NASCAR’s return to Kansas Speedway highlights big weekend for sports in Kansas City

NASCAR’s return to Kansas Speedway this weekend will have a lot to live up to.

A night after the Chiefs’ season-opening game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, the attention and national television cameras will focus 20 miles to the west on I-70, where NASCAR will take center stage all weekend at Kansas Speedway.

Critical playoff races will be contested in the NASCAR Cup and Craftsman Trucks Series, while the Xfinity Series will hold the regular-season finale that will determine its 10-driver playoff field.

“It’s going to be an unbelievable sports weekend for the city,” said Kansas Speedway president Pat Warren. “To have not just the Chiefs’ opener, but the NFL opener ...

“I joked with people, with our September schedule, which puts us up against the NFL’s opening weekend, which is a challenge, that the Chiefs have to keep winning Super Bowls, so we don’t have a conflict on Sundays.”

Those in the NASCAR garages still consider the Cup race last May as one of the highlights of the 2023 season.

Denny Hamlin took the lead for good with 14 laps remaining by pushing Kyle Larson into the wall and won his track-record fourth Cup race at Kansas. The race featured 38 lead changes, the most in NASCAR history for a 400-mile race on a 1.5-mile track. Plus, the event was marked by 11 cautions and a post-race brawl between Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson.

Here’s a breakdown on what’s to come this weekend at Kansas Speedway:

Sunday

NASCAR Cup Hollywood Casino 400, 2 p.m. Sunday: It’s the second of three races in the Round of 16 playoffs, and Larson, by winning last week at Darlington, is the first driver assured of advancing to the Round of 8.

“I hope we can just put multiple weeks together like we did (at Darlington),” said Larson, who won from the pole at Kansas en route to the 2021 Cup title. “I know we’ll be capable of winning every race in the playoffs. But really, I just want to put together solid races from start to finish, get stage points, get some stage wins would be great, and then get some good finishes at the end of it.”

Martin Truex Jr., the series’ regular-season champion, and William Byron, by virtue of a series-most five wins, likely have accumulated enough playoff points to move on without a win in the first round, but nothing is guaranteed.

“You never know what can happen in the playoffs,“ said Truex Jr., who won the 2017 championship when he swept both races at Kansas. “The elimination format, it could be crazy. Every single weekend we’re right there. We’re in the mix, we have really good speed and a shot to win, it seems like on a regular basis. That’s kind of where you want to be.

“In our years where we won our championship or finished second and were right there, it was kind of the same feeling. Every week was, ‘OK, we’re right there and if we do everything right, we’re going to be in the hunt for the win.’

“Yeah, that feels good and hopefully we can keep that up for the next nine races.”

But first... Saturday

NASCAR Xfinity Kansas Lottery 300, 2 p.m. Saturday: Eight drivers are locked into the 12-man playoff field, led by John Hunter Nemechek, who has a series-most five wins, and Austin Hill, who has four.

But before that... Friday

NASCAR Craftsman Trucks Series, 8 p.m. Friday: Ty Majeski and Grant Enfinger have advanced to the Round of 8 with wins in the first two races, leaving one guaranteed spot and five others based on points will be determined for the next round which begins next week at Bristol.

Enfinger secured his spot in the Round of 8 by winning at Milwaukee four days after his organization, GMS Racing announced it would cease operations at the end of the season. It was Enfinger’s third win of the season, including the race at Kansas in May.

Also on Friday...

ARCA Menards Sioux Chief Fast Track 150, 5 p.m. Friday: The four-race weekend opens with the second ARCA race of the season at Kansas.

Jesse Love, who led 96 of the 100 laps in winning the May race, has won nine of 14 starts. Love, 18, owns a commanding lead in the standings over Frankie Muniz, the former star of the television series, “Malcolm in the Middle.”

Mandy Chick of DeSoto, Kansas, will be in the field. She finished 12th in the May race at Kansas.