Posted on by Staff Report

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Two cars dropped to the rear of the field before the start of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway because of unapproved adjustments.

The No. 22 Team Penske Ford driven by Joey Logano and the No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford of Noah Gragson fell back during pace laps before Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the 1.5-mile track. Logano had earned the 15th starting spot in Saturday’s qualifying session, and Gragson was set to start 28th in the 37-car field.

RELATED: Sunday’s starting lineup | At-track photos

Logano indicated on an MRN Radio broadcast Saturday that his team was set to change the steering rack on his No. 22 Ford after he experienced power steering issues in Cup Series practice. A Front Row Motorsports representative said that the steering column was changed on Gragson’s No. 4 Ford.

Sunday’s event is the ninth of 36 points-paying races on the Cup Series circuit. Logano enters the 400-mile race in 12th place in the series standings; Gragson ranks 31st.

Posted on by Zack Albert

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Ideally, NASCAR teammates work closely together. Camaraderie and collaboration usually follow. There’s a limit, however, to just how close that teamwork should be.

That hard lesson hit home for Richard Childress Racing stablemates Jesse Love and Austin Hill in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Kansas Speedway. Love came away with a fourth-place finish in the Kansas Lottery 300, but Hill’s day ended after completing just 37 of the 200 laps, losing control of his No. 21 Chevrolet and crashing after close-confines racing with Love.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Kansas

Hill battled alongside Love’s No. 2 RCR Chevrolet through Turns 3 and 4 when their contest for sixth place in the early going turned sour. Love held the middle groove to Hill’s high side, but offered little in the way of running room near the corner exit. Their proximity upset Hill’s aerodynamic balance, causing his No. 21 entry to slide out.

“Just battling hard there for the Stage 1 points,” Hill said after an evaluation at the infield care center. “You know, he got a run on me and slid me, so then I turned back under him and got beside him, and then I was trying to be a good teammate and not just go in there and slide him really dirty or anything. So I just kind of was content with just running the bottom (lane) and see if I could beat him on the bottom. And my spotter, Derek (Kneeland), told me that he was starting to get tight on my door, and what he was doing in the center of the corner was fine. There was enough air there. We were both racing hard.

“He was going to clear me down or at least be beside me, probably ahead of me, down the frontstretch, and that last little bit when we were coming off (Turn) 4, when he got all the way on my door, he knew what was going to happen. I mean, he put it right on my door. There was no air on the right sides. I don’t care how good of a race car you are, when there’s no air on the right sides, you’re going to spin out every time. So yeah, Jesse’s better than that, and we’re teammates. I would expect a little more room than what I was given. So unfortunate, just how our season has been going, though, man.”

Love, the defending series champion, was contrite after emerging from his No. 2 Chevy on pit road. He indicated he would make a point to discuss the incident with Austin before the night was out.

“Yeah, I was definitely hoping for a little bit more room, too — not in that instance, but maybe before,” said Love. “I felt like, look, I’m the reason that Austin got in that spinner crash, certainly. I didn’t really see a replay, but I hate that for him because, did I go overboard on how tight I ran him? You know, probably. I feel like I’m aware of that. I’ll obviously have to lean on the people around me with more experience to say what they think on it so I can get their two cents, but at the end of the day, we were both racing each other hard. Whether or not we need to be doing that from how far back I came from, maybe that’s a conversation me and him can have. But regardless, no matter what I feel about it, I just hate it for the 21 guys and (crew chief) Chad Haney and Austin and, of course, Richard and all of RCR. We want both of our cars up there competing. It makes both of us better.”

WATCH: Love clears the air on Hill contact: ‘I was racing hard’

Hill’s spin was nearly a harmless one, but as the No. 21 drifted toward the track apron, the car was T-boned by the approaching No. 18 Toyota of William Sawalich. The left-side damage was terminal to Hill’s Chevy.

“I have no idea where the 18 was going, but he KO’d us and ended our day,” Hill said. “I guess he closed his eyes when he went through the smoke. I’m not really sure.”

Said Sawalich, a first-time winner at Rockingham two weeks ago: “Yeah, I thought he was gonna keep rolling up the track, and I was just in the smoke and I didn’t see him until I was basically into him. So, just unfortunate.”

