KANSAS SPEEDWAY (1.5-MILE TRI-OVAL)
LOCATION: KANSAS CITY, KANSAS
EVENT: NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES (RACE 31 OF 36)
TUNE IN: 2:15 P.M. ET, SUNDAY, OCT.18 (NBC/MRN/SIRIUSXM)
No. 5 LiftMaster Chevrolet SS / Kasey Kahne
Driver Kasey Kahne Hometown Enumclaw, Washington
Age 35 Resides Mooresville, North Carolina
2015 Season
18th in standings
30 starts
0 wins
1 pole position
2 top-five finishes
8 top-10 finishes
48 laps led
Career
426 starts
17 wins
27 pole positions
85 top-five finishes
154 top-10 finishes
4,589 laps led
Track Career
16 starts
0 wins
3 pole positions
4 top-five finishes
7 top-10 finishes
102 laps led
LIFTMASTER ON THE NO. 5 CHEVY SS: LiftMaster will adorn the hood of Kasey Kahne’s No. 5 Chevrolet SS this weekend at Kansas Speedway for the third time this season. LiftMaster, a longtime supporter of the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation (NFFF), has partnered with the nonprofit again to raise funding that assists the NFFF in its mission to provide resources to the fallen firefighters’ survivors in rebuilding their lives and work within the fire service community while also reducing firefighter deaths and injuries. This weekend at Kansas, Kahne will present a $10,000 check on behalf of LiftMaster to the NFFF.
1.5-MILE TRACK STATS: Kahne has collected eight of his 17 career Cup wins and 11 of his 27 pole positions on 1.5-mile tracks.
KANSAS POLE WINNER: With three career pole positions at Kansas, Kahne is tied for first all-time at the 1.5-mile oval with Kevin Harvick and teammate Jimmie Johnson. Kahne last scored the No. 1 starting spot at the track in October 2012.
KAHNE AT KANSAS: Kahne has qualified in the top 10 in 10 of his 16 starts at Kansas Speedway. Kahne also is tied with Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Newman for the series’ most runner-up finishes at Kansas with two.
KANSAS LOOP DATA: In the last 10 races at Kansas Speedway, Kahne ranks second in pole positions, fifth in top-five finishes and sixth in top-10 finishes. According to NASCAR loop data in the last 10 years at Kansas Speedway, Kahne ranks second in green flag passes (1,089 passes), fifth in quality passes (35.7 percent), sixth in fastest laps run (164 laps) and seventh in laps in the top 15 (67.8 percent).
No. 24 3M Chevrolet SS / Jeff Gordon
Driver Jeff Gordon Hometown Pittsboro, Indiana
Age 44 Resides Charlotte, North Carolina
2015 Season
7th in standings
30 starts
0 wins
3 pole positions
3 top-five finishes
15 top-10 finishes
209 laps led
Career
791 starts
92 wins
80 pole positions
323 top-five finishes
469 top-10 finishes
24,873 laps led
Track Career
19 starts
3 wins
0 pole positions
11 top-five finishes
13 top-10 finishes
218 laps led
Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 3M Chevrolet SS, is scheduled to visit the Kansas Speedway media center at 2:30 p.m. local time Friday.
CHARLOTTE RECAP: Jeff Gordon started 22nd and finished eighth in Sunday’s rain-delayed Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is seventh in the Sprint Cup point standings.
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE KANSAS: Gordon, driver of the No. 24 3M Chevrolet SS, has the most top-five finishes all-time at Kansas while he is tied for most victories and starts.
INAUGURAL WINNER: On Sept. 30, 2001, Gordon won the inaugural Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway – Gordon’s sixth win during his fourth championship season. He would make it two-for-two at Kansas when he visited Victory Lane on Sept. 29, 2002.
POLE-LESS AT KANSAS: Although Gordon ranks third all-time with 80 career pole positions, Kansas Speedway is one of two tracks where he has yet to win a pole position. Kentucky Speedway is the only other venue where Gordon has never set the fastest lap during qualifying.
NEARING 25K: Gordon is 127 shy of 25,000 career laps led.
3-FOR-3M: 3M’s new corporate tagline “Science. Applied to Life.” will appear on the No. 24 Chevrolet SS in all three Contender Round events. This weekend marks the 10th time 3M has been the primary sponsor of the No. 24 Chevrolet SS in 2015.
