The numbers generated by Kyle Busch in a sweepingly successful weekend at Kansas Speedway were bulky and brag-worthy.
His win tallies rose to a series-leading 61 in Camping World Trucks and another 58 in the Cup Series, tying him with Kevin Harvick for ninth all-time there. His first victory of the year on the Cup side also bumped him to 17 consecutive seasons with a win, tying him with NASCAR Hall of Famer David Pearson and pulling him to just one year behind the all-time mark of 18 straight by King Richard Petty.
Another number — a much smaller number — was just as momentous by contrast, and that’s the “1” that now resides in crew chief Ben Beshore’s win column as a big-league crew chief. Sunday’s broadcast captured Beshore’s elation atop the pit box after the checkered flag, but he admitted later to a mixture of relief blended in with the joy.
“A little of both. I’d say 50-50,” Beshore said after Sunday’s Buschy McBusch Race 400. “Extremely excited, especially for my team to be able to come out here and grab a win and lock ourselves in the playoffs. Relief at the same time to prove that we can do it, that we have the speed in the cars and we can go out there and do it.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Beshore was installed as the crew chief for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota team in the offseason in hopes of reviving Busch’s tradition of success. Busch had won 28 races and two Cup Series titles in six years with crew chief Adam Stevens, but last season the two went an agonizing 34 races before they scratched the win column at Texas Motor Speedway.
Enter Beshore, who had served as a race engineer for the No. 18 team, but moved up after a four-win season as crew chief for JGR’s Harrison Burton in the Xfinity Series in 2020. Now both crew chiefs have wins to their credit this year — Stevens in just the second start of his new role on the No. 20 team with Christopher Bell, and Beshore in the season’s 11th race.
Beshore confessed, “I’d be lying if I said I wanted to wait until the 11th or 12th race and that being our first win.” But crossing off that goal in the springtime, nearly a third of the way through the season remains far more welcome timing-wise than a frustratingly long wait until late October — especially given the bright spotlight on his role as crew chief for one of the sport’s true greats.
“It’s a big deal to win. It’s a lot of pressure to win. We’re expected to win,” Beshore said. “When you’ve got a two-time champion like Kyle Busch, you expect to go out there and run up front in the top five every race and just be there at the end. So yeah, it was a big deal.
“And then the question about the pressure being off for winning and locking ourselves in the playoffs there is huge. We can maybe experiment a little bit later in the season or just go for some more raw speed type stuff. But it was huge, and it’s a lot of pressure off, to be honest.”
The pressure valve on Busch’s longevity streak has also been relieved. The next step is regaining his form as a driver with multiple wins each year. In every season from 2015-2019, Busch’s victory tally totaled four or more. “We’ve got to get back on that,” said Busch, basking in both victory and his 36th birthday. “I’m telling Ben every day, we’ve got to win 10 races this year so I can get that average back up.”
There’s still work to do in re-establishing the No. 18 team’s consistency, but similar days to Sunday would bring more of those gaudy numbers and post-race bows that Busch & Co. are accustomed to.
“We’re ready to get back on track, and it’s been a while, but I could feel it,” said Coy Gibbs, JGR’s vice chairman. “Him and Ben are clicking, so we’re looking for a lot more.”
The 19th-place perch on the score sheet didn’t reflect the daylong performance that Kyle Larson flexed Sunday at Kansas Speedway. Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was far from a mid-packer, but a wayward series of late restarts left him smack in the midsection of the 39-car field.
Larson led nine times for a race-best 132 of the 267 laps in Sunday’s Buschy McBusch Race 400, but a closing jolt of chaos thwarted his bid to become the NASCAR Cup Series’ second repeat winner this season. Instead, another Kyle — fittingly Busch, given the race’s title sponsorship — scooted away to his first Cup win of 2021.
