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Get caught up for the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 (Sat., 7:30 p.m. ET, FS1)

SHOP: NASCAR gear of all your favorite drivers

What: 5th Annual SpongeBob SquarePants 400
When: Saturday, May 9, 2015
Where: Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, Kansas
TV/Radio: FOX Sports 1, MRN/SiriusXM
Distance: 267 laps (400.5 miles)
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Pit Road Speed: 45 mph
Caution Car Speed: 55 mph
Competition Caution: Lap 25

On The Front Row | Full starting lineup | See all 43 cars
1. Joey Logano, Team Penske No. 22 Ford (192.397 mph)
2. Kasey Kahne, Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet (191.911 mph)

Failed To Qualify
Brendan Gaughan, Premium Motorsports No. 62 Chevrolet 

Fastest In Practice
First Practice: Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet (190.772 mph) | Results
Final Practice: Erik Jones, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota (191.306 mph) | Results

FULL SERIES COVERAGE

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Driver Rating
Best driver rating average at Kansas based on past 14 races:
Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet (112.1)
Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota (105.6)
Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates No. 42 Chevrolet (103.9)
Greg Biffle, Roush Fenway Racing No. 16 Ford (102.8)
Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet (100.5)

Defending SpongeBob SquarePants 400 Champion
Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet

Former Kansas Winners In Field
Jeff Gordon (3); Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart (2), Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman (1)

Happy and Sad
Former Kansas winner Kevin Harvick had an interesting Friday at Kansas Speedway, topping the first practice session with a speed of 190.722 mph, then inexplicably placed 35th in the final session at 185.471 mph.

The Mentee Teaches
Carl Edwards has a new teammate this weekend in 18-year-old Erik Jones, filling in for the injured Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Toyota. Jones just happened to top final practice — heading into what will be his first Sprint Cup Series start.

"I haven’t talked with Erik (Jones) much. I talked to him a little bit today. As fast as he is … the advice will be going the other direction it seems like. He’s very good and it’s really exciting to see someone that fast.

A Racetrack Under the Sea?
Saturday’s forecast calls for heavy rain, putting the status of throwing the green flag into question. Thankfully, SpongeBob SquarePants – whom the race is named after – is, you know, a sponge, so hopefully he can aid the Air Titans in drying the track if it’s necessary.

RELATED: Live weather updates from Kansas

Coming From the Back
Brad Keselowski holds the distinction of winning after qualifying deepest in the field, winding up in Victory Lane after starting 25th in 2011. The race has been won from the pole four times (Joe Nemechek, 2004; Johnson, 2008; Kenseth, 2013; Harvick 2013).

Home Sweet Home?
Three Sprint Cup Series drivers consider Kansas/Missouri home, but not all three consider Kansas Speedway their home track. Here’s what Clint Bowyer (Emporia, Kansas), Carl Edwards (Columbia, Missouri) and Jamie McMurray (Joplin, Missouri) said what a win would mean for them.

Bowyer: "It would be awesome to win here. We’re going to need a hospital if we win here. … If we win, there could be a flamethrower in Victory Lane."

Edwards: "The thought of winning here, winning that (Camping World Truck Series) race here, I could hear the crowd over the engine – I’d never heard that before. I never had anything like that happen. There’s so many people from my hometown and so many people that I’ve raced with that are going to be here, to run well here would be special."

McMurray: "This isn’t a home track because we’ve all raced here the same amount of times. It’s not like we grew up racing here. It would be special to win here, but it would be special to win anywhere."

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Defending race winner eyes another Kansas victory

SHOP: Gordon gear | POLL: Who will win at Kansas?

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – A year ago this time, a winless Jeff Gordon pulled into Kansas Speedway coming off a disappointing, 39th-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway.

The four-time champion sat down at the press room podium on Friday in a similar position – winless, coming off a 31st-place ‘Dega finish in a race he started on the pole.

Only difference?

He arrived at the 1.5-mile speedway as the points leader through 10 races last season, while he stands mired in 13th ahead of Saturday night’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400 (Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).

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Gordon, of course, wound up winning last season’s spring Kansas race, helping propel him to one of his best seasons in years. While the No. 24 Chevrolet squad’s intermediate program hasn’t exactly been where Gordon would hope in 2015, his comfort level and past history – he won the first two races here – at Kansas set him among the favorites for Saturday.