Love extended his series-leading streak of races without a DNF to 24. Before Saturday, his closest challenger in that category was Hill; the early exit snapped his streak of running at the finish at 18 races. While Love solidified his third-place stature in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings, Hill teetered to eighth place after a two-spot drop.

The two teammates should also figure prominently into the circuit’s next race, next Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Talladega Superspeedway. Hill swept last season’s O’Reilly Series events at the 2.66-mile Alabama track, and Love notched his first series win there in April 2024.

They’ll likely have to work closely again next weekend, but Hill said he expected little change to their dynamic.

“I’d say business as usual,” Hill said. “Talladega is a total different breed than Kansas is. So nah, we’ll be fine there.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The early bird got the victory on Saturday night.

The first of the frontrunners to pit during the final 95-lap green-flag run in the Kansas Lottery 300, Taylor Gray grabbed the lead during the cycle and held off charging Sheldon Creed to score the second NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory of his career.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Kansas

Crew chief Jason Ratcliff, who won at Kansas with driver David Green in 2003, called Gray into the pits on Lap 143 of 200. Creed and Brandon Jones, running first and second on Lap 146, emerged from pit road after stops on Lap 147 roughly three seconds behind Gray.

Jones, winner of the first two stages, had to serve a pass-through penalty for a tire violation during his stop and lost the chance to win. But Creed, with Justin Allgaier behind him in third, began a methodical pursuit of Gray that ultimately came up 0.718 seconds short.

“How about Jason Ratcliff?” Gray exclaimed after climbing from his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. “That pit call was awesome. We had a car capable of winning. I thought the 20 (Jones) was a little better than us before the green-flag cycle started, but we just had to stay locked in, and we had to be a little bit freer.

“Jason made a really good adjustment on the car and a really good pit call and got us in clean air. It’s been a long start to the year, man — not that we’re not bringing speed to the race track. It’s just that things haven’t really gone our way. So it’s nice to finally be able to close one out.”

Gray gained three positions to ninth in the series standings.

As it turned out, Creed also had plenty of reasons to celebrate. By finishing first among four eligible drivers, he earned a $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus for the first time in his career. It was Creed’s fifth attempt to win the Dash 4 Cash prize money.

“It was a great day for us after starting in the back,” said Creed, who dropped to the rear of the field at the beginning of the race after his No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet failed pre-race inspection. “I kind of knew right away my car was really fast, and I was able to drive to the front, and I just had a lot of fun today …

“It’s just really cool to be able to bring a hundred grand back to the Haas Factory Team. I definitely wanted to win and add to it, but the 54 (Gray) did a really good job short-pitting us. He ran a really good last 40 laps there, and got through traffic quick and made it where I never really got close enough.”

Allgaier came home third, followed by defending series champion Jesse Love and Brent Crews. William Byron, Cole Custer, Jones, Sam Mayer and Ryan Sieg completed the top 10 in a race that featured 11 lead changes among eight drivers.

Allgaier finished third in both stages and added one point to his series lead over second-place Creed. The margin is now 131 points.

Long before Gray took the checkered flag, there was plenty of action in the first stage.

The race wasn’t two laps old when an accident on the backstretch launched the No.1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet of Carson Kvapil into the air and sent it flipping down the backstretch.

Contact from Byron’s Chevy turned Kvapil’s car sideways near the front of the field. Parker Retzlaff’s piled into Kvapil’s car near the outside wall. The impact knocked the rear of Kvapil’s Camaro airborne, and the car proceeded to barrel-roll down the backstretch, coming to rest on its roof.

With the use of tethers and a tow truck, safety workers righted the car, and Kvapil climbed out before a mandatory trip to the infield care center.

“Maybe on dirt, I’ve flipped a few of them, but definitely never asphalt racing or a big stock car race,” Kvapil said after being evaluated and released from the care center. “It was actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be, once I realized I was going over, but it just sucks.”

On Lap 38, Jesse Love crowded Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Hill down toward the apron as the two raced side-by-side in Turn 4. Hill spun sideways, and as he fought to control his No. 21 Chevrolet, the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of William Sawalich plowed into Hill’s car.

MORE: Hear from Austin Hill

“I’ll remember this,” Hill promised on his radio, referring to racing from his teammate, whom he thought was unnecessarily close.

