Kyle Busch Captures Lady In Blue at Kansas Lottery 300
Kyle Busch took the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway after starting sixth and leading only 34 laps. The turning point came in the closing laps when Busch took command, passing Harvick with 20 laps to go. It was his sixth Nationwide series victory of the year. Kevin Harvick and Ryan Blaney crossed the line in the follow up spots.
Busch stated, “Great effort by (crew chief) Adam (Stevens) and all the guys on this 54 car. It was really awesome again today and should have won at Chicago just like we did here today. Missed out there, but we just keep doing things right, and you end up in Victory Lane, so you have to have it all match up for you.”
Kevin Harvick finished second and said, “They gave us a good opportunity with strategy there, (but) the 54 was quite a bit better as we got going into the run,” Harvick said. “We could hold him off for a short run, but in the end his car would maintain speed, and ours would slow down. We just got beat there today, but that happens.”
Ryan Blaney who finished third commented on his finish in the Penske Ford, “We started off really good and in the middle of the race we were really good. We had green flag stops and Kevin stayed out because he pitted a little before everybody on that previous caution. That caught everybody a lap down and that put us behind a little bit. Kevin had a fast car. We were just too loose the last run and we didn’t tighten it up enough and the track cooled off a little too much, more than we were prepared for. I couldn’t get in the corner. Not a bad day for us, we just need to adjust a little better.”
Chase Elliott holds on to the points lead despite a 10th place finish and leads Regan Smith by 38 points. Regan Smith crashed in qualifying and had to go to a back up car and struggled all day after being penalized to the rear of the field. He finished in 22nd place.
Ty Dillion had a strong day qualifying on the pole and finishing fifth and is currently third (-40) in the championship points standings, followed by Brian Scott (-57) in fourth and Elliott Sadler in fifth (-60).
The next event for the Nationwide Series will be in Charlotte, on October 10, 2014.
Finishing order of the Kansas Lottery 300:
| 1 | 54 | Kyle Busch |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 5 | Kevin Harvick |
| 3 | 22 | Ryan Blaney |
| 4 | 33 | Paul Menard |
| 5 | 3 | Ty Dillon |
| 6 | 20 | Matt Kenseth |
| 7 | 11 | Elliott Sadler |
| 8 | 6 | Trevor Bayne |
| 9 | 2 | Brian Scott |
| 10 | 9 | Chase Elliott |
| 11 | 31 | Dylan Kwasniewski |
| 12 | 16 | Ryan Reed |
| 13 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan |
| 14 | 19 | Mike Bliss |
| 15 | 44 | David Starr |
| 16 | 40 | Matt DiBenedetto |
| 17 | 51 | Jeremy Clements |
| 18 | 28 | J.J. Yeley |
| 19 | 14 | Eric McClure |
| 20 | 39 | Ryan Sieg |
| 21 | 99 | James Buescher |
| 22 | 7 | Regan Smith |
| 23 | 70 | Derrike Cope |
| 24 | 87 | Jennifer Jo Cobb |
| 25 | 43 | Dakoda Armstrong |
| 26 | 98 | Corey Lajoie |
| 27 | 55 | Jamie Dick |
| 28 | 60 | Chris Buescher |
| 29 | 4 | Jeffrey Earnhardt |
| 30 | 42 | Kyle Larson |
| 31 | 25 | John Wes Townley |
| 32 | 52 | Joey Gase |
| 33 | 90 | Martin Roy |
| 34 | 01 | Landon Cassill |
| 35 | 72 | Carl Long |
| 36 | 10 | Blake Koch |
| 37 | 93 | Kevin Swindell |
| 38 | 74 | Mike Harmon |
| 39 | 23 | Timmy Hill |
| 40 | 29 | Milka Duno |
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Harvick Takes Pole for the Hollywood Casino 400
Kevin Harvick took the Coors Light Pole Award for the Hollywood Casino 400 with a speed of 197.621 mph or 27.325 seconds It is his third pole in a row at Kansas Speedway. The pole was Harvick’s eighth of the season and his 21st top-10 start in 2014.
Harvick also set a new track qualifing record of 197.773 mph in the second round. It broke the previoius track record of 194.252 mph which was his own track record. It was the ninth track qualifying record for Chevrolet in 2014.
“I’m just really proud of everybody on our Budweiser team. We’ve been dealt some bad luck throughout the year, but it hasn’t fazed them in continuing to work on the cars and the speed. The first three weeks we have led a bunch of laps and qualified well. Last week had them covered and a valve stem got knocked off by a lugnut. Keep doing the things that you are doing and that luck will all come full circle and as long as the cars continue to be fast that stuff all comes back to you. Hopefully it peaks at the right time,” stated Harvick.
The outside front row starting spot belongs to Brian Vickers. It is his ninth top-10 start of 2014 and his fourth in 11 races at Kansas Speedway.
“It’s fast — wow. A 27.50 second lap around here, that was a fun lap. All the guys on this team did an awesome job with the car. That was probably the best setup race car on the race track. You’re not going to get through the corners any faster than that. I was really proud of the guys. Hopefully we can take that and take it into the race,” Vickers said post qualifying.
Aric Almirola will start on the second row in third position after being eliminated from the Chase last week at Dover.
“That was really important for us,” he noted. “Even though we are out of it we still want to compete like we are in the Chase; prove we are capable of doing it and prove it to ourselves and everyone else out there. This is exactly how we need to do that. We need a good run Sunday. We still have a lot to race for. We can get as high as fifth in points and that should be our goal, to get as high in points as we can.”
Joey Logano, who will start in fourth, was happy with his qualifying effort.
“That was faster than we were in practice, so that is good,” he explained. “Overall it is a good starting spot. Fourth is good. The outside lane is good to be in. We will try to move up from there and make sure we make good use of that good starting spot. That is important. Track position is important here and qualifying is one of the most important things of the weekend here and I am glad we were able to capitalize and get a good starting spot.”
The Hollywood Casino 400 will be televised on ESPN Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.
The final starting order is as follows:
1) Kevin Harvick
2) Brian Vickers
3) Aric Almirola
4) Joey Logano
5) Jeff Gordon
6) Brad Keselowski
7_ Kyle Busch
8) Dale Earnhardt Jr.
9) Tony Sewart
10) Kasey Kahne
11) Greg Biffle
12) Carl Edwards
13) Paul Menard
14) Jamie McMurray
15) Martin Truex Jr.
16) Austin Dillion
17) Ryan Newman
18) Kyle Larson
19) Clint Bowyer
20) AJ Allmendinger
21) Justin Allgaier
22) Marcos Ambrose
23) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24) Kurt Busch
25) Denny Hamlin
26) Casey Mears
27) Matt Kenseth
28) Michael McDowell
29) Danica Patrick
30) Reed Sorenson
31) David Gilliland
32) Jimmie Johnson
33) Alex Bowman
34) Josh Wise
35) Landon Cassill
36) Michael Annett
37) David Tagan
38) JJ Yeley
39) Cole Whitt
40) Timmy Hill
41) Mike Bliss
42) Joey Gase
43) Mike Wallace