WATCH: See how Gordon won the first race at Kansas

"I do like this track and I think our chances are always good when we come to Kansas," Gordon said Friday. "But I’m the first one to admit that our mile-and-a-half program is not up to par with a couple of other teams that seem to be beating us every weekend on these types of tracks.

"No one’s working harder than (crew chief) Alan Gustafson and our group to find that extra speed and get ourselves in position to win races more consistently. There’s a lot of ways to win, so it’s not always guaranteed that you have to have the fastest car. But we pride ourselves on having the fastest car and we’re not going to settle for anything other than that."

The "other teams" that Gordon alluded to – with a wry smile, naturally – are almost certainly the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet (of Kevin Harvick, with whom Hendrick Motorsports has a technical alliance) No. 48 HMS Chevy (of teammate Jimmie Johnson) and No. 22 Team Penske Ford (of Joey Logano). Kurt Busch‘s No. 41 SHR Chevy could also be thrown in there, given how fast it’s been overall, though the 2004 champ missed the season’s first two intermediate races.

RELATED: See how Gordon stacks up heading into Kansas

Consider that group among the few that have figured out the speedway since its repave at the end of 2012, and the few – Gordon included – that have a serious shot at holding a giant, yellow trophy with SpongeBob’s face on it Saturday night.

"With the repave, I’m always concerned with how competitive we’re going to be on a track where we’ve been so competitive when things change. But I think we proved last year that we can still be very competitive here," Gordon said. "We had a great race. Kevin (Harvick) was extremely strong but we were right there with him. Under the green-flag stop, we were able to get the lead and complete it. So this year we’re certainly optimistic about coming back here with how well we ran here last year that we can repeat that performance. We’re certainly excited about the weekend."

Gordon said that while he’s had so much success throughout his expansive NASCAR career at numerous tracks – and that many rank among his favorites – Kansas is easily a "top-five" for him.

"I’m certainly very comfortable and enjoy this track. But you’re talking about going against tracks like Indianapolis, which certainly goes to the top of my list, or Bristol or Michigan are ones that stand out. I like a lot of tracks, so it’s hard to grade them in any way. But Kansas is certainly way up there."

As for hometown favorite and fellow competitor Clint Bowyer?

"Clint Bowyer on the other hand," Gordon said, jokingly, as the jovial Michael Waltrip Racing driver walked into the interview room as Gordon was wrapping up. "He’s somewhere in my top 15 or 20 drivers of all-time."

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See where your favorite driver will pit Saturday night (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1)

SHOP: Logano gear | RELATED: See all 43 cars at Kansas | Full starting lineup

Joey Logano won the Coors Light Pole for Saturday’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM), and the No. 22 Team Penske Ford will pit in the No. 1 stall at the exit of pit road.

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For the second consecutive race, Kasey Kahne qualified on the front row, and he chose the No. 38 stall for his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet toward the entrance to pit road with an opening in front of him.

Logano’s Team Penske teammate, Brad Keselowski, qualified third and will pit in the 18th stall, four boxes off of the start-finish line toward Turn 1. Martin Truex Jr. was fourth-fastest in qualifying, and he will pit in the No. 7 stall with his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet with an opening behind him.

Carl Edwards qualified fifth and will start across the opening from Truex in the eighth stall with his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Kevin Harvick will start sixth, and he’ll pit his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet in the fifth stall.

Greg Biffle was seventh in qualifying, and he will pit his No. 16 Roush Fenway Ford in the second stall next to pole-sitter Logano.

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See where your favorite driver will pit on Friday night (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1)

RELATED: Full race lineup

The pit stall assignments are out for Friday night’s Toyota Tundra 250 (8:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM) and 21 Means 21 Pole Award winner Erik Jones had his pick of stalls on pit road.

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Jones will have the pit stall closest to the pit road exit and will have no one in front of him when he goes to exit his stall.

Two-time defending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Matt Crafton will have an opening in front of him on pit road as well. The ThorSport Racing driver will start on the front row next to Jones.