Hill fell out of the race in 34th place. Corey Day saw his streak of eight straight top 10s end with a 12th-place finish after rallying from an accident on Lap 101 and a subsequent flat tire.

Gray, Creed, Allgaier and Love qualified for the third Dash 4 Cash race of the season, Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage without issues, confirming Gray as the winner. 

Posted on by Zack Albert

Track: Kansas Speedway
Location: Kansas City, Kansas
Track length: 1.5 miles
When: 2 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: FOX, HBO Max, FOX One, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 267 laps | 400.5 miles
Stages: 80 | 165 | 267
Sunday’s starting lineup | Cup Series pit stall assignments

Havoc in the heartland? Veterans, Toyotas find favor in Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kansas Speedway has built a solid reputation as a NASCAR crowd-pleaser, especially with a series of compelling finishes in recent years. Kyle Larson’s record-setting 0.0001-second margin of victory here two years ago stands out as an all-timer, and a bare-knuckle final lap last fall allowed Chase Elliott to squeak through for a crucial win.

Producing drama? Check. What Kansas has yet to produce in its 40-race Cup Series history is a first-time winner.

Veterans and proven winners will aim to hold serve in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, FOX One, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the ninth of 36 Cup races this season. One breakthrough winner has already emerged as the tour heads for the quarter pole, with Ty Gibbs notching his first victory last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Trends and history, however, indicate that another Victory Lane newbie is unlikely to break out here.

MORE: Weekend schedule, TV info | At-track photos

Each of the last 29 Kansas winners has had at least 100 Cup Series starts, and Kansas’ 40-race void for first-timers is the most of any active track on the circuit. With Gibbs finally relinquishing the title of “most likely first-time winner” last weekend, Carson Hocevar (starting sixth Sunday) and Ryan Preece (starting 12th) rocket to the top of the list of candidates who might buck the Kansas pattern with a breakthrough of their own.

As for pre-race favorites, Kyle Larson has the odds on his side to break a 32-race drought, but Saturday’s preliminary action points to a Toyota driver carrying the banner. Toyotas swept the top five positions in Cup Series practice, plus four of the top five in qualifying. The latter group was headlined by series points leader Tyler Reddick, who secured the automaker’s fifth pole in the last six Kansas races.

Another Toyota win Sunday would mark the first time since Chevrolet did it in 2007 that a manufacturer won seven of the season’s first nine events.

“(Ford driver Austin) Cindric was walking into qualifying with me. He’s like, ‘Oh man, we’re in Toyota territory,'” said Chase Briscoe, who starts fifth in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Camry. “Yeah, Toyota just seem to really run well here, just from a standpoint of how their downforce, I guess, is for the style of race track, it’s just really, really good. So I think we’ll be in the mix (Sunday). You know, I definitely think it’ll be a Toyota that’s going to be battling for the win, and I think the hotter temperatures (Sunday) will just help us even more. So yeah, hopefully that all plays into our favor.”

MORE: Sunday Setup: Weather, tire loads in focus

In the details …

Consistency is king across NASCAR’s intermediate race tracks, but wins share the reign. The importance of strong finishes is perhaps higher now than at any other time across the last dozen years, thanks to the onset of The Chase. Entering Sunday’s race, the longest top-10 streak across NASCAR’s 1.5-mile tracks belongs to Christopher Bell. But Bell’s last victory on a 1.5-mile track came back in 2024 in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Here’s who has the longest top-10 streaks at 1.5-mile tracks in the Cup Series, all but two of whom are looking for their first win of 2026:

DriverStreak
Christopher Bell6
Chase Briscoe5
Brad Keselowski4
Denny Hamlin3
Kyle Larson3
Tyler Reddick2

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Kansas hub: Key information, pit-stall assignments, results | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks at Midwest doubleheader series in the heartland | View gallery
• Full race projection: Find out who is predicted to win on Sunday | Read more
• Hauler Talk: Officials talk with Eckes after Truck Series crash | Listen now
• Carson’s Turn?: Why Hocevar may be next for breakthrough first win | Neil Paine’s analysis
• Power Rankings: Cup Series’ top 20 drivers after Bristol | This week’s ranks
• NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Kansas | Watch now

Contributing: Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR.com

Posted on by Staff Report

For just the second time this season, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to a traditional 1.5-mile track. This weekend, Kansas Speedway, site of Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Kansas is an important litmus test as the Cup Series begins a stretch of six intermediate-type tracks over the next eight points-paying races, stretching through Pocono Raceway in mid-June. The last time the Cup Series conquered a mile-and-a-half, Denny Hamlin prevailed at Las Vegas, and according to Racing Insights, he’s expected to be in the mix again on Sunday.

