Preview of the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway
Enough of those nontypical NASCAR tracks. Now is the time for the 1.5 mile staples in the series, although I will probably argue next week that Charlotte is much different than Kansas. This week we are back to a track where just about everybody has a chance and fuel millage can play a part if the cautions fall right. This week the Sprint Cup series is at the Kansas Speedway.
The Kansas Speedway has 15 degrees of banking in the corners, about 11 degrees in the front stretch and 5 degrees in the back stretch. It is almost just like Chicagoland speedway, except there is a little less banking in the corners. This should make the racing a little better than Chicagoland. Just like there and the big brother 2 mile tracks of Michigan and California they can race 3, 4 and sometime 5 wide here after restarts. Also like those tracks the field can get strung out single file during long Green flag runs. A debris caution to tighten the field and it will be much different. If there are any wreaks they will most likely be in turn two because of the speed of the front stretch.
So what can we all expect at this race. For one, each team will be working on their set up and fuel millage. Although qualifying is important at this track, it only is if fuel millage does not factor in. So the teams that want to do well must somehow do both well.
This track also interesting because there is only 10 years of history here. Jeff Gordon won the first two races here. Other two time winners are Toney Stewart and Greg Biffle. Brad Keselowski won the last race here on fuel millage.
So what are my predictions. Well last week I would never have picked Kurt Busch to win. So my track record is not good. I would also not have picked Tony Stewart to win the first two races of the Chase either. This one should be easier. The entire top ten with the exception of Greg Biffle will be dominated by Chase drivers. I will go out on a limb and say pick any Chase driver you like to win, they are all good here. I think Greg Biffle will finally have everything going for him and get a win. He won this race last year.
In regards to the Chase standings, all of the drivers must have read my article last week and did exactly what I did not expect them to do. Tony faltered, Jimmie and Kurt pounced and Matt sneaked. Although Kurt Busch won last week, I did expect him as well as his brother to win a race, I just didn’t expect him to win that one. This has tightend the Chase back up to where there really is not much to write about. With the exception of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin it is basically start over. Game On!
If you can not make it to the track watch it on ESPN at 2 PM ET. Who do you think will win? Please let me know below:
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