Twenty years of NASCAR at Kansas Speedway: our racing countdown continues with 15-11
NASCAR came to Kansas Speedway when the track opened in 2001 and will mark 20 years of racing at the facility this weekend.
This week, in four installments, The Star is counting down its 20 most memorable moments from the Cup, Xfinity and trucks series at Kansas Speedway.
Here’s the second in a series:
No. 15: Lester blazes trail for African-American drivers
July 1, 2005, Trucks series
Bill Lester, the only African-American driver competing full-time in NASCAR’s three national touring series, set a track record of 173.633 mph and claimed the pole for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250.
The pole position put Lester in position to become the first Black driver to win a race in any of NASCAR’s three major series in more than 40 years.
“It would be huge,” Lester said of a win, “but not just from the standpoint of being African-American, but just being a race-car driver. Being in this sport for my fourth year, it’s time for me to break out. Realizing there are a lot of African-Americans who support me, encourage me and are watching me, it would be big.”
Two years earlier, Lester was the top qualifier at Charlotte and became NASCAR’s first Black pole-winner since 1962 when Wendell Scott won in the old Grand National Division at Savannah, Ga.
Lester, 44, would finish a career-best fifth in the trucks race. He previously qualified second and finished 10th in Kansas in 2003.
“I like this track,” Lester said. “This is where I got my first career top-10. I’m happy about the pole, but it’s all about racing ... and I think we have a truck to be reckoned with.”
No. 14: Stewart unseats Gordon
Oct. 4, 2009, Sprint Cup
Tony Stewart left Kansas Speedway carting home two mementos.
After snapping a six-race slump by outracing Jeff Gordon to the checkered flag, Stewart hoisted the sleek, gold Price Chopper 400 trophy to the delight of an estimated 80,000 fans
Then, after a giddy Stewart learned he was sitting in the same chair Gordon had earlier occupied at a post-race news conference, Stewart carried the chair out the door and to his hauler.
“I’m going to ask Jeff to autograph it,” Stewart said gleefully after joining Gordon as the second two-time Sprint Cup winners at Kansas Speedway since it opened in 2001.
Gordon gave it his shot at running down Stewart, but he had to settle for second.
“As long as he didn’t make any big mistakes,” Gordon said, “I couldn’t catch him.”
No. 13: Harvick joins exclusive club
May 11, 2018, NASCAR Cup
After passing defending race Cup champion Martin Truex Jr. with one lap to go and winning the KC Masterpiece 400, Kevin Harvick had one word to describe his surreal start to the season.
“Addicting,” Harvick said of his second straight win and fifth in the first 12 races of the season.
“You want to see how many races you can win, you want to see how many laps you can lead,” said Harvick, who won for the third time at Kansas Speedway tying Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon for the most in track history.
The race was highlighted by a fiery, multi-car wreck with 15 laps to go when William Byron slid into Clint Bowyer, caught fire and collected six other cars while sending several into the infield grass.
After a red flag, Harvick started sixth in a late restart. But the four tires he took when other stayed out proved to be the difference as he passed Truex as they approached the final lap.
No. 12. Sauter survives sideways slide
May 2, 2010, Trucks series
The bad blood from Martinsville was still flowing through Johnny Sauter’s veins when Ron Hornaday Jr. slid into the side of Sauter’s truck on the backstretch of Kansas Speedway.
The contact, with 13 laps to go in the trucks race, sent both racers — going about 150 mph — careening sideways, and Sauter’s tail struck the wall.
“I’m thinking, ‘That dirty bugger Hornaday got me again,’” Sauter said, referring to an incident earlier that season at Martinsville.
Remarkably, both drivers saved their Chevrolets and maintained their positions on the track. And Sauter, a day after celebrating his 32nd birthday, stretched his lead on Hornaday and won his first race of the season.
Hornaday, the trucks series all-time leader with 47 career wins, said the contact blew a tire, and he wouldn’t have been able to catch Sauter after they collided.
No. 11: Biffle baffles Bowyer
Sept. 30, 2007, NASCAR Cup
Clint Bowyer thought he had won the race. Greg Biffle knew he had won.
Now, it was up to NASCAR to determine just who won the rain-delayed (nearly three hours) darkness-shortened (from 267 to 210 laps) crash-marred (12 cautions) race.
It was Biffle.
With three laps to go, and darkness setting in, the final yellow flag waved, ostensibly to set up a green-white-checker finish. But officials decided it was too dark to clean the debris and declared the race over with Biffle in the lead.
As the field approached the finish line, Biffle veered off track and onto the infield, where it appeared his car was out of fuel. He was passed by Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson, and the scoring tower showed Bowyer as the winner.
Biffle’s car, however, was pushed to victory lane, and his team began celebrating. NASCAR ruled that when the yellow came out, Biffle was in the lead and the field was frozen, so he was declared the winner.