Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Complete Kansas lineup

Matt Kenseth collected the Coors Light Pole Award in Saturday afternoon qualifying for the NASCAR XFINITY Series at Kansas Speedway.



Kenseth drove the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 to a pole-winning lap of 184.906 mph on the 1.5-mile track, notching his fifth pole of the season and 18th of his XFINITY Series career. He’ll start first in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 (4 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM), the 30th of 33 races for the circuit this season.



Series points leader Chris Buescher was second-fastest at 184.131 mph in the Roush Fenway Racing No. 60 Ford. Regan Smith was third-fastest in the JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet, with Sprint Cup regular Kyle Busch, the defending race winner, fourth-fastest in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Toyota. XFINITY Series title contender Ty Dillon completed the top five in the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet.



Defending series champ Chase Elliott crashed during the final five-minute round of qualifying, making significant contact with the Turn 4 wall and sliding his JR Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet into the frontstretch grass. His team began to unload a backup car off the hauler, which will send him to the rear of the 40-car field for the mid-afternoon start.



The wreck caused a stoppage at the 3:23 mark of the final stage of eliminations. At that point, the 11 other drivers still alive for qualifying had all completed an initial lap. Several of those remaining 11 made another qualifying pass but failed to improve their position.



Buescher enters Saturday’s 300-miler with an 18-point lead over Dillon, a 27-point edge over Elliott and a 45-point cushion over Smith.



BJ McLeod brought qualifying to a temporary halt with nine minutes left in the first round, making a prolonged slide through Turns 3 and 4 in his No. 15 Chevy. McLeod drove through the grass just ahead of the pit entrance and did not advance past the opening 20-minute session.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Keselowski lands Coors Light Pole Award | Practice 2 results | Final practice results



Jimmie Johnson soared to the top of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series speed charts in Saturday afternoon’s final practice at Kansas Speedway.



Johnson logged a session-best lap of 188.983 mph in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet, upending pole-starter Brad Keselowski‘s bid for a perfect weekend at the 1.5-mile track. Johnson, eliminated early from title contention, will start 21st in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:15 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM), the second race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs’ Contender Round.



Keselowski settled for second-fastest in the Team Penske No. 2 Ford, posting a lap of 188.930 mph, just eight thousandths of a second off Johnson’s top time. The 2012 series champ won the Coors Light Pole Award in Friday qualifying and led the first two practices before Saturday’s final session.



Denny Hamlin was third-fastest, just ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth. Joey Logano — who has already clinched his spot in the Eliminator Round by winning the Contender opener last week at Charlotte — completed the top five in the Team Penske No. 22 Ford.



Kevin Harvick, the Sprint Cup Series defending champion, was 18th-fastest overall in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet. Final practice positions for the rest of the championship-eligible Chase drivers: Carl Edwards (sixth), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (ninth), Martin Truex Jr. (10th), Ryan Newman (11th), Kurt Busch (16th), Kyle Busch (24th) and Jeff Gordon (29th).



Hamlin sat atop the five-lap average heap, followed by Johnson, Truex, Keselowski and Kenseth. In the 10-lap-average category, Johnson led, followed by Truex, Kasey Kahne, Kenseth and Harvick.


Keselowski shows the way in second practice


Coors Light Pole Award winner Brad Keselowski backed up his Friday show of speed by rocketing to the top of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leaderboard Saturday in second practice at Kansas Speedway.



Keselowski clocked a lap of 189.960 mph in the Team Penske No. 2 Ford. He will start first in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:15 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM), the fifth race in the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.



“The track is changing,” Keselowski said. “Today it’s a lot cooler than it’s supposed to be tomorrow. We know the grooves and all of that is going to change, so we have some speed but we have to keep working on it because you’re gonna see comers and goers as the track changes and we don’t want to be a goer. We want to be one of those guys that comes to the front and stays in the front, so we’ve got to keep working.”



Matt Kenseth, who sits in the Chase basement after a trouble-filled race last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, turned the second-fastest lap at 189.215 mph in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. Joey Logano, the defending race winner at Kansas and last week’s winner at Charlotte, was third-best at 189.062 mph in the Team Penske No. 22 Ford.