Larson’s tipping point came in the final restart with two laps remaining. Lined up on the outside of the second row, Larson tried to push second-place Ryan Blaney to the front, but the aggressive move got the No. 12 Team Penske Ford sideways. Larson’s car swept into the outside retaining wall and Blaney recovered control, but the pair lost any sort of edge as they dropped back through the field. Blaney placed 21st, next to last among the lead-lap finishers.
“Yeah, just lining up behind Blaney, and my plan was just to push him as hard as I could and try and be with him on the backstretch to shove him and hopefully get them guys racing in front of me or potentially get inside or outside for the lead somehow,” Larson said. “I had just planned on pushing him really hard, and obviously I did that and got him sideways and ended up getting us both in the wall.
“Probably should have just laid off once I got to the corner and hopefully a run came to where I could get to his back bumper on the backstretch. Hate that I screwed that up and cost ourselves a good finish.”
Larson had started 32nd after last weekend’s early exit at Talladega weighed down his metrics for Sunday’s lineup. He rose to seventh place at the time of the first caution flag on Lap 25, and was second to Busch when the first stage ended on Lap 80.
He found momentum in winning the second stage, and continued to show strength in the final segment, but a late series of yellows kept the field bunched. Busch and Blaney slipped by in a restart with 10 to go before another caution flag flew, and Larson never regained the top spot.
Larson continued a trend of solid showings on 1.5-mile tracks, where he finished among the top five in all three of those previous starts before Sunday’s. That stretch included a victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and a runner-up effort at Atlanta Motor Speedway after leading 269 of the 325 laps.
Larson is virtually locked into the 16-driver playoff field by virtue of his Vegas victory, but indicated that the would-be wins that have slipped away in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports have tempered some of the big-picture positives.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s great. We’ve got one win. Could have four or five,” Larson said. “But yeah, just another day where I lead a lot of laps and don’t win. Just got to figure it out.”
Perhaps it was birthday fate. When the name of the race is the Buschy McBusch Race 400, your name is Kyle Busch and it’s your 36th birthday, you have to figure there’s some serious racing juju in your favor. And Busch took advantage of it.
Busch’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took the lead on a restart with two laps remaining and held off the field by .336 seconds Sunday at Kansas Speedway to give him his first NASCAR Cup Series win of the season – 58th of his career – and new crew chief Ben Beshore the first win of his career.
It completed a weekend trophy sweep for Busch, who won Saturday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, too.
“Just a great day to be able to put this M&Ms Camry up front,” Busch said smiling, adding “Great to be able to get everyone back in Victory Lane again this early in the season and get those points going our way.
“And,” he said breaking into a grin, “I just remembered it’s the Buschy McBusch Race and a Busch won. What do you know?”
It was a dramatic ending to what had been largely a Kyle Larson show up front all day. The Hendrick Motorsports driver led a race-best 132 of the 267 laps. But he got shuffled back to the second row on the last restart and had contact with Ryan Blaney’s front-row running Ford after taking the final green flag. The two cars slid up and bounced into the wall and out of the groove, allowing Busch to take off with the help of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. pushing from behind.
Ultimately the Fords driven by Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski – on fresher tires – chased down Truex on the last lap to claim second and third place behind Busch. Keselowski, last week’s Talladega winner, led a season-best 72 of the opening 80 laps.
Matt DiBenedetto was fourth and reigning series champion Chase Elliott finished fifth. Truex was sixth, followed by Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, William Byron and Austin Dillon.
Larson, looking to claim his second victory of the season was disappointed after the race. He finished 19th after leading the most laps on the afternoon.
“I had the 2 [Keselowski] behind me and he didn’t get to my bumper and I think he had to protect behind him and it just allowed the bottom [row] to get a good jump on us and the bottom two lanes cleared me,” Larson explained.
“I was back to third and planned on pushing [Ryan] Blaney as good as I could and obviously, I pushed too hard and got him loose and chased both of us back into the wall. I was just trying to help him stay side by side with the 18 [Busch] on the back to allow myself to have some sort of opportunity, but I just pushed too hard.
