NASCAR Cup Series

Harvick qualified 24th at Talladega and struggled to find speed for much of the day. Then, the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Chevy received front-end damage after being caught up in a lap 47 accident. Despite his troubles, Harvick scored a solid eighth-place finish and remained atop the Sprint Cup points standings.

“Kansas is a fast, smooth track, which I really like. We have been working really hard on our intermediate program. We’ve finished in the top 15 at the past two intermediate tracks and have made some more gains since Texas.

“Kansas is a fast and pretty challenging track since the repave here. I’m ready to get there this weekend with this AdvoCare Ford that (crew chief) Bob (Osborne) and all the guys back at the shop have been working on all week and give it everything we’ve got. Hopefully come night’s end on Saturday we’ll have a strong finish.”

“I’m ready for Kansas this weekend. I have a couple of wins there and our Cheez-It car featuring Patrick from SpongeBob Squarepants looks really cool. Kansas is really smooth, really fast and we are looking for a win this weekend.”

As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Kansas Speedway for the 11th race of the 2015 season, Allstate Peterbilt Group, the upper Midwest's largest truck dealer group and a longtime partner of Michael Annett dating back to his time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, prepares for its first race of the season adorning the No. 46 Chevrolet SS as the primary partner for the weekend.

In an effort to further the chemistry of the No. 9 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race team, Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) announced today Kevin Manion has been assigned as the crew chief of that team with driver Sam Hornish, Jr. Manion will begin his duties immediately and call the race this weekend at Kansas Speedway.

Aric Almirola and the No. 43 team escaped the crapshoot of superspeedway racing with a Top-15 finish and now look to a favored track for both the driver and team. Kansas Speedway is a track Almirola has circled on his calendar. Of the last five races at the Midwest track, Almirola and the No. 43 team competed up front and finished in the Top-10 for all but two events where an engine issue and blown tire relegated their finishes.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Kansas Speedway for the first of two visits this season and Ford will be looking for its second straight win after Joey Logano won there in October. Here’s a closer look at Ford’s history in Kansas.

Heading into Saturday Nights SpongeBob SquarePants 400, Gase will be making his second career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) start in "The Sunflower State". The 21 year old, Gase made his second career NSCS start at the Kansas Speedway in the 2014 fall event, finishing 37th driving for Go Green Racing. The Cedar Rapids, IA native is coming off a career best finish of fifth in last weekend's NASCAR Xfinity Series Win-Dixie 300 at Talladega SuperSpeedway.

In 56 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Kansas Speedway, Richard Childress Racing has one win, visiting victory lane in 2013 with Kevin Harvick, among five top-five and 18 top-10 finishes. The Welcome, N.C.-based organization holds an average starting position of 19.6, an average finishing position of 14.9, has completed 14,609 of the 14,801 contested laps (98.7 percent) and has collectively led for 281 laps around the 1.5-mile race track.