Ten NASCAR Cup drivers to watch in Thursday night’s marquee race at Kansas Speedway
Here are 10 drivers who could make some noise in Thursday night’s main-event NASCAR race at Kansas Speedway: the Super Start Batteries 400, presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts.
Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Ford
Harvick, 44, is one of just three drivers with three Cup race victories at Kansas Speedway — most recently in the spring of 2018 — as well as three second-place finishes. Harvick, the 2014 series champion, has won four races for Stewart-Haas Racing this season — Darlington, Pocono, Atlanta and Indianapolis — which is tied for the season lead with Denny Hamlin. His 53 career Cup wins rank 12th all-time.
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota
Hamlin, 39, has won twice at Kansas Speedway, including last fall’s event. Hamlin, the best active driver not to have won a Cup championship, has won four races for Joe Gibbs Racing this season — the Daytona 500, Darlington, Homestead and Pocono — tied for the season lead with Harvick. His 41 career wins rank 19th all-time.
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford
Keselowski, the 2012 Cup champion, has won twice at Kansas Speedway, both in the spring of 2011 and 2019. Keselowski, 36, has won twice this season for Team Penske, at Charlotte and Bristol. He has posted 13 top 10 finishes in 18 starts this season, producing his third spot in the standings behind Harvick and Ryan Blaney.
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Ford
Blaney, son of former Cup regular Dave Blaney, is looking for his first win at Kansas Speedway, but he came close in 2017 when he started from the pole and led 83 laps before finishing fourth in the spring race and third in the fall. Blaney, 26, qualified for the playoffs by winning at Talladega last month for Team Penske.
Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford
Logano, the 2018 Cup champion, began the season strong by winning two of the first four races, at Las Vegas and Phoenix, for Team Penske before the shutdown for the pandemic. Logano. 30, won the 2014 and 2015 fall races at Kansas Speedway and finished third and eighth in the two 2018 races but struggled in 2019 with 15th and 17th finishes.
Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota,
Busch, the defending series champion, has won four Xfinity races and two trucks races at Kansas Speedway. But just he has just one Cup race win here, in the spring of 2016. Busch, 35, has been off to a slow start in 2020 and is still looking for his first win of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing. Though Busch has just one Cup win at Kansas, he has seven top-five finishes in his last 10 starts after years of struggle at the track.
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet
Elliott, who has replaced his father, Bill, and former teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., as the Cup series’ Most Popular Driver, won the fall race at Kansas in the fall of 2018 for Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott, 24, finished fourth in the 2019 spring race and second in the fall race (leading 50 laps), giving him an average finish of 2.3 in his last three appearances.
Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Toyota
Truex, the 2017 series champion, is the only driver to win both Cup races in a season at Kansas Speedway when he pulled off the sweep in 2017. He nearly made it three straight but finished second in the 2018 spring race. Truex, 40, has won at least one Cup race for six straight seasons, including Martinsville this year for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Ford
Bowyer, of Emporia, Kansas, is still searching for his first Cup victory after 23 starts at his home track. His best result was second in a controversial result in 2007. Bowyer, 41, is working on a one-year contract with Stewart-Haas Racing and needs a win in the worst way. He’s 13th in the standings, 48 points ahead of the cut line.
Bubba Wallace, No. 43 Chevrolet
Wallace, 27, has been at the center of NASCAR’s movement toward racial justice, including the banning of Confederate flags at racetracks. Wallace has made four career Cup starts at Kansas Speedway for Richard Petty Motorsports with a best finish of 23rd. He finished seventh in a trucks series race at Kansas in 2013.