Brandon Jones (starting third), Johnny Sauter (starting seventh), Cameron Hayley (starting ninth), Spencer Gallagher (starting 14th) and Ray Black Jr. (starting 16th) have openings in front of them on pit road.

Tyler Young (starting 17th) has the first pit stall closest to the entrance of pit road.

The Toyota Tundra 250 is the fourth of 23 races in the 2015 Camping World Truck Series season.

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Hamlin, Johnson, Logano, Patrick among those prepping for May 31 race

RELATED: 2015 NASCAR Cup testing explained

NASCAR and Goodyear will be hosting a test at Dover International Speedway next Monday through Wednesday with a rain date on Thursday ahead of the May 31 FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).

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The first two days will be a closed test for the 2015 and 2016 packages with AJ Allmendinger from JTG Daugherty Racing, Denny Hamlin from Joe Gibbs Racing, Joey Logano with Team Penske and Danica Patrick with Stewart-Haas Racing.

On Wednesday, eight more drivers and teams will join for an open test day, including Aric Almirola with Richard Petty Motorsports, Greg Biffle with Roush Fenway Racing, Jeb Burton with BK Racing, Austin Dillon with Richard Childress Racing, Jimmie Johnson with Hendrick Motorsports, Jamie McMurray with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Casey Mears with Germain Racing and David Ragan with Michael Waltrip Racing.

Johnson is the all-time leader with nine victories at the Monster Mile. Of the 11 other drivers, only Greg Biffle has won there in the Sprint Cup Series with two trips to Sunoco Victory Lane.

Fans are invited to watch Wednesday’s test from enclosed, climate-controlled seating on the third floor of the Dover Downs Hotel & Casino and can access the area by following signs to the Dover International Speedway ticket office and proceeding to the third floor.

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XFINITY Series regular welcomes sixth daughter, returns to TriStar team

Eric McClure had a double dose of good news Friday, welcoming a new addition to the family and a familiar new ride in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.

McClure and his wife, Miranda, welcomed the couple’s sixth daughter Friday morning, announcing the birth of Meraline Everleigh over Twitter. The child weighed 6 pounds, 1.8 ounces, measured 17 1/2 inches, and kept the family tradition of first names starting with "M." The newborn’s older sisters are named Mabreigh, Maryleigh, Mirabella, Merritt and Myanna.

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Hours after the family news, TriStar Motorsports announced that McClure would return to the team, driving the No. 24 Toyota for the rest of the XFINITY season. Longtime sponsors Reynolds Wrap and Hefty will follow the driver to TriStar, according to a release provided by McClure’s representatives.

The reunion will make its official return May 17 in the 3M 250 at Iowa Speedway.

"I’m really looking forward to returning to TriStar Motorsports," McClure said. "We spent four seasons with the organization and the relationships formed with Mark Smith and his family are very dear to me. As a sponsorship marketing agency, TMI (Team McClure, Inc.) has prided ourselves on professional representation of our partners and rejoining TriStar allows us the best environment to honor that commitment.

"As a driver, I’m looking forward to being in a familiar environment that has produced my best runs and am excited for the remainder of the season."

McClure’s previous stint with the Mark Smith-owned TriStar team lasted from 2011 to 2014. The 36-year-old driver signed with JGL Racing in the offseason, but according to the release, the two sides amicably parted ways after nine races, ending their relationship after last weekend’s event at Talladega Superspeedway.

"I have a lot of respect for Eric and his family and we wish him nothing but the best as he continues his racing career with TriStar Motorsports," said James Whitener, JGL Racing owner. "We have a vision of what we want to build with this race team and it just wasn’t working out with Eric for the direction that we wanted to go. We are committed to the continued growth of JGL Racing and will do everything in our powers to progress that forward."

JGL Racing officials indicated that they would continue to field two full-time cars (Nos. 26 and 28) in the XFINITY Series, with a third entry (No. 93) running at select events. Whitener said the team would use a rotation of drivers to replace McClure, who reached an agreement with JGL to carry his No. 24 over to his TriStar ride.

JGL Racing celebrated its best-ever finish in the XFINITY Series last weekend, with JJ Yeley driving to a fourth-place finish at Talladega.