“That’s really the first time I was behind somebody on a restart. I learned for next time.”
The first 167 laps of the 267-lap race were run with no major incidents – the caution flags came out only for a scheduled competition caution and the two stage breaks. Busch won Stage 1 and Larson won Stage 2.
But there were three cautions in the last 20 laps – making pit decisions and lane choice crucial in that last run to the checkered flag.
Ultimately, the two-time series champion Busch was able to keep his car up front and make the move when he needed to – his victory obviously a huge boost in confidence for the team, which had only two previous top-five finishes in the opening 10 races of the season.
“It’s hard sometimes when you go through the lulls, you go through the disappointment, you go through dejection and the lack of understanding if you can still do it,” said Busch, who became the 10th different winner in 11 Cup Series races this year. “There’s a sense of doubt there for sure. But you just have to keep persevering, keep digging and putting your focus forward.”
Series points leader Denny Hamlin led seven laps in the late going, squaring off with Larson until contact with the Turn 4 wall knocked him from contention with 25 laps to go. His No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota sustained more damage in clouting the outside wall in Turn 1, and Hamlin finished 12th after repairs.
A pair of drivers in the 39-car field made milestone starts. Ryan Newman finished 16th in his 700th Cup Series effort, never fully recovering from a stop-and-go penalty in the first stage for an unapproved modification to the body of his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Alex Bowman salvaged an 18th-place result in his 200th Cup appearance, rallying after a wall scrape with Bubba Wallace at the start of Stage 3.
The NASCAR Cup Series’ next race is the Goodyear 400, scheduled Sunday, May 9 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) at Darlington Raceway. The event is part of NASCAR’s annual Throwback Weekend, which will have all three national series in action at the 1.366-mile track.
Notes: The race-winning No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Kyle Busch passed NASCAR’s post-race inspection. The Nos. 1, 17 and 22 cars of Kurt Busch, Chris Buescher and Joey Logano each had one lug nut unsecured.
Roush Fenway Racing driver Ryan Newman made his 700th career NASCAR Cup Series start when he took the green flag in Sunday’s Buschy McBusch Race 400 at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Newman has earned 18 career race victories, 116 top fives and 265 top 10s in 699 starts leading into Sunday. Earning the nickname “Rocket Man” for his stellar qualifying runs throughout the early years of his Cup Series career, Newman has also recorded 51 pole positions in 22 years. He is the 19th driver to hit the 700 Cup Series start milestone.
Newman made his first career start at Phoenix Raceway in November 2000 driving the No. 02 for Team Penske. The 43-year-old raced seven full-time seasons with Penske before moving to Stewart-Haas Racing for the 2009 season, competing in the No. 39 for Stewart-Haas Racing through 2013. From 2014-18, Newman raced the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing entry, which is where he earned his most recent victory in 2017 at Phoenix. Since 2019, Newman has competed in the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, earning four top-five and 18 top-10 finishes so far.
The cars of Ross Chastain and Erik Jones are among three that will start at the rear of the field for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Buschy McBusch Race 400 (3 p.m. on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) after failing pre-race inspection two times Sunday morning. Anthony Alfredo’s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford will also have to go to the back for unapproved adjustments.
Alfredo was slated to line up 22nd, with Chastain 24th and Jones 27th.
The race at Kansas is the series’ 11th points-paying event of the 2021 season. Brad Keselowski is on the pole for Sunday’s race. Joey Logano is the defending winner at the 1.5-mile track.
Former NASCAR driver and team owner Eric McClure, who made nearly 300 starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in a career that spanned from 2003-16, died Sunday. He was 42 years old.
McClure’s cause of death was not immediately released, but was confirmed by the family and NASCAR officials. The Associated Press reported that his body was sent to nearby Roanoke for an autopsy, according to the Washington County (Virginia) sheriff’s office. He had suffered from serious health issues in recent years, included diagnosis of a lung infection and a severe musculoskeletal disorder in the summer of 2019.