A pair of part-time Sprint Cup drivers closed out the top five in the 55-minute session. Ryan Blaney was fourth-fastest (188.910 mph) in the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford. Brian Scott recovered from a mid-practice spin on pit road entry to post the fifth-best lap at 188.897 mph.



Defending Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick was ninth-fastest in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet. Practice positions for the rest of the title-eligible Chase drivers: Martin Truex Jr. (sixth), Denny Hamlin (eighth), Ryan Newman (10th), Kurt Busch (16th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (17th), Kyle Busch (20th), Carl Edwards (22nd) and Jeff Gordon (28th).



Hamlin was the fastest in the 10-lap average category in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota. He was followed by Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and Blaney in the top five. Keselowski was best in terms of five-lap average speed, followed by Hamlin, Logano, Kenseth and Johnson in that category.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Complete results


KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Overcoming obstacles in the XFINITY Series is commonplace for Kyle Busch.
 
In Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway, Busch brushed aside a pit road speeding penalty, a hole in the nose of his No. 54 Toyota, a pit stop that dropped him to seventh for the penultimate restart, an unwelcome green-white-checkered-flag restart and a teammate who had the fastest car for much of the afternoon.
 
The end result was Busch’s 75th XFINITY Series victory, extending his own record. Busch won for third time at Kansas and for the fifth time in 20 starts this season.
 
The race also saw Chris Buescher add one point to his series lead over Chase Elliott. Though both drivers had issues — Elliott a wreck during qualifying that sent him to a backup car and the back of the field; and Buescher a pit road speeding penalty — Buescher won a drag race to the stripe to come home sixth to Elliott’s seventh and leads the standings by 27 points over the defending champion.
 
But the final 43 laps of the event were vintage Kyle Busch. Restarting seventh on Lap 157 after the seventh caution of the afternoon, Busch surged into second place in a single lap. For the next 28 circuits he harried teammate and eventual runner-up Matt Kenseth before clearing his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate through Turn 4 on Lap 185.
 
Busch survived a green-white-checkered after Joey Gase‘s engine blew and oiled the 1.5-mile track with five laps left. Picking the outside lane, Busch cleared Kenseth entering the first turn and pulled away to win by .607 seconds.
 
“I wasn’t sure we had enough for that 20 car (Kenseth) today, but there at the end of the race, the track was cooling down and certainly getting freer and it looked like Kenseth just was too loose,” Busch said. “And I was able to really get the gas down and drive real hard and had a good car to stick through the corner.
 
“This Monster Energy Camry was awesome, (crew chief) Chris Gayle and the guys did a fantastic job for me in getting me a really good piece there at the end to be able to battle with Matt, and it’s cool to end up in Victory Lane any day… I wasn’t sure how I was going to get the pass done, but fortunately, finally there I was able to do it.”
 
Kenseth suffered a loose handling condition late in the race and couldn’t keep Busch behind him.
 
“It’s frustrating to get beat again,” said Kenseth, who has finished second in each of his last four XFINITY Series starts. “We were out front in Chicago and had the better car, but second is the (next) best place to finish, I guess.
 
“Kind of aggravating when you get beat, but we were too free at the end. I didn’t give Wheels (crew chief Mike Wheeler) good enough information on the tires. I did everything I could to hold off Kyle except for wrecking. Just couldn’t do it.”
 
Joey Logano finished third, followed by fourth-place Ty Dillon and fifth-place Regan Smith.

Busch would like nothing better than to duplicate his victory in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Kansas (2:15 p.m. ET on NBC). After a 20th-place finish last Sunday at Charlotte in the first race of the Chase’s Contender Round, Busch could earn a spot in the Eliminator 8 Round with the ninth XFINITY/Sprint Cup weekend sweep of his career (including his three-series sweep at Bristol in 2010).

Posted on by Kathy Sheldon

RELATED: Updated NXS standings

 

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Chris Buescher still runs under the radar at the race track.