RELATED: Full starting lineup | Kansas preview

Kyle Larson is the defending race winner of the spring Kansas event, but despite earning the series title last fall, he hasn’t returned to Victory Lane since then. Racing Insights suggests that Larson’s 32-race drought will end this weekend, and he’ll return to prosperity in the heartland. Here’s a look at more drivers to keep an eye on, and full projections for 267 laps in the Midwest.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

CHRIS BUESCHER: The No. 17 RFK Racing driver paced the Blue Ovals with a seventh-place starting position and has generally been solid at 1.5-mile tracks. Buescher finished sixth at Las Vegas earlier in the spring, and two of his last four trips to Kansas resulted in top-10 finishes — including his 0.001-second runner-up to Larson in 2024. Through eight races this season, Buescher’s average finish is eighth-best in the series at 13.4.

CHRISTOPHER BELL: No matter where the Cup Series heads, Bell is a threat. While he hasn’t broken through with a heartland triumph, the Oklahoma driver has led in eight consecutive races — a track record. Bell’s finished inside the top 10 in each of the last five Kansas races, by far the longest streak among active drivers. His average finish is fifth best all-time at 11.6, so something has to finally give, right? He swept the stages at Las Vegas in the spring before finishing fourth.

ALEX BOWMAN: In his second race back from vertigo, the No. 48 driver will have some significant work to do starting 33rd — but Kansas is one of Bowman’s best tracks. He’s led 191 laps at the track, and his 14.8 average finish is his second-best among all ovals. Bowman’s turned top 10s 11 times at the Midwest venue, his most at any circuit, and enters Sunday with top 10s in six of his last seven races here. A 2026 turnaround could finally be in order for the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

MORE: Saturday recap | At-track photos

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR 2026 ADVENTHEALTH 400 (2 p.m. ET, FOX)

FINISHCAR NUMBERDRIVER
15Kyle Larson
220Christopher Bell
311Denny Hamlin
49Chase Elliott
545Tyler Reddick
612Ryan Blaney
717Chris Buescher
824William Byron
954Ty Gibbs
1022Joey Logano
1119Chase Briscoe
1260Ryan Preece
136Brad Keselowski
1423Bubba Wallace
1577Carson Hocevar
1648Alex Bowman
177Daniel Suárez
181Ross Chastain
198Kyle Busch
2038Zane Smith
2171Michael McDowell
2297Shane van Gisbergen
2334Todd Gilliland
242Austin Cindric
2521Josh Berry
2647Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2743Erik Jones
283Austin Dillon
294Noah Gragson
3016AJ Allmendinger
3142John H Nemechek
3267Corey Heim
3335Riley Herbst
3441Cole Custer
3510Ty Dillon
3688Connor Zilisch
3751Cody Ware
Posted on by Staff Report

See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series drivers will pit this weekend at Kansas Speedway.

NASCAR Cup Series

cup series pit stalls at kansas

NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX One, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Kansas weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on FOX

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

A general view of O'Reilly Auto Parts Series pit stalls for Kansas.

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: How to watch O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races on The CW

Posted on by Staff Report

JR Motorsports driver Carson Kvapil exited his No. 1 Chevrolet under his own power after a rollover crash on Lap 2 of Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Kansas Speedway.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Three-wide with teammates William Byron and Justin Allgaier for second, he and Byron made contact exiting Turn 2 before Kvapil overcorrected and fenced into the outside wall. After additional contact from Parker Retzlaff, the rear end of his car picked up, sending the 22-year-old for a tumble down the backstretch, flipping multiple times before landing on his roof just before Turn 3.

Safety crews quickly rushed to the scene, and the race was red-flagged to turn the mangled Chevrolet back onto all four wheels. Kvapil exited under his own power and was later evaluated and released from the infield care center.

Kvapil told reporters that it was the first time he had flipped in a stock-car race, and that the blowover “was actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be.” He took a majority of the blame for the incident.