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Teenager grabs 21 Means 21 Award; Keselowski’s trucks crash

RELATED: Full starting lineup

Erik Jones won the 21 Means 21 Pole Award in Friday afternoon qualifying for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, an eventful session highlighted by a crash of both Brad Keselowski Racing entries at Kansas Speedway.

Jones sped to a track-record lap of 179.396 mph mph in the final, five-minute session on the 1.5-mile track, marking his first pole position of the season and third of his truck series career. He’ll lead the 32-truck field to the green flag in Friday night’s Toyota Tundra 250 (8:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).

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"Nice to start out front," said Jones, driver of the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 4 Toyota. "Hope we can stay out there and control the race."

Two-time defending series champion and current standings leader Matt Crafton was second-fastest at 177.509 mph in the ThorSport Racing No. 88 Toyota. Rookie Brandon Jones, Sprint Cup Series regular Ryan Newman and last year’s top rookie Ben Kennedy completed the top five.

Qualifying was interrupted at the 3:39 mark of the 10-minute second round by a heavy crash between the two BKR teammates, Tyler Reddick and Austin Theriault. Reddick lost control of his No. 19 Ford in Turn 2 and scraped the outside wall, later sliding down into the path of Theriault’s No. 29.

Theriault’s truck slammed into his teammate’s entry, spraying the track with debris. The team unloaded both reserve trucks for Friday night’s race, where they’ll have to start from the rear of the field.

"That was my first big hit," Theriault said. "We’re going pretty fast at these mile and a halfs. Both teams strive to bring really fast trucks to the race track, and I really didn’t have anywhere to go."

Reddick, who enters Friday night’s event second in the series standings, admitted he was having trouble in the opening round of qualifying with his truck’s handling. After the wreck, he admitted, "it’s not a very good start to our night" — a statement backed up to a certain degree by Chad Kendrick, Theriault’s crew chief.

"This is more of a challenge down the road, actually," Kendrick said, pointing toward the series’ race next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "Both teams had two really good backups ready to go. … From that point, more concerned with starting at the back now."

Crafton was the fastest in the first of three rounds of group qualifying, edging Reddick for the top spot in the 20-minute session. Erik Jones set the pace in the second session.

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Kyle Busch’s 18-year-old sub impresses ahead of Sprint Cup debut

RELATED: Practice 1 results | Final practice results

Newcomer Erik Jones launched to the top of the leaderboard in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series final practice Friday afternoon at Kansas Speedway.

Jones, driving the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota in place of the injured Kyle Busch, logged a fast lap of 191.306 mph on the 1.5-mile track. The 18-year-old driver, a regular in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, will be making his first official Sprint Cup Series start in Saturday night’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).

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"There’s been a lot of people involved in the last two weeks getting ready for this," Jones said after the 55-minute session. "Just really, really proud of this team … I think we’ve got a good shot at the pole, honestly. We’ll see how it goes."

Jeff Gordon, the race’s defending winner, was second-fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet at 191.184 mph. Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. completed the top five.

Coors Light Pole Qualifying is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. ET, televised on FOX Sports 1.

Harvick fast early in Kansas tune-up

Points leader Kevin Harvick set the early pace in opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice Friday afternoon at Kansas Speedway.

Harvick, the defending Sprint Cup champion in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet, registered a fast lap of 190.772 mph in overcast conditions at the 1.5-mile track. The speed was well below the track record of 197.612 mph, set by Harvick in Coors Light Pole Qualifying last fall.

Joey Logano, the winner in the most recent race at Kansas last October, was second-fastest in the Team Penske No. 22 Ford with a mock qualifying run of 190.375 mph late in the 85-minute session. Carl Edwards was third-fastest, driving the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota to a lap of 190.268 mph in preparation for Saturday night’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM), the 11th of 36 races for the Sprint Cup Series this season.

Owner/driver Tony Stewart, a two-time Kansas winner, was fourth-fastest, with Dale Earnhardt Jr., last weekend’s winner at Talladega Superspeedway, completing the top five.

Erik Jones was ninth-fastest in preparation for his official NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut, substituting for the injured Kyle Busch in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. Jones, a regular in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, got his first taste of Sprint Cup racing last month at Bristol Motor Speedway in relief of JGR driver Denny Hamlin, but was not credited with a premier-series start.

