the cars that did not pit — creating an unpredictable, no-holds-barred rush to the checkered flag and All-Star history.

 

Former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski said Friday at Kansas Speedway that the track reached out to several drivers for ideas on how to alter the format. His theories apparently resonated, he said.

 

“I just wanted to see the race something that I would want to watch if I was a fan, and something that I would want to be proud of if I was the driver that won it,” Keselowski said. “Quite honestly, I didn’t feel like the formats of the past few years were that way. So when sitting down and kind of going over it all, I kind of had this over-arching theme that I think our sport is best when at the end of the day we have what I call common winds, where everybody is happy. Those are easy to say, hard to do, but I think they’re out there.”

 

The All-Star Race (May 21, 7 p.m., FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) features drivers who have won a race in the current or preceding year, past NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race winners and past NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champions. Winners of the three segments in the Sprint Showdown (May 20, 7 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will also line up for the All-Star Race.

 

RELATED: See the list of eligible drivers

 

Fans will again have the opportunity to select at least one driver through the popular Sprint Fan Vote, which will fill any remaining starting spots until the field reaches a minimum of 20 cars.

 

“We worked with NASCAR and talked to several drivers to gather feedback for what they thought would make the very best race for the fans,” Charlotte Motor Speedway President and General Manager Marcus Smith said. “The drivers don’t all agree on the perfect strategy, which means some drivers will be fighting on race-worn tires to stay up front at the end, while others will be charging through the field on new tires after the final pit stop.

 

“At the end of the final shootout, one driver will have a million reasons why ’13’ is a lucky number.”

 

Carl Edwards, the 2011 winner of the All-Star Race, weighed in on the changes during a Friday media availability at Kansas Speedway. He said that new tires and how beneficial they might be will play a significant factor in how the three-segment race unfolds.

 

“The one thing that will be interesting is through that night if you have to pit that much and get tires, you have a really good database to go off of to know what you want to do and know where you stand,” Edwards said. “It could be complete chaos, which is probably going to be fun.”

 

Keselowski, who lauded the collaborative effort to reach the final 2016 format, said that he had fielded plenty of questions about why the final segment was scheduled for a specific 13-lap distance. He said that the segment length achieved a proper balance, making drivers on new tires work through the pack or drivers on old tires hang on with little time to spare.

 

“It’s not like some devil-worshiping thing, I can promise you that,” he said, “but when we looked at the number it would take for the driver to drive through the field in the scenarios that we played out, on average it was 8-12 laps. If you make a mistake, it could take as much as 15 laps, so I think that’s kind of where the number came from was trying to fit in between that 10-15 lap range and that was a unique number that hit it and could generate some interest.”

 

Additional rules are as follows:

 

• Starting order for the opening 50-lap segment for the All-Star Race will be determined by qualifying, and includes a mandatory green flag pit stop with a minimum of two tires.

 

• A break between Segment 1 and Segment 2 includes a mandatory pit stop with a minimum of two tires. The exit off pit road following that stop sets the starting order for Segment 2.

 

• During the 50-lap second segment, cars must make a green-flag pit stop and change a minimum of two tires prior to Lap 85.

 

The Sprint Showdown includes three total segments of 20 laps, 20 laps and 10 laps. The winner of each of those sprints earns a start in the All-Star Race.

 

Additional rules for the Sprint Showdown:

 

• Starting order for the first 20-lapper will be set by practice speeds, and the winner advances to the All-Star Race (and sits out Segments 2 and 3 of the Showdown).

 

• The second 20-lap segment starting order will be set according to pit road order after a mandatory pit stop for a minimum of two tires. Again, the winner of that segment will automatically advance to the All-Star Race and sit out the final segment.

 

• The winner of the final 10-lapper will also advance to the All-Star Race, with the starting order in this segment again set by pit road order following a mandatory pit stop for a minimum of two tires.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full results



The NASCAR community reacts to William Byron’s first Camping World Truck Series win that included a dramatic overtime finish at Kansas Speedway. 


Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Final practice results | Practice 1 results


Martin Truex Jr. scooted to the top of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leaderboard Friday afternoon at Kansas Speedway, leading a 1-2-3 sweep by Joe Gibbs Racing-affiliated cars in final practice.



Truex powered the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota to a fast lap of 187.696 mph on the 1.5-mile Kansas City track. The speed, while quickest in the field, was significantly slower than the track record of 197.612 mph set by Kevin Harvick in October 2014.



Kenseth, seeking his first victory of the season, drove the JGR No. 20 Toyota to the second-fastest lap at 187.617 mph. Denny Hamlin completed the top-three sweep for Gibbs-alliance entries, turning the third-best lap of 187.357 mph in the No. 11 Toyota.



Defending race winner Jimmie Johnson (187.285 mph) and defending Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch (187.214) completed the top five in final preparation for Saturday night’s GoBowling 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).



Johnson was initially fastest early in the 80-minute session, but slowed with smoke pouring out from under the hood of his Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet.



“Uh, oh. I’ve got smoke out the air box, like maybe Kasey Kahne had going on?” Johnson radioed his crew, mentioning a similar problem that his Hendrick teammate had earlier this season at Phoenix International Raceway.



Johnson’s team cited an issue with the electronic control unit (ECU), part of the electronic fuel injection system. The crew did not have to change engines and Johnson returned to the track for the latter stages of practice.



Coors Light Pole Qualifying is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. ET for the 11th Sprint Cup race of the year.



Kurt Busch paces opening practice



Propelling his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet at 185.893 mph, Kurt Busch topped the leaderboard early in Friday’s opening Sprint Cup Series practice at Kansas Speedway. Martin Truex Jr. came up next on the speed charts, his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota clocking in at 185.478 mph.

Carl Edwards was third-fastest in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (185.020 mph), while Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Dillon in the No. 3 Chevrolet (184.925 mph) and Roush Fenway Racing‘s Trevor Bayne in the No. 6 Ford (184.811 mph) rounded out the top five.

Series points leader Kevin Harvick was seventh-fastest with a fast lap of 184.565 mph in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

Per NASCAR mandate, Jimmie Johnson was required to sit out the first 15 minutes of the 55-minute session, due to inspection issues last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. Johnson — who is the reigning spring race winner at Kansas and tied for all-time leader in wins at the Midwestern track — ended up 11th-fastest on the leaderboard after turning 32 laps in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Posted on by Staff Report

The Sprint All-Star Race is scheduled for May 21 at 7 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and drivers can qualify in a variety of ways.

 

Drivers who won a race in 2015 or so far in 2016 are in the event. So, too, are former premier series champions and former All-Star Race winners. Three drivers will be added to the field by winning one of three Sprint Showdown segments, and the Sprint Fan Vote will also add a driver into the field.

 

If there aren’t a minimum of 20 cars in the field by that point, the next highest vote-getter in the Sprint Fan Vote would be added to the field.

 

Below is a list of drivers who meet the above criteria, according to NASCAR. This list has been updated to include Sprint Showdown segment winners and the drivers that made it in on the Sprint Fan Vote.

Eligible drivers for Sprint All-Star Race

Number Driver How qualified
1. Joey Logano 2015 winner
2. Jimmie Johnson 2015 winner
3. Kevin Harvick 2015 winner
4. Brad Keselowski 2015 winner
5. Denny Hamlin 2015 winner
6. Matt Kenseth 2015 winner
7. Kurt Busch 2015 winner
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2015 winner
9. Carl Edwards 2015 winner
10. Martin Truex Jr. 2015 winner
11. Kyle Busch 2015 winner
12. Tony Stewart Premier series champion
13. Jamie McMurray Past All-Star winner
14. Ryan Newman Past All-Star winner
15. Kasey Kahne Past All-Star winner
16. Trevor Bayne Sprint Showdown Segment 1 winner
17. Greg Biffle Sprint Showdown Segment 2 winner
18. Kyle Larson Sprint Showdown Segment 3 winner
19. Chase Elliott Sprint Fan Vote winner
20. Danica Patrick Sprint Fan Vote runner-up