KANSAS 2
Friday, September 27 — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 8:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, September 28 — NASCAR Xfinity Series, 4 p.m. ET (CW)
Sunday, September 29 — NASCAR Cup Series, 3 p.m. ET (USA)
For the first time this season, all three of NASCAR’s top touring series will be conducting playoff races and Kansas Speedway is the venue. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series kicks things off with the final race in the Round of 10 in which two drivers will be eliminated on Friday night. The next afternoon will feature the initial postseason event for the NASCAR Xfinity Series while the NASCAR Cup drivers compete in the first race in their Round of 12.
FORD DRIVERS IN THE CUP PLAYOFFS
Ryan Blaney – 5th (+11 above cut line)
Joey Logano – 8th (+4)
Austin Cindric – 9th (-4 below cut line)
Chase Briscoe – 12th (-7)
Note: Top 8 advance after Charlotte
FORD PLAYOFF DRIVERS AT KANSAS
Joey Logano: 30 starts, 3 wins, 9 top-10, 12 top-10
Ryan Blaney: 19 starts, 0 wins, 3 top-5, 7 top-10
Chase Briscoe: 7 starts, 0 wins, 0 top-5, 0 top-10
Austin Cindric: 6 starts, 0 wins, 0 top-5, 0 top-10
RYAN BLANEY: “As you move through the rounds there’s just no room for error. It’s just less wiggle room. The Round of 16 you have more of a chance of more guys having problems and if you do, you can kind of make up for it, but as you cut guys those odds kind of go up. If you have a bad day, it’s gonna be hard to recover, so we just have to execute our job, have fast cars, and do a good job on the track and on pit road and execute well, and we’ll see if we can make it to the next one.”
JOEY LOGANO: “It’s just the same stuff. You’ve got to get some points to survive. Kansas will be important. You’ve still got Talladega in there, which is quite the wild card, and then the Roval. It’s a fairly similar round to what we just went through, so you’ve got to be able to score some points. We just have to go back to Kansas this weekend and run good. We need to go up there and run in the top five and score stage points and position ourselves solid into the next two races after that.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC: “That’s what we need to do as a team and it’s something we had challenges putting together, but the potential is there. The team did an awesome job this round and I’m proud of that, but everything resets so no reason why we can’t replicate that performance. I’m happy to be moving on. It’s one step closer to racing for a championship.”
CHASE BRISCOE: “I think our backs are up against the wall. No other team in this sport can relate to what we’re going through and just how hungry we all are, so I think we all want to go out as winners and we just know that we’re capable of doing it when we put it together. I think, for us, when we finally did win at Darlington we kind of proved that to ourselves and just the confidence that has come with that over the last three weeks has been a lot, so looking forward to the next however many races we’ve got left.”
LOGANO’S KANSAS PLAYOFF SUCCESS
Joey Logano will be looking for his fourth career win at Kansas Speedway this weekend, which would be a personal best. Logano currently has three career wins at five series tracks, including Kansas, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, Phoenix Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway. 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 playoff win and led to a sweep of the round as he took the checkered flag the following week at Talladega. His last Kansas win came in 2020 when he led the final 45 laps to beat Kevin Harvick across the finish line and clinch a spot in the Championship 4.
CUSTER AND HERBST SET FOR PLAYOFF OPENER
Defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer comes into Saturday’s playoff opener riding high after winning last week’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway and claiming the regular season championship. Custer’s second win of the season enabled him to earn the second seed and grab a 21-point cushion on the cut line to open the round. Riley Herbst finds himself back in the playoffs as the eighth seed, three points above the cut line. This will be his sixth career series start at Kansas with his best finish coming in 2020 when he was ninth.
FORD AND RIGGS LOOK TO CONTINUE WINNING STREAK
Ford and Front Row Motorsports driver Layne Riggs come into this weekend’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race looking to extend winning streaks. Ford has won the last four in a row with Ty Majeski and Riggs winning twice each. The last time the Blue Oval captured five consecutive series races was in 2000 when Greg Biffle won three straight (Texas, Kentucky and Watkins Glen) and Kurt Busch followed with two in a row (Road America and New Hampshire). Coincidentally, Biffle’s three-race win streak is the last time a Ford driver won three consecutive series events.
MAJESKI IN GOOD POSITION TO ADVANCE
Championship contender Ty Majeski, enters this weekend’s elimination race solidly in fourth place and 58 points above the cut line. Majeski has a streak of four straight top-10 finishes, including a pair of wins in Indianapolis and Richmond. In seven career series starts at Kansas, Majeski has recorded a pair of top-10 finishes with a second-place run in 2022 being his top performance.
RHODES ON THE BUBBLE IN ELIMINATION RACE
Defending NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes finds himself on the outside looking in as the final race of Round 1 prepares to take place Friday night at Kansas Speedway. Rhodes, who has won two titles in the past three years, is 10th in the standings and 12 points out of the final transfer position as two drivers will be eliminated. This will mark the 14th series start for Rhodes at Kansas, who has a pair of top-5 and 5 top-10 finishes, including a runner-up effort in 2019.
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
FORD NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT KANSAS
2003 – Jon Wood
2004 – Carl Edwards
2006 – Terry Cook
2007 – Erik Darnell
2020 – Matt Crafton (2)
2022 – Zane Smith (1)