David Ragan, who has driven as a fill-in for Busch in the past nine races, was 23rd-fastest in his first stint in place of Brian Vickers in the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 55 Toyota. Ragan was named as a more permanent substitute for Vickers, who remains sidelined indefinitely after a recurrence of blood clots in March.

Jeff Gordon, the defending race winner and the track’s only three-time victor, was 21st-fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet.

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Camping World Truck Series drivers visit middle school with ‘3 D’s of Speed’

RELATED: Join NASCAR Acceleration Nation

Seventh graders at Kansas City’s Argentine Middle School were treated to a lesson in NASCAR on Thursday as part of a special visit from The NASCAR Foundation and NASCAR Acceleration Nation. NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers Ben Kennedy, Scott Lagasse Jr. and John Hunter Nemechek joined Kansas Speedway President Pat Warren and other industry professionals to talk to students about the "3 D’s of Speed" — drafting, downforce and drag.

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NASCAR Acceleration Nation, launched in February as the sport’s first national youth platform, was created to make learning STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fun and engaging for kids by bringing the science behind NASCAR into the classroom. Through a partnership with Scholastic, more than 12,000 elementary and middle school classrooms across the country are integrating the program’s NASCAR-themed learning materials into teacher lesson plans.
 
At Argentine Middle, drivers took questions from students and explained how principles of aerodynamics make their race cars go faster. Dion Williams, front tire carrier for Jeff Gordon‘s No. 24 Chevrolet SS team, served as the event’s master of ceremonies.
 
The school visit was the next stop in a national classroom initiative started by The NASCAR Foundation. Argentine Middle School and several other schools in the Kansas City area were the recipients of technology equipment donations, provided by the Foundation, including 3D printers, tablets and scientific calculators.
 
The NASCAR Acceleration Nation interactive experience will be open to fans and their children this weekend leading up to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ SpongeBob SquarePants 400 at Kansas Speedway.

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Significant damage reported from Thursday night blaze

Fire struck the race shop of the Leavine Family Racing organization Thursday night, causing "significant damage," according to officials with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team.

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The team, which fields the No. 95 Ford for driver Michael McDowell, has been a part-time competitor in NASCAR’s top division since 2011. The team was on site Friday at Kansas Speedway in advance of Saturday night’s Spongebob Squarepants 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM), the operation’s sixth race of the season.
 
"We can confirm there was a fire at our Concord, North Carolina, shop," LFR team officials said in a statement. "Luckily no one was injured. We are working with the fire department and local officials to determine what happened. We’ve heard from the fire department there was significant damage to the back of the race shop. As you can imagine, we are still working to assess the full situation."
 
Late Friday, the team issued another statement noting the team may need to move.

"After receiving more information from a restoration company that inspected the fire damage at the shop today, we were informed that structural damage may cause us to move our racing operations," LFR team officials said in a statement. "We are currently exploring all options.

"We do not anticipate this to impact the team’s competition schedule. Our next race is the Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Four race cars were damaged in the fire – these were primarily back-up cars.  A complete investigation is taking place to assess the overall damage and cause of the fire."

Car owner Bob Leavine said before the season that the small team — which employs 14 people, by his count — planned to compete in a minimum of 20 Sprint Cup events this year. The 2015 season marks the second year of Leavine’s partnership with McDowell and the second year of a technical alliance with Team Penske, which also fields Fords in NASCAR’s premier series.

Crew chief Wally Rogers said Friday morning at Kansas Speedway that the portion of the shop sustaining the most damage was a storage area in the rear of the building.
 
"We have four or five cars there, uniforms are stored back there," he said. "From the pictures I was sent, it looks like it was pretty intense. The cars are backup cars; the only primary was one we planned for the road-course races later this year."
 
As far as the next few races — the Sprint Cup Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Sprint All-Star and Coca-Cola 600 races before turning to Dover International Speedway — Rogers said cars for those events weren’t among those damaged.
 
Rogers said team personnel told him they arrived at the shop Friday morning and noticed "something smelled like it was burning."
 
"It wasn’t in the front (of the building)," he said of the fire, "but the good thing is the sprinklers and safety measures were working and no one was hurt."

— Kenny Bruce contributed to this story