 

He’s not mobbed by fans … yet. He is a talented driver coming up in the Roush Fenway Racing ranks — possibly making the jump to Sprint Cup full-time in 2016 — and leads the XFINITY Series points race heading into Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 (4 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.)

 

So get to know him now, before everyone else jumps on is bandwagon. Here are five reasons why you should:

 

1. He’s not as green as you might think. The 22-year-old has an ARCA championship under his belt from 2012 and has 70 XFINITY Series starts, plus six Sprint Cup Series starts in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford. “I’ve been testing Cup cars since I was 16 with Roush. I’ve done all kinds of testing — when it was still allowed — from California back to Charlotte,” Buescher reminded reporters at Kansas Speedway on Friday.

 

2. He’s mentally tough. Buescher is 26 points ahead of defending series champion Chase Elliott with four races remaining. Elliott’s JR Motorsports teammate, Regan Smith, is just 34 points back, followed by Richard Childress Racing‘s Ty Dillon sitting 38 points back.

 

Sprint Cup Series driver, and Chase contender, Joey Logano complimented Buescher’s composure amid the tight battle.

 

“He’s been consistent and kind of doing his thing out there,” Logano said of Buescher on Friday. “He’s got some good drivers aimed at him trying to win this championship as well, and it doesn’t seem like the pressure is making him crack yet.”


3. He’s had fun with fans and wants to compete with integrity. “Being under the radar has been fine, but fans are starting to take notice, so they are starting to see one or two T-shirts out there that have a “60” on them, and it’s been neat to build off of. And to build off the wins and try to take that and make it into something constructive for our entire team — to make all these guys see that we are doing everything we can and we’re doing it the right way.”

 

4. He’s not in a hurry to compete in the Sprint Cup Series full time. Jack Roush has said he expects Buescher to be in a Sprint Cup car sooner rather than later, but the young driver trusts the process and isn’t rushing his ascent.

“I don’t know that I’m fully prepared right now,” Buescher said. “This is a sport where you see way too many people get rushed up into the next level and aren’t ready to perform at that level. There are guys who have been rushed up, weren’t ready and now you don’t hear much from them anymore.

“I had a lot of fun in the Front Row car this year. Our six races went really well, all things considered. From my experience level, I was able to get in it and have it come to me rather quickly. If that’s what 2016 brings (a move to a full-time Sprint Cup ride), I think we’ll be ready for it.”

5. He’s already competing against Cup Series drivers. “It’s been a tough part of this season, trying to run with the Cup guys,” Buescher said, noting he’s one of only two XFINITY Series championship-eligible drivers with more than one win this season.

Buescher has wins at Dover and Iowa. Regan Smith has wins at Mid-Ohio and Dover. XFINITY Series regulars have victories in just eight of the 29 series races this year — that may become nine at Kansas.

“We led a lot of laps here early last year and were extremely fast all weekend. I feel as good about this place as any trying to get another win this year. (Kansas) is a place where we can definitely go gain and possibly get another win.”

Posted on by Nascar

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. hasn’t spoken with NASCAR officials about fluid on the track last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and he hasn’t talked with fellow driver Carl Edwards about contact early in the Bank of America 500.

Both events ended with the No. 88 Chevrolet making contact with the outside wall and were factors in his 28th-place finish.

For now, the Hendrick Motorsports driver said, the focus is “on the next two races to try to win so I can advance.

“If we don’t advance,” he said, “we can change our focus.”

First up is Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (2:15 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR). Earnhardt will start 15th in the 43-car field.

“No, I didn’t talk with either one of them,” Earnhardt said prior to qualifying Friday at Kansas.


The oil likely went unnoticed because of “shade or whatever it was that the billboards cast across the track. I don’t know why (NASCAR officials) didn’t see it or didn’t know it was there or didn’t understand it was there.”

“I think we were in good shape to rebound and get a top-10 finish before we hit the oil and the wall,” Earnhardt said. “That definitely hurt our opportunity.”