“I hate to do that, tearing stuff up, and JR Motorsports brings really fast race cars to the race track, and Hendrick Motorsports brings us some really good engines, and to tear ’em up on Lap 2 is kind of senseless, right?” Kvapil said. “I feel like I could have done a little bit better to position myself differently, to not be in that spot. But the biggest thing is, just got aero-free off the left rear when the 88 got to me and went around.”

Driving a full-time schedule across three different entries this season, Kvapil entered Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 fifth in points. Primarily, he drives the No. 1 Chevy with championship-winning crew chief Rodney Childers on the box, but he has also made two starts in the team’s No. 9 entry. A four-race slate with DGM Racing completes his 2026 schedule, and he drove the No. 91 Chevrolet earlier in the year at Circuit of The Americas.

Kvapil’s focus shifts to Talladega Superspeedway next Saturday (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where he hopes to make up for points left on the table at Phoenix.

“That’s the next thing that kind of sucks is I feel like the points are such a big deal this time around or this season, and I felt like we were kind of clinging on to fifth in points and a couple good races and we were going to be hopefully top three, top four,” he said. “So definitely wasn’t counting this one in on the bingo card, and just got to get through Talladega really clean and hopefully gain some more points.”

Contributing: Zack Albert | NASCAR.com

Posted on by Dustin Albino

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Midwest is known for its four-season weather, and NASCAR teams are experiencing a range of conditions this weekend at Kansas Speedway.

Saturday’s practice session for Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) was held under a cool, crisp, windy fall layer. The green flag on Sunday is expected to be 15 to 20 degrees warmer, more akin to the current spring season.

That ambient temperature differential could lead to cars handling completely differently from practice to the race. Naturally, the track is going to be slicker when heated up. Teams expect Sunday to be more of an offset than the weekend, where there is little change in temperature.

RELATED: Starting lineup | Paint Scheme Preview

“I think understanding your car balance today versus what you will have tomorrow,” Paul Wolfe, crew chief of the No. 22 car told NASCAR.com on Saturday. “Some of the things you have to pay attention to besides just your balance — we work hard to get the cars as low as possible. You hear guys talking about being on the limiters, and as you have big changes in pace, you will have to take that into account if you’re going to change your ride heights into tomorrow to compensate.”

Goodyear tires will be of the utmost importance during race conditions, too. The current tire compound, designed to be more durable, debuted last fall at Kansas. Two of the three Penske cars, including Joey Logano, had tire cording issues during practice on Saturday.

Adjusting air pressure is part of the process, but solidifying camber settings and nailing the ride heights correctly also influence the durability of the tire. As Wolfe noted: “Once you’re on the limiter, you’re solid — there is no give in suspension at that point, so all of that load is being transferred through the sidewall of the tire and that’s where we see the issues and the blowouts.”

“I think everyone is pushing that part of it so hard because there is performance there,” Wolfe added. “Goodyear has done a lot of testing, and we give them data from our cars, and they will do in-house testing, and we’ve even seen through some of the testing that you could test 10 tires, and six of them could be fine, but four of them won’t. That is the takeaway from us as we continue to move forward and get all we can get, one run without a blowout doesn’t guarantee that it’s a safe zone.”

Regardless, the racing action is almost guaranteed to be a certified banger. In this race two years ago, Kyle Larson nosed ahead of Chris Buescher at the start/finish line by 0.001 seconds, the closest finish in Cup Series history. Last fall, Toyota teammates Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace made contact through the final set of corners, allowing Chase Elliott to snag the victory.

MORE: Fantasy Fastlane

Kansas could be considered among the raciest intermediate venues on the schedule, according to most measures. With the high lane preferred, some believe it’s getting similar to Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I think just the weather over time weathers the track and we’re at a point on the repave where it’s gotten gritty, grimy, dusty, and they slide all over the place,” Jim Pohlman, crew chief of the No. 8 Chevrolet for Kyle Busch, said. “The aggregate has finally opened up, and it’s become more like a Homestead.”

Tyler Reddick aced the field in the cooler conditions on Saturday, with his Busch Light pole-winning speed being more than 1.5 mph quicker than last spring’s fast lap.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A fourth victory from the pole position would suit Tyler Reddick just fine, after the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota prevailed in Saturday’s highly competitive qualifying session at Kansas Speedway.