NASCAR issued a statement Sunday afternoon: “We are saddened to learn of the passing of former driver and owner Eric McClure. NASCAR extends its deepest condolences to Eric’s family and friends.”
The McClure family also released a statement: “The family of Eric Wayne McClure, former NASCAR driver, announces with great sorrow his passing on Sunday. They would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support during this very difficult time.”
McClure made three starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, but he found a home with 288 career starts in the Xfinity Series. He last competed in the national-series ranks in 2016 with a single start for JD Motorsports, which gave him his first full-time opportunity in 2007.
McClure was a native of Chilhowie, Virginia. His uncle, Larry, was one half of the Morgan-McClure Motorsports team, based 20 miles away in Abingdon, Virginia. Morgan-McClure was a three-time winner of the Daytona 500 with Sterling Marlin and Ernie Irvan among the top drivers of the team’s No. 4 Chevrolet.
Eric McClure’s best NASCAR finish was an eighth-place result in the 2013 Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona for longtime team owner Mark Smith’s TriStar Motorsports group. “For me, this is the best day of my life professionally,” he told MRN Radio post-race. “We’ve raced for a lot of years, never had a whole lot to show for it statistically, but we raced up front all day, survived, had a great day and I’ll never forget it.”
McClure was known for his longevity and his team’s underdog spirit, but his career was also marked by severe crashes. He missed five races in the 2012 season after a hard head-on wreck at Talladega Superspeedway left him with multiple injuries, including a concussion and internal bruising.
As the one-year anniversary of the crash neared, McClure told NASCAR.com: “I am a better person because of what happened. I could talk for two hours about how this has really impacted our lives, but it’s way too much drama unless people have gone through something traumatic. It was huge for our family. It just uprooted everything we were used to. It made us think about career steps, family steps, what we need to focus on. When people go through things, it affects them differently and not everyone can relate to that situation, but for me, it’s just still surreal.”
McClure sustained another concussion in 2015 at Kentucky Speedway, and his driving career ended the following season. His post-career health troubles were also serious, and he told the Bristol Herald Courier in 2019 that he had undergone numerous tests and surgeries before reaching a diagnosis of rhabdomyolysis, a rare syndrome related to muscle injuries that can lead to kidney failure. McClure told the Bristol newspaper that he had been placed on dialysis treatment and had emergency surgery to save his limbs.
“I no longer take little things for granted,” McClure told the Herald Courier’s Allen Gregory during his recovery. “Whatever the next chapter of my life is, I know that this journey — the pain, the tears, the laughter, new relationships — will be what has prepared me.”
McClure was father to seven children — all girls, all of whose names begin with the letter M. His marriage to Miranda McClure ended with their estrangement. Eric McClure pleaded no contest to misdemeanor domestic violence charges last October. He had recently become engaged to Keira Brinegar.
McClure followed his family’s path into team ownership in what is now called the ARCA Menards East Series, forming Martin-McClure Racing with another former driver, Hal Martin, in 2016.
John Hunter Nemechek’s speed and poise were nearly rewarded Saturday night with a series-best third win of the season. After a pit-road gambit and a double-overtime scramble left him to fight for a top-five effort, the next-best prize was a nod to his season to date.
Nemechek finished fifth in Saturday’s Wise Power 200, padding his lead atop the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings. That perch as the top points-earner after seven races meant a $50,000 bonus from Camping World’s Marcus Lemonis to the road crew for his No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota.
“It means a lot,” Nemechek said after his fifth top-five finish in seven races this year. “Everything that Marcus Lemonis does for this sport and the Camping World Truck Series is super-special. Can’t thank him enough, but our guys deserve it. I mean, even all the guys back at the shop deserve it. They’ve been working their tails off, and it’s nice to continue to gain on our points lead. We didn’t lose any points to anyone. I think we made it even bigger tonight, so that’s a plus.”