As for the incident with Edwards, which occurred earlier in the race, Earnhardt said it was impatience on the part of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver that led to the contact.

“He didn’t hit me in the quarter panel, he hit me in the back of the car,” he said. “I think he was just impatient there.”

Less than 15 laps later, Earnhardt Jr. brought out the caution when a right-side tire went down, a result of the contact with the wall. He restarted 37th, one lap down, but was able to work his way back onto the lead lap he hit the wall again.

The finish left Earnhardt 11th out of the 12 Chase for the Sprint Cup contenders. Only the top eight advance into the Eliminator Round, which will be determined following the Kansas and Talladega Superspeedway events.

“Right now, it is so difficult at some of these mile and a halves,” Edwards said, “everyone is so protective of their position and … aggressive and trying to get every spot you can. It’s racing and you just have to do the best you can.

“You have to make decisions in the heat of the moment and every once in a while stuff happens. I’m definitely glad we didn’t suffer any damage from it (at Charlotte) and I wish it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did to end up ruining the 88’s (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) day, but it was just tough racing.”

Posted on by Nascar

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Joey Logano is in a familiar position. Matt Kenseth is not.
 
Logano, the Team Penske driver, enters the next two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races with no pressure and no concern about advancing to the Eliminator Round of this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.
 
Kenseth, the 2003 series champion, understands that advancement for his No. 20 team likely will require winning either this weekend’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway or next weekend’s Campingworld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
 
As many as five of the eight positions in the Eliminator Round will be determined by points positions (up to three could go to race winners), and there is a chance the Joe Gibbs Racing driver could be one of them. But to do so, Kenseth will have to overtake four drivers and erase a 32-point deficit.
 
The two are among the most successful on the track this season — Kenseth has five victories, Logano four. Kenseth won at New Hampshire in the second race of the Chase to secure a berth in Contender Round; Logano is headed to the Eliminator Round thanks to last week’s win at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
 
It was at Charlotte that Kenseth finished 42nd, and put him in the unenviable position of having to play catch-up.
 
The elimination-style format, which whittles the 16-team Chase field down to four heading into Homestead-Miami Speedway, favors no one. It didn’t favor Jimmie Johnson in the opening round this year, sending the six-time champion home early thanks to a mechanical issue at Dover.
 
It didn’t favor Kyle Busch last year when a crash at Talladega knocked the JGR driver from second to see-you-next-season.
 
“It’s a very different format,” Kenseth acknowledged Friday at Kansas, site of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (2:15 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR). “You look at Jimmie with the problem he had and he’s out; if it was a 10-race (no elimination) deal, he might not be out.
 
“You can usually have a mulligan and in this format, depending on what your competition does, you can’t.”
 
The pressure may be a bit higher, but most of those in the Chase say they treat each race no differently. Kenseth knows the drill; he’s been in similar situations before.
 
“It’s really no different,” he said. “We show up and try to do the best we can every week. Same this week. Obviously a win moves you on, but I don’t feel like it’s a must-win (situation). …
 
“Just try to do the best we can today to qualify as good as we can, hopefully start up front … and hopefully be up front Sunday.”
 
Logano, 25, would like to be up front on Sunday as well, but knows his Chase future doesn’t require it for at least two more weekends.
 
It’s a feeling similar to what the team experienced after he won the season-opening Daytona 500.
 
“It’s like ‘Ahh,’ that (sense of) relief,” Logano said. “You go out there, you race … relaxed.”
 
With Talladega around the corner, many have described this three-race round as the most stressful of those leading up to the championship race. A win at Charlotte or this weekend at Kansas would go a long way toward alleviating concerns about the season’s final restrictor-plate race and allow teams to focus on the final push.
 
Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski sit second through eighth in points. Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are ahead of Kenseth, but on the outside looking in as well.
 
“No one feels good,” Logano said, referencing Kyle Busch‘s stunning tumble at Talladega last season, “unless you win and that’s why we feel really good.
 
“We have to take advantage of this opportunity we have right now. Winning that race last weekend (was) the biggest win we could have gotten at this point of the season.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Above is the pit stall assignments for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at 2:15 p.m. ET (NBC/Live Extra, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).