No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS / Jimmie Johnson
Driver Jimmie Johnson Hometown El Cajon, California
Age 40 Resides Charlotte, North Carolina
2015 Season
14th in standings
30 starts
4 wins
0 pole positions
11 top-five finishes
18 top-10 finishes
469 laps led
Career
501 starts
74 wins
33 pole positions
204 top-five finishes
310 top-10 finishes
17,620 laps led
Track Career
18 starts
3 wins
3 pole positions
7 top-five finishes
15 top-10 finishes
596 laps led
LAPS LED: Johnson has led more laps than any other driver at the 1.5-mile track in Kansas City, Kansas. His 596 laps led are 88 more than his closest competitor.
LAST RACE AT KANSAS: At the May race in Kansas, Johnson led just 10 laps, but they were the final 10. Johnson won his third race of this season in the event that was red-flagged for more than two hours due to rain. Johnson took the lead on Lap 257 when No. 48 team crew chief Chad Knaus decided to keep the No. 48 Chevrolet SS out on the track for position. Johnson then held off a hard-charging Harvick for the win.
GOODYEAR TIRE TEST: Last month, Johnson and the No. 48 team tested for three days at Kansas Speedway, where Johnson represented the Hendrick Motorsports brigade of drivers.
KU MEDICAL CENTER VISIT: While testing in September, Johnson was able to visit the University of Kansas Hospital pediatric unit on behalf of NASCAR and Kansas Speedway. During the visit, Johnson made a monetary donation on behalf of the Jimmie Johnson Foundation and shared No. 48 Lowe’s diecasts as well as Blue Bunny Ice Cream with the patients. Click here for the photo gallery.
PINK FOR OCTOBER: Johnson will sport a special Lowe’s hat and Mission towel in the month of October to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Both the hat and towel will have the color pink in an effort to bring awareness to the disease. Johnson’s hat can be purchased here.
KANSAS DRIVER RATING: According to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, Johnson has the series-best driver rating at Kansas with a score of 111.6 during the past 10 years at the track. The driver rating is a formula that combines wins, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, most laps led and lead-lap finishes. The maximum a driver can earn in each race is 150 points. The driver rating number is used pre-race as a prediction tool and post-race as a performance evaluator.
MARTINSVILLE TICKET PACKAGE: The Jimmie Johnson Martinsville Ticket Package is $48 for adults and $24 for youth and includes a ticket in the Bill France Tower to see the race. Fans who have already purchased a race ticket can add on the Jimmie Johnson Martinsville Ticket package for just $10. The question-and-answer session with Johnson and NASA Rockets 2 Racecars activities will be held in the Martinsville Speedway hospitality area on Sunday, Nov. 1. To purchase call 1-877.RACE.TIX or go to www.MartinsvilleSpeedway.com.
MIAMI TICKET PACKAGE: Johnson will host a Q&A with kids and their parents on Championship Sunday — Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Package price is $148, which includes two tickets, pit passes and a Q&A with the six-time champion. To purchase, click here.
No. 88 Halo 5: Master Chief Chevrolet SS / Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hometown Kannapolis, North Carolina
Age 41 Resides Mooresville, North Carolina
2015 Season
11th in standings
30 starts
2 wins
0 pole positions
13 top-five finishes
18 top-10 finishes
204 laps led
Career
571 starts
25 wins
13 pole positions
140 top-five finishes
242 top-10 finishes
8,051 laps led
Track Career
18 starts
0 wins
1 pole position
3 top-five finishes
9 top-10 finishes
146 laps led
CHASE UPDATE: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Halo 5: Master Chief Chevrolet SS, finished 28th at Charlotte Motor Speedway last weekend after multiple incidents in which he made contact with the outside wall. He currently ranks 11th in the 2015 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, 32 points out of first and 19 points behind the eighth-place cutoff for transferring to the Eliminator Round. There are two races remaining in the Contender Round, Kansas Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, where Earnhardt finished third and first, respectively, in the spring.
HALO MEDIA EVENT: Earnhardt, along with three additional players, will challenge Jamie McMurray and his team of four to a four-on-four Halo 5: Guardians tournament on Friday from 3 to 3:15 p.m. local time in the drivers meeting tent behind the Kansas Speedway media center. He, along with McMurray and Kiki Wolfkill, studio head of the Halo Interactive Entertainment and Channel at 343 Industries, will be available for interviews from 3:15 to 3:30 p.m. local time. Halo 5: Guardians – which hits retail shelves on Oct. 27, exclusively for Xbox One – is the next highly anticipated installment in the Halo franchise. Featuring the most ambitious, robust and epic Halo campaign and multiplayer experience ever created, Halo 5: Guardians tells the ambiguous story of the Master Chief; missing in action and his loyalty in question, amidst a mysterious and unstoppable force that has threatened the galaxy.