Nemechek started from the pole position and led 17 laps, finishing second in the first two stages behind team owner and eventual winner Kyle Busch. Second place is also where he rode before a late patch of caution flags pushed the event into a pair of overtimes, six laps past the scheduled 134-lap distance.
The No. 4 team opted to pit for less-worn, scuffed-in tires before the first OT attempt, dropping him to 11th place in the order. He made gains in the restart before another caution flag bunched the field once more, and Nemechek lined up seventh after the choose-rule lap. Despite some restart jostling and a fair share of tire smoke from his No. 4 Toyota, he ended up with his fifth top-five finish in seven races this year.
“Overall, I was all for the gamble,” said Nemechek, who said his truck lacked the straight-up restart speed to challenge Busch for the win. “Having two wins, being locked in (to the playoffs) and the points leader, and only 14 or 15 cars on the lead lap, we thought our odds were pretty good.”
Aside from a crash-related 39th-place finish in the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt-track race, Nemechek has been remarkably consistent in his first season for KBM. With that blemish removed, it’s a clean sweep of top-10 runs that suggests that any adjustment period in moving to trucks after a season in the Cup Series has been minimal.
“I think John Hunter’s done a great job. I actually think he’s a little bit ahead of schedule on what we anticipated,” said Kyle Busch, who — like Nemechek — is a two-time winner in the Camping World Trucks this year. “Bringing (crew chief) Eric Phillips back in the fold, getting him up to speed and used to everything again, bringing John Hunter on, getting up to speed. I know John Hunter’s got talent, and he can drive race cars. He’s done a really, really good job working with Eric and working with our equipment to get the most out of it.”
For Nemechek, the road crew bonus was a validation of the No. 4 team’s success, nearly a third of the way through the season. Though he has embraced the #here4wins hashtag as a team motto, the group is doing a number on the points standings so far as well. Nemechek leads fellow two-time winner Ben Rhodes by 33 points and third-place Austin Hill by a whopping 78.
“I feel like our consistency is there,” Nemechek says. “We just have to continue to put races together and not make mistakes, make the right adjustments. We struggled a bit on that tonight for that final run, but Kyle got by us. I don’t know. It’s super-neat. Just excited to be here. I’m having blast, having fun, a smile on my face every week, and that’s all you can ask for.”
Statistically speaking, Kyle Busch had a perfect night at Kansas Speedway on Friday, sweeping both stage victories in the Wise Power 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, leading the most laps and earning his series record 61st trophy.
But the veteran had to earn that joyous finish, rallying from a fourth-place starting position on the final overtime restart to take the lead in a three-wide battle. He ultimately led the final two laps to take the checkered by .665-seconds over Ross Chastain. It marked the second win of the season for Busch. He’s either won or finished runner-up in his four Truck Series races this season.
Despite the dominance of Busch’s No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota, he was on the radio with his team during the race’s final caution, worried there may have been some sort of technical problem with his truck. But at the drop of the green, he maneuvered around the front-running trucks of Chastain and Austin Hill, pulling away on the final lap.
Busch’s win marks the fifth straight this season for his Kyle Busch Motorsports. His 59 laps out front were most on the night. It’s Busch’s third victory in his last four Kansas starts.
“No restarts actually went our way tonight, I was shocked, we definitely missed something just being able to come up through the gears and get going,” said the Las Vegas native who turns 37 Sunday.
“It just would not go. Those guys would just swarm us. I think we saw it one of the restarts with the 4-truck (Nemechek) too, he got run over. So all and all, great job by KBM and Toyota, TRD, this Cessna Beechcraft Tundra was awesome.”
Hill finished third, behind Busch and Chastain. Christian Eckes and Busch’s teammate John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the top five. Todd Gilliland, Zane Smith, Raphael Lessard, Johnny Sauter and Ben Rhodes completed the top 10.
Series rookie Hailie Deegan finished a career-best 13th and was running as high as eighth place, before pitting just before the final restart.
As with Busch, at one point Hill was worried about his truck’s performance – pitting twice during the first stage break but steadily making his way back up through the field. Last year’s regular-season champion, Hill hasn’t won since September 2020 and the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway is statistically his best track.