Due to receiving his fourth written warning of the season, Brad Keselowski did not get his first pick of the stalls despite winning the Coors Light pole during Friday’s qualifying.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Practice 2 results

Daniel Suarez propelled his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around Kansas Speedway at 183.362 mph, topping the speed charts of Friday’s closing XFINITY Series practice.

Points leader Chris Buescher, who led the opening session that afternoon, came up next, his No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing ride reaching a high speed of 181.513 mph.

Filling out the top five were RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg (181.190 mph), Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Kyle Busch (180.983 mph), and Richard Childress Racing‘s Ty Dillon (180.838).

After being forced to a back-up car upon a hard hit with the wall in the opening session, Darrell Wallace Jr. posted the 17th-fastest speed on the leaderboard.

The caution flag was flown twice during the session, both times for debris. The first set of debris damaged Kevin Harvick ‘s No. 88, which came up 12th on the leaderboard.

The XFINITY Series is back on track at Kansas on Saturday for Coors Light Pole Qualifying.

RELATED: Practice 1 results



NASCAR XFINITY Series points leader Chris Buescher topped the leaderboard at Kansas Speedway early in Friday’s opening practice and remained there for the remainder of the 50-minute session. Buescher propelled his No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford to a fast lap of 181.251 mph around the 1.5-mile tri-oval to secure the top position.

Sprint Cup Series regular Kyle Busch was next on the charts, recording a top speed of 180.717 mph in his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Busch is the reigning XFINITY winner at the Midwestern track, having reached Victory Lane in October 2014.

HScott Motorsports‘ Brennan Poole used a fast lap of 180.463 mph to snag the third spot, while Richard Childress Racing‘s Ty Dillon (180.367 mph) and Team Penske‘s Joey Logano (180.361 mph) rounded out the top five.

Reigning XFINITY champion Chase Elliott posted the 13th-fastest time in his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

The caution flag flew early in the session when David Starr‘s No. 44 smacked the wall in Turn 2. Darrell Wallace Jr. brought out another caution late when his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing ride hit the wall hard and spun off Turn 4. Due to extensive damage, Wallace Jr. — who came up ninth in the session — may go to a back-up car for the remainder of the weekend at Kansas.

The XFINITY Series is back on track at Kansas at 4:30 p.m. ET for final practice (NBCSN/Live Extra).

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full opening practice results

Brad Keselowski led opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Kansas Speedway on Friday afternoon, topping the leaderboard at 194.349 mph. 

 

The Team Penske driver reached his high speed on Lap 7 out of his nine laps around the 1.5-mile tri-oval. He was one of three Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers in the top five.

 

Coming up just short to the 2012 Sprint Cup Series champ was Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Dillon (194.224 mph).

 

Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Matt Kenseth, (194.147 mph), Richard Childress Racing‘s Ryan Newman (193.694 mph) and XFINITY Series regular Brian Scott (193.653 mph), in the No. 33 Chevrolet, rounded out the fastest five drivers in practice. 

 

Defending race winner Joey Logano was 18th-fastest (192.747 mph), and this season’s spring winner Jimmie Johnson was seventh-fastest (193.195 mph).

 

Kevin Harvick was the slowest Chase driver in the session, coming in as 27th-fastest (191.605 mph). Harvick has one win at Kansas (2013) and has started on the pole three times there.

 

The Sprint Cup Series returns to the track Friday evening at 6:15 p.m. ET for Coors Light Pole Qualifying (NBCSN/Live Extra).

Posted on by Staff Report

Brad Keselowski posted a blog late Thursday evening indicating that a new driver will be behind the wheel of the No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford — his brother, Brian.

 

The elder Keselowski will suit up for next Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM). The ride was opened up because the truck’s full-time driver, Austin Theriault, was injured in an accident during the Rhino Linings 350 on Oct. 3 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

 

On short notice, Keselowski kept it close to home.

Brian was more than thrilled at the notion.