FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: KANSAS PLAYOFF ADVANCE
The Round of 8 for the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR XFINITY Series continues this weekend at Kansas Speedway with Ford drivers Ryan Blaney (Cup) and Austin Cindric (NXS) holding down Championship 4 transfer spots in their respective series with two races remaining. The NASCAR XFINITY Series starts off the race weekend on Saturday while the Cup drivers take to the track on Sunday afternoon.
This Week’s Schedule:
Saturday, October 23 – NASCAR XFINITY Series, 3 p.m. ET (NBC)
Sunday, October 24 – NASCAR Cup Series, 3 p.m. ET (NBCSN)
ROUND OF 8 NCS PLAYOFF STANDINGS (Top 4 Advance After Martinsville)
2nd – Ryan Blaney (+17 ahead of cutoff)
6th – Brad Keselowski (-15)
8th – Joey Logano (-43)
FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT KANSAS
· Ford has nine all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins at Kansas.
· Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano all have multiple Cup wins at Kansas.
· Mark Martin registered Ford’s first Cup win at Kansas in 2005.
ROUND OF 8 NXS PLAYOFF STANDINGS (Top 4 Advance After Martinsville)
2nd – Austin Cindric (+26)
FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT KANSAS
· Ford has four NASCAR XFINITY Series wins at Kansas.
· Jeff Green won the inaugural series race in 2001 while Jeff Burton won the following year.
· Chase Briscoe has Ford’s last series win at the track (2020).
KANSAS RANKS #2 ON FORD CUP PLAYOFF WIN LIST
Ford has had a great deal of success at Kansas Speedway in the playoffs, going into this weekend’s race with seven post-season victories. That figure is tied for second with Homestead-Miami Speedway on the all-time playoff win list for Ford. Joey Logano leads the way with three Kansas playoff wins while Greg Biffle registered two. Ford’s winningest track in playoff competition is Talladega Superspeedway with nine.
BLANEY SHOWING CONSISTENCY
Ryan Blaney finds himself second in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings, 17 points above the Championship 4 cutoff and is coming off a solid sixth-place run last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. That continued a stretch which has seen Blaney finish 10th or better in 12 of the last 16 races, which includes back-to-back wins at Michigan and Daytona, for an average finish of 8.1. He’ll look to keep that consistency going on Sunday at Kansas Speedway, where he has six top-10 finishes in 13 career starts.
KEEP AN EYE ON KESELOWSKI
Brad Keselowski comes into this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race 15 points behind fourth-place Kyle Busch for the final Championship 4 spot, but the next two stops in the Round of 8 have statistically been among his best. On tracks where Keselowski has made at least 15 career starts, Kansas ranks as his sixth-best with an average finish of 11.3 (23 starts) while Martinsville is fifth at 11.2 (23 starts). Keselowski, who owns two wins at both places, heads to Kansas having finished fourth or better in four of his last five starts, but Martinsville has been even better as he boasts nine finishes of fifth or better in the last 11 races.
LOGANO GOING FOR FOURTH KANSAS VICTORY
Joey Logano will be looking for his second straight Kansas playoff victory this weekend and fourth overall at the 1.5-mile track after he took the lead from Kevin Harvick with 45 laps to go and won last year’s event to advance to the Championship 4. Logano, whose three wins at Kansas is tied for a personal best at one track with Michigan International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, comes into the weekend 43 points below the final transfer spot. He won for the first time at Kansas in 2014, and then did it again one year later in a well-documented battle with Matt Kenseth that resulted in contact as the two entered turn one with five laps to go. That controversial finish marked Logano’s second straight win in the Chase and led to a sweep of the Contender Round as he took the checkered flag the following week at Talladega Superspeedway.
CINDRIC PEAKING AT RIGHT TIME?
Austin Cindric’s fifth-place finish in Saturday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway continued a streak in which the Team Penske driver has five top-5 efforts in the last seven races. Overall, Cindric leads the NASCAR XFINITY Series with 19 top-5 and 23 top-10 finishes in 30 starts while his five victories is tied for the most among series drivers. Cindric goes into this weekend’s action at Kansas Speedway second in the standings and 26 points above the Championship 4 cutline.
FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS AT KANSAS
2005 – Mark Martin
2007 – Greg Biffle
2010 – Greg Biffle
2012 – Matt Kenseth (2)
2014 – Joey Logano (2)
2015 – Joey Logano (2)
2018 – Kevin Harvick (1)
2019 – Brad Keselowski (1)
2020 – Joey Logano (2)
FORD NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS AT KANSAS
2001 – Jeff Green
2002 – Jeff Burton
2012 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2020 – Chase Briscoe