“I thought I did everything right on that restart, threw it on the apron and saw Chastain go up to block whoever was coming on his outside and got beside him and from there on out it was a drag race, I was wide open the whole green-white-checkered,” Hill said, adding, “Good finish, finishing third with everything we had going on. I want to win so bad, so just really frustrating right now.”
With his fifth-place finish, Nemechek – a two-race winner in 2021 – maintains a 33-point lead over fellow two-race winner Ben Rhodes in the championship standings. And that was good enough to earn Nemechek’s No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports team a $50,000 mid-season “road crew” bonus from series sponsor Camping World.
The series next race, the LiftKits4Less.com 200 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway is Friday night at 7:30 p.m. (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Notes: The race-winning No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota of Kyle Busch passed NASCAR’s post-race inspection.
Buschy McBusch Race 400 at Kansas Speedway (⏰ 3 p.m. ET | 📺 FS1 | 📻 MRN, SiriusXM)
Everything you need to know for Sunday’s race, the 11th points-paying NASCAR Cup Series event of the 2021 season.
Where: Kansas Speedway, a 1.5-mile track located in Kansas City, Kansas Green flag: 3:13 p.m. ET TV/Radio: FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Forecast: Cloudy with a high near 80 degrees and a 23% chance of rain. Winds from the north around 15 mph, according to NOAA.gov National anthem: Country music star Willie Jones Grand marshal: The Busch Guy Race Distance: 267 laps, 400 miles Stages: 80 | 160 | 267 Pit-road speed: 45 mph Caution car speed: 55 mph Kansas 101: Get the full lowdown
Starting lineup: See the full lineup Pit-stall assignments: See who is pitting where | Expert breaks down pit selectionsKyle Rivas | Getty Images
Five to watch
Here are five big story lines we’ll be following at Kansas Speedway.
1. This could very well be the weekend that Denny Hamlin finally gets his first victory of the 2021 season. Hamlin has won two of the last three races at Kansas. Hamlin has eight top fives and eight top 10s to in the first 10 races of the year, which solidly places him first in the series’ points standings. Oh, and Vegas has him as the odds-on favorite, too. The sportsbooks usually don’t lie.
2. William Byron is chasing history this weekend at Kansas. The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver has eight straight top-10 finishes. If he can score a top 10 on Sunday, he’ll be the youngest driver to achieve nine straight top-10 results. Jeff Gordon holds the current record at 24 years and 22 days. He’ll have a good shot, too. He heads into Kansas with three straight top 10s at the Kansas City, Kansas track.
3. It’s nowhere near time to panic for Chase Elliott, but a first win in 2021 at Kansas would surely cure the post-championship hangover. The defending title winner has three top fives and four top 10s in the first 10 races of the season. His only top-10 finish in the last nine 1.5-mile races was a sixth at Kansas back in October of 2020. Elliott is the only Hendrick Motorsports driver yet to win this year, but that could very well change on Sunday.
4. Speaking of Hendrick Motorsports, Kansas Speedway is a welcome sight for Kyle Larson. Since his win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the No. 5 driver has three finishes of 18th or worse in the last four races. Last week at Talladega, Larson finished last in the 40-car field after overheating issues took him out before the race reached Lap 5. Larson has four finishes of eighth or better in his last six races at Kansas, so things could start looking back up for him to get back on track.
5. Kevin Harvick continues to search for some form of consistency this season. After a ninth-place finish at Martinsville Speedway and a 24th-place finish at Richmond Raceway, Harvick was able to score a fourth-place result in the craziness that was Talladega. He desperately needs to back that finish up with another top five, or even a win, to get the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team back in the conversation. Harvick has three wins in 30 starts at Kansas, with the last coming in 2018.
