Twenty years of NASCAR at Kansas Speedway: our racing countdown continues with 10-6
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 top 20 memorable moments from the Cup, Xfinity and trucks series at Kansas Speedway.
Here’s the third piece in our series:
No. 10: Kyle Busch ends Kansas drought
May 7, 2016, Sprint Cup
Reigning Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch was a snakebit driver at Kansas Speedway going winless 16 previous starts, including four DNFs, before breaking through by winning the GoBowling 400.
Busch, in fact, had finished in the top five just twice and top 10 only four times, but took advantage of a pit-road mishap by Martin Truex Jr., who had led a race-most 172 laps, and ended his drought at Kansas.
“I wouldn’t call it a dream come true, but we’ve had some horror stories here over the years,” Busch said. “Now there’s no more excuses when we come to Kansas. “There’s been a lot of rough days here at Kansas that’s for sure. The 78 (Truex) was probably the fastest car, but we kept ourselves in the game.”
Busch is the all-time race winner at Kansas with seven trips to victory lane, including four wins in the Xfinity Series and two in the Trucks Series.
No. 9: Jimmie Johnson pulls all-nighter
May 9, 2015, NASCAR Cup
Because of the imminent threat of rain, NASCAR moved up the start of the aptly named SpongeBob Square Pants 400 by about 10 minutes.
But the second NASCAR night race in Kansas Speedway was red-flagged because of rain on the 99th lap of the 267-lap race and would not resume for 2 hours, 15 minutes, and 30 seconds.
Eventually, as the clock struck midnight, Jimmie Johnson outdueled Kevin Harvick to the checkered flag, giving him his third career win at Kansas Speedway, tying Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for the most victories at the track, a record they now share with Kevin Harvick.
“I don’t pay attention to stats, but there’s some stats that are piling up and I’m lucky to have,” said Johnson, who won at Kansas in 2008 and 2011. “Being the winningest driver at places, yeah, absolutely it’s cool. Three (wins)…I don’t think that’s going to hold up over time. You need to get up in that eight or nine range, but I’ve got a few more years and opportunities to get there.”
No. 8: Edwards flips out in victory
July 3, 2004, Trucks series
Tears streamed down Carl Edwards’ cheeks as he flashed past the checkered flag at Kansas Speedway.
A day that started with Edwards’ scraping the wall on the first lap ended with a capacity crowd cheering him at the finish as Edwards, a former area short track champion from Columbia, won the NASCAR trucks series race.
It was so loud when Edwards pulled in front of the thundering grandstands and prepared to celebrate with this trademark back-flip off the back of the truck, he thought his Ford was breaking down.
‘I heard this noise when I was pulling down there to stop,” said an emotionally spent Edwards. “I shut the engine off, and it was the crowd. I can’t believe we won this race. I grew up in Columbia, Missouri … I never in a million years thought I’d get to race here. So to win here, and see the crowd’s reaction, was unbelievable.”
No. 7: Heavy hearts as Truex wins
May 13/Oct. 22, 2017, Sprint Cup
No driver has dominated a year at Kansas Speedway like Martin Truex Jr. in his championship season of 2017.
In the nine years since Kansas went to two annual Cup races, Truex is the only driver to sweep both events. And he did it easily.
Truex, driving for the single-car Furniture Row team out of Denver, led a race-high 104 laps and breezed to victory in the Go Bowling 400 spring race; and he led 91 laps in coasting to the Hollywood Casino 400 during the fall playoffs.
The fall win was an emotional one as Truex dedicated the victory to Jim Watson, a fabricator for the team, who died the previous night of a heart attack at age 55.
“We were definitely racing with heavy hearts today,” Truex said. “We said, ‘Let’s win this one for Jim.’’
Truex, previously a hard-luck driver at Kansas, ended five years of Midwest misery in the spring race which was marred by a fiery crash in which Aric Amirola was airlifted to the hospital after a collision with Joey Logano and Danica Patrick.
No. 6: Gordon turns on the lights
May 10, 2014, Sprint Cup
Jeff Gordon won the inaugural NASCAR Cup race at Kansas Speedway in 2001 and he won the first Cup night race at the track in 2014.
But this 2014 victory — making Gordon the first driver to win three Cup races at Kansas Speedway — was anything but routine.
First of all, the start of the race was delayed 37 minutes by rain. And for some inexplicable reason, the newly installed lights on the backstretch went out during laps 114 to 152, but the race wasn’t stopped. And neither was Gordon.
Gordon held off a hard charging Kevin Harvick in the closing laps and won by 0.112 seconds.
“I don’t know what it is about this team, this ’24’ car and us here at Kansas on inaugural days,” Gordon said, “but I love this place This race team has been giving me the best racecars all year long. I’m going to be 43 this year, but I feel like I’m 25.’’