FORD PERFORMANCE: NASCAR KANSAS PLAYOFF NOTES
The Round of 12 will be whittled to eight following this weekend’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway. Brad Keselowski is guaranteed to advance after his win at Talladega on Sunday while Kevin Harvick and Ryan Blaney are currently in transfer positions. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is 22 points behind the final cutoff position in 11th place.
FORD DRIVER PLAYOFF POSITIONS
2nd – Brad Keselowski (Clinched spot in Round of 8)
4th – Kevin Harvick (+22 points ahead of 9th-place Kyle Busch)
7th – Ryan Blaney (+9 points ahead of Busch)
11th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-22 points behind 8th-place Jimmie Johnson)
RESTRICTOR PLATE SWEEP COMPLETE
Brad Keselowski’s victory on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway gave Ford a sweep of the restrictor plate races in 2017 after Kurt Busch won the Daytona 500 and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the next two events. This marks the first time in history Ford has won all four plate races in a single-season. Ford is on a streak that includes seven consecutive restrictor-plate victories and 16 of the last 28 at Daytona and Talladega combined. Overall, eight different drivers have registered at least one plate triumph during that time, led by Keselowski with four and Penske teammate Joey Logano with three.
KANSAS BACK-TO-BACK
Joey Logano became the first driver to automatically advance to the Eliminator Round of the Chase in 2014 as he took the lead from Ryan Newman with 29 laps to go and held off Kyle Larson to get his career-best fifth win of the season. In 2015, Logano ended up dueling with Matt Kenseth in a well-documented battle 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.
UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS
A couple of rain delays and impending darkness couldn’t keep Greg Biffle from winning a shortened Lifelock 400 on Sept. 30, 2007. The race was delayed for more than three hours and NASCAR decided to shorten the distance from 267 laps to 210 laps when it became evident there wouldn’t be enough daylight to finish the event. Biffle passed Kevin Harvick on lap 274, but when Juan Pablo Montoya blew a tire to bring out the caution with four laps to go it appeared he would have to survive a green-white-checker finish in order to win. NASCAR, however, decided to end the race under caution due to darkness. The win was Biffle’s first of the season and snapped a 32-race winless drought.
ON THE MARK
Ford went to victory for the first time at Kansas Speedway on Oct. 9, 2005 when Mark Martin took the checkered flag in what was a Roush Fenway Racing runaway with teammates Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards finishing second and third, respectively. Martin led a race-high 139 laps, including 81 of the final 83 circuits, to win by one-half second. It marked the second time in as many months that RFR swept the top three spots, a feat it did two more times during that season. In addition, the victory ended up being Martin’s last with Ford. His 35 series wins with the manufacturer ranks third all-time behind leader Ned Jarrett (43) and second-place Bill Elliott (40).
FORD MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP WINNERS AT KANSAS
2005 – Mark Martin
2007 – Greg Biffle
2010 – Greg Biffle
2012 – Matt Kenseth (2)
2014 – Joey Logano (2)
2015 – Joey Logano (2)