Race-day staples
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles. •Power Rankings: Kevin Harvick set to turn loose in May | Scope the ranks •Paint Scheme Preview: Check out the designs taking on Kansas | See the schemes •Fantasy Fastlane: See which drivers to use, avoid | Full Fantasy advice | Set your roster •Preview Show: Jonathan Merryman and Alex Weaver preview the race | Watch the show
Get in on the action
Think you know NASCAR? Put your mettle to the test with gaming, fantasy. • Betting odds for Kansas race | See the odds
• Kansas betting: Erik Jones is an intriguing long shot for Kansas | Find out why • Shop around for Kyle Larson, Team Penske betting value | Find out why • Chase Elliott’s 2021 winless season examined | Full analysis
• Take a shot at winning cash prizes with the free-to-play Jackpot Races app | Hit the jackpot
• Full guide to 2021 NASCAR Fantasy Live game | Get the FAQ
Track history
Every track has a story to tell. Here’s what we’ve seen go down at Kansas Speedway in the past.
Kyle Rivas | Getty Images
•Remember this?: Memorable moments from Kansas | See the moments •Spring has sprung: Kansas’ all-time race winners | See the list
• Front of the pack: Top 10 lap leaders at Kansas | See the list
Fast facts
Hard-hitting, race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights. • William Byron would become the youngest driver ever with a nine race top-10 streak if he finishes in the top 10 at Kansas. The current record is held by Jeff Gordon. • All three winners on 1.5-mile tracks (Byron, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney) got their first 1.5-mile track win this season. • Chase Elliott’s only top-10 finish in the last nine races on 1.5-mile tracks was a sixth at Kansas. • Denny Hamlin is the only winner at Kansas in the last 20 races that is not a series champion. Hamlin has won three times. • In the last 19 Kansas races, only once has a driver gotten their first win of the season.
Catch the pack
Read up on all the headlines from the week leading up to Sunday’s race. • Matty D: Matt DiBenedetto on 2022 plans: ‘Anything is possible’ | Watch more
• FORE!: Denny Hamlin on relieving stress on the golf course, Bubba Wallace’s surprise golf outing win | Watch more
• Do your part: Vote a driver into Wednesday’s Pro Invitational Series race at Darlington | Vote now
• Throwing it back: Throwback paint schemes for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington | See the schemes • NASCAR Salutes: Honoring military families and communities through NASCAR Salutes Together with Coca-Cola | Read more
• Hey now, you’re an All-Star: Six-round format announced for All-Star Race at Texas | Read more
Say what?
Notable quotes from the stars of the sport heading into Sunday’s race.
“I think we just go out every week with the hope to run a top 10. We’ve done that a few times. I think we are probably capable of doing it a few more; we just didn’t have things really work out for us. So, I think we’ve kept our expectations pretty similar to what we began the year with. And that’s just going out and trying to obviously, get those top 10s and take advantage of the places we know we can go up front and try to win at.” — Erik Jones, driver of the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet
“We have some good momentum as everybody has seen, so that’s encouraging. At the start of the season we had a lot of things out of our control that happened. There’s nothing we could do about that, and now we’re kind of on a roll and showing the strength that we do have as a team, that we’ve known that we had, so that’s awesome. It’s super encouraging. I’m feeling good about it.” — Matt DiBenedetto, driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford
“As soon as we win another race, hopefully soon, you guys will be forced to talk about us, and the competition will be forced to deal with us. But I think we’re running well. We’re in the mix every week. I feel like the competition around us probably knows that and understands that. So, I think it’s just a matter of continuing to execute, and put ourselves in position to make ourselves have a chance at winning more races. Honestly, I don’t focus much on the other people we are racing against. I just focus on doing what we can to try to win. We’re doing that every week so far.” — William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
“I think we have been doing a good job. But I think our potential is higher to be very honest with you. I think that we still have a few areas to improve, but this team is going to win races and I have no doubt about that. I’m hungry to be able to get there. I’m trying to be patient, but we are going to get there.” — Daniel Suarez, driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Team Chevrolet