HALO 5: GUARDIANS PAINT SCHEME: Xbox and 343 Industries have partnered with Hendrick Motorsports and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates to bring Halo 5: Guardians to life with two Halo-branded paint schemes at Kansas Speedway. Earnhardt, NASCAR’s 12-time most popular driver, will be driving a Master Chief-inspired scheme, and Jamie McMurray will be in a Spartan Locke-inspired machine. The Master Chief and Spartan Locke paint schemes are echoed in the hunter versus hunted narrative from the Halo 5: Guardians storyline.
SUCCESS ON 1.5-MILE TRACKS: This season, Earnhardt has had strong runs on 1.5-mile tracks, earning an average finish of 9.6 in eight races. At Kansas, the Kannapolis, North Carolina, native has an average finish of 15.8 in 18 races, but in the last four years, excluding a 39th-place result due to a trip to the garage after contact with the wall in last fall’s race, when he led 45 laps, his average finish has improved to 7.9. While he has yet to win in Kansas City, Kansas, he’s earned three top-five and five top-10 finishes in the eight most recent races at the venue.
LOOP DATA: According to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, Earnhardt ranks second among all active drivers in the “closers” category, which tallies the number of position a driver improves in the last 10 percent of the race, gaining an average of 1.7 spots for a total of 24 during the last 10 years at Kansas Speedway. In that span, the driver of the No. 88 Halo 5: Master Chief Chevy SS is scored sixth in average speed late in a run, eighth in green-flag passes (1,005), and ranks ninth among drivers in fastest laps run (139) and 10th in laps led at the 1.5-mile oval (124).
2016 NATIONWIDE PAINT SCHEME REVEALED: Nationwide has revealed the No. 88 Chevrolet that Earnhardt will pilot in 13 races in 2016. The Nationwide paint scheme was inspired by one of Earnhardt’s favorite cars, “The Grey Ghost,” driven by Buddy Baker when he won the Daytona 500 in 1980. Earnhardt surprised a few lucky fans, who also got to help him unveil his 2016 Nationwide Chevrolet SS.
Hendrick Motorsports
HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AT KANSAS: With six victories at Kansas Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports ranks first among teams all-time at the 1.5-mile speedway. Gordon and Johnson are tied for first all-time with three wins apiece at the track. Johnson most recently won for the organization at the track earlier this season.
ORGANIZATION STATS: To date, Hendrick Motorsports has totals of 237 victories, 204 pole positions, 971 top-five finishes and 1,621 top-10 finishes in Sprint Cup competition. Its teams have led 64,771 laps since 1984.
QUOTABLE /
“Kansas is one of my favorite tracks and since the repave it seems to just get better every trip. We’ve run pretty well there in the past. It’s fast and puts on a pretty good show. In my opinion, it’s definitely a top-three place where NASCAR goes throughout the season. I also enjoy the Kansas City area because there’s a lot to do, so it’s always a fun time.”
Kasey Kahne on racing at Kansas
“Kansas is a very fast track with multiple grooves. There’s just something about how smooth the transitions from the straightaways into the corners, the length of the corners and the width of the track that seems to offer a lot of options to drivers and teams to get the most out of the car.”
Jeff Gordon on racing at Kansas
“We tested at Kansas in September and really found some speed in the car. Although the result didn’t show it, we had a great car at Charlotte last weekend – it would have been at least a top-five if we didn’t have the oil pump issue. There is still plenty of racing to do in this season and we intend to be in the mix.”
Jimmie Johnson on racing at Kansas
“On the last couple of trips to Kansas, we’ve been able to get against the fence. It’s a fun race — I love running up there against the wall through the corners. You can get some great runs on the guys trying to work the bottom, so it turns into a really fun race when the track gets that wide. You’ve got to work that top groove when it comes in. If your car is working on the bottom, that’s great, but you might have to go to the top to get around guys, and get out from behind them and get some clean air.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. on racing at Kansas
“You’d like to go in and get a win as soon as you can in this format, and get yourself locked in to take the pressure off. Our guys have been bringing some great cars to the racetrack. We’ve run good at these next few tracks that we’re going to. I’m just going to take it one corner at a time and try to do the best I can on the track, and hopefully we have smooth stops and don’t have any issues with the car.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. on strategy in the Chase