Reddick toured the 1.5-mile speedway in 29.142 seconds (185.300 mph) to claim his third Busch Light Pole Award of the season, his second at Kansas and the 14th of his career.

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos

In doing so, Reddick edged his car owner, Denny Hamlin (185.179 mph), by 0.019 seconds for the top starting spot in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400, the ninth NASCAR Cup Series race of the year.

The pole was the fifth in the last six Kansas races for Toyota drivers.

The 2026 season already has been a remarkable one for Reddick, who won the first three races and added a fourth victory March 22 at Darlington Raceway. Reddick’s last three wins have come from the pole position, at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta (starting on metrics after a qualifying rainout), Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, and at Darlington.

Should Reddick win on Sunday, he would become the fourth driver in Cup Series history — and the first since Dale Earnhardt in 1987 — to win five of the first nine events of a season. Reddick currently tops the series standings with a 62-point edge over second-place Ryan Blaney.

“We had a lot of good handling in our car for Atlanta,” Reddick said of his and his team’s ability to convert qualifying speed into race wins. “COTA, obviously, I felt like the 12 (Blaney) and Shane (van Gisbergen) were really strong. I think just good handling, handling that you can trust, handling that stays with you in the long run. So, Darlington, same thing.

“Here, the speeds were a bit higher, and I didn’t know if we’d be able to get the pole, but it was really nice to see that the handling that we have, the short-run speed that we have appears to be all there today.”

Bristol winner Ty Gibbs and defending series champion Kyle Larson posted identical times (29.192 seconds for 184.982 mph) and will start third and fourth, respectively, with Gibbs getting the nod on owner points. Larson is the two-time defending winner of the spring race at Kansas.

Chase Briscoe qualified fifth at 184.938 mph, as Toyotas claimed four of the top five starting positions. Carson Hocevar was sixth, followed by Chris Buescher, Daniel Suárez, Blaney and Bubba Wallace.

Reddick paces practice

With a speed of 182.685 mph, Reddick turned the fastest time in a practice session dominated by Toyota. The manufacturer swept the top five positions on the chart with 23XI Racing teammate Wallace (182.033 mph) second, Hamlin (181.421) third, Briscoe (180.959) fourth and Gibbs (180.349) fifth.

Buescher was sixth fastest to lead Ford, while Daniel Suárez was seventh, pacing Chevrolet. Christopher Bell led Group 1 participants as the eighth fastest overall, with Chase Elliott and Hocevar completing the top 10.

MORE: Practice results

Reddick had the fastest five-, 15- and 20-lap averages, while Bell had the fastest 25- and 30-lap averages.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — No doubt a bettor brave enough to take Chase Elliott with one lap left in NASCAR Overtime in last year’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway could have gotten long odds.

Elliott took the white flag in fifth place, behind the Toyotas of Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell. Wallace pulled out to a lead of a half-car-length, with Hamlin in pursuit.

Hamlin steered his No. 11 Camry to the inside of Wallace’s car and forced Wallace wide through the final two corners. That allowed Elliott to dive to the inside of both Toyotas and steal the win for Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.

RELATED: Kansas schedule | Paint Scheme Preview

“It certainly played a factor, kind of in the manufacturer battle as well, right?” Hamlin said Saturday before Cup Series practice for Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas (2 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “I mean, you go from winning one to now your competition actually won. There were definitely a lot of negatives to the way that race ended, but it certainly was, I just, I feel like I was trying to go for it, certainly, and used a little bit too much aggression, for sure, in Turn 3.

“But overall, you’re going to have that in racing. When you have teammates, manufacturer guys that you all share information with, we’re going to always be right around each other. So sometimes those racing incidents happen in one out of 20 times.”

Hamlin heads the list of Cup winners at Kansas with four victories, but he’s shocked at his recent failures to find Victory Lane.

MORE: Fantasy Fastlane

“For the last six years, if someone else wins a Kansas race, I’m just trying to figure out how we didn’t win, because we’re always just so fast here,” Hamlin said. “We found 10 to 12 different ways to not win here, and I thought I saw the stat this week that there has only been… I think (Kyle) Larson’s been the only repeat winner here in the last 11 races, and it was like, the fact that we haven’t is just criminal. So, hopefully we can change that.”