Ten drivers to watch in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup AdventHealth 400 race at Kansas Speedway
Nine active drivers have won NASCAR Cup races at Kansas Speedway, and current points leader Ross Chastain won a trucks series race at the track in 2019, a race he says saved his career.
Here’s a look at 10 drivers who know the way to Victory Lane at Kansas.
Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford
Logano, the 2018 and 2022 Cup champion for Team Penske, is one of five drivers to win three times at Kansas Speedway, and all three were in the fall playoff races, more than any driver. Logano, 32, won earlier this year at Atlanta, a similar 1.5 mile track to Kansas. He was 17th in both races at Kansas Speedway last year and seventh and ninth in 2021.
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota
Hamlin, 42, is one of five three-time winners at Kansas Speedway, including the spring race in 2020. Hamlin, considered the best active driver not to have won a Cup championship, owns 48 career wins for Joe Gibbs Racing but is still looking for his first victory of 2022. He has 11 Top 5 finishes at Kansas, including a fifth in 2021 and fourth and second in 2022.
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet
Elliott, the 2020 Cup champion, won the 2018 fall Cup race at Kansas for Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott, 27, missed six races this season after suffering a broken leg in a snowboarding accident but returned three weeks ago Martinsville and finished 10th. NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver won a series-best five races last year but finished fourth in the standings. He has five top-five finishes in his last eight starts at Kansas, including second in 2021’s fall race.
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Chevrolet
Larson, 30, won the 2021 playoff race at Kansas Speedway in his first season for Hendrick Motorsports en route to the Cup championship. Larson is one of three drivers to win two races this season, on the short tracks at Richmond and Martinsville, owns 21 career wins. He was second and eighth at Kansas in 2022.
Kyle Busch, No. 8 Chevrolet
Busch, the series champion in 2015 and 2019, has two Cup victories at Kansas Speedway, including the spring of 2020 when swept the Cup and trucks races That gave him nine career victories (two Cup, four Xfinity and three trucks) across NASCAR’s three national series at Kansas, most of any driver. After 15 years with Joe Gibbs Racing, he moved to Richard Childress Racing this year and has won at Fontana and Talladega, giving him 62 career wins, ninth all-time.
Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Ford
Harvick, the only driver to have started all 34 Cup races at Kansas, has won three times at the track, most recently in the spring of 2018 for Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick, 46, has announced his retirement from fulltime racing effective the end of this season. Harvick, who owns 60 career wins, which ranks 10th all-time, has left his mark at Kansas. In addition to three wins, he has five second-place finishes and three thirds. He has an average finish of 9.9 at the track despite finishes of 15th and 36th last year.
Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Toyota
Truex is the only driver to win twice in one season at Kansas Speedway when he swept both races in 2017 en route to the Cup championship. Truex, 42, is coming off his first win of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing in Monday’s rain-delayed race Dover on Monday, snapping a winless streak of 54 straight races. He has been in the top 10 in his last seven races at Kansas including sixth and fifth in 2022.
Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Ford
Keselowki, the 2012 Cup champion, is in his second season as a co-owner/driver for RFK Racing. Keselowki owns 35 career Cup wins, ranking 24th all-time, including victories at Kansas in 2011 and 2019. But Keselowski, who last week was named one of the 75 Greatest Drivers in NASCAR history, has yet to win in his last 73 starts, though he came close this season with a second at Atlanta and fifth at Talladega. Keselowski has seven top five and 13 top 10 finishes in 26 career starts at Kansas.
Bubba Wallace, No. 23 Toyota
Wallace moved from the No. 23 car to the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing last fall after Kurt Busch, the spring winner at Kansas, suffered a season-ending Toyota. Wallace, 29, promptly won the fall race for his second career victory. He’s back in the No. 23 in which he was 10th in the spring race last year and is looking for his first win of this season.
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Chevrolet
Chastain, 30, has yet to bust any watermelons in Victory Lane this season but he took over the points lead by finishing second on Monday at Dover for Trackhouse Racing, his fourth top-five finish of the season. Chastain, who has drawn the ire of fellow drivers by crashing them with risky and reckless moves on the track, posted his first two career Cup wins in 2022. He was seventh in both races at Kansas last year.