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Previewing The STP 400 at Kansas Speedway

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images

NASCAR roars into Kansas Speedway this weekend for the 8th race of the 2013 season. It seems like we are saying this at every track this year but once again, you can expect record speeds by the Gen-6 this weekend. Kansas was repaved last summer and we all remember the wild show it put on in the fall.

Sixteen cars posted DNF’s and fourteen cautions flew in the crash marred event that Matt Kenseth ended up winning by just four tenths over Martin Truex Jr. The 12-year old track has featured fourteen races producing ten different winners.

The 1.5 mile venue is owned by the International Speedway Corporation (ISC) and seats 81,687 people. It’s classified as a “D-Shaped Tri-Oval” much like its sister track, Chicagoland Speedway. Here are some stats and facts that you should know as we gear up for this mid-western throw-down!

Kansas Speedway Track Facts

Track Size: 1.5-miles

Banking/Turns 1 & 2: 17-20 degrees

Banking/Turns 3 & 4: 17-20 degrees

Banking/Frontstretch: 10 degrees

Banking/Backstretch: 5 degrees

Frontstretch Length:  2,685 feet

Backstretch Length:  2,207 feet

Race Length: 267 laps / 400 miles

Capacity: 81,687

 

Kansas Speedway Stats

Inaugural Race Winner: Jeff Gordon by .413 tenths over Ryan Newman

Only Driver to Sweep the Weekend: Joe Nemechek winning both the NNS and NSCS events in 2004

Most Wins By a Driver: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle who have all won twice

Most Wins By a Team: Roush Fenway Racing and Hendrick Motorsports who each have 4

Most Wins By a Manufactuer: Chevrolet has won 7 of the 14 events (Ford-4, Dodge-2, Toyota-1)

Youngest Kansas Winner: Ryan Newman at 25 years, 9 months and 27 days in October of 2003

Oldest Kansas Winner: Mark Martin at 46 years, 9 months and 0 days in October of 2005

Pole Sitters: Only twice has a pole sitter won from the pole (Joe Nemechek-2004, Jimmie Johnson-2008)

Starting Positions By Winners: 2 from the pole, 4 from 2nd-5th, 2 from 6th-101th, 4 from 11th-20th, 2 from 21st or worse

Worst Starting Position By Race Winner: 25th by Brad Keselowski in 2011

Youngest Kansas Pole Winner: Jason Leffler at 26 years, 0 months and 14 days in September of 2001

Oldest Kansas Pole Winner: Mark Martin who was 50 years, 8 months and 25 days in October of 2009

Most Starts Without a Win: 14 by Bobby Labonte, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Kurt Busch

Track Qualifying Record: Kasey Kahne at a 28.219 (191.360mph) in October of 2012

Track Race Record: Denny Hamlin-144.122 mph (02:46:44) in April of 2012

Least Amount of Cautions: 3 in April of 2012

Most Amount of Cautions: 14 in October of 2012

Average Number of Cautions: 7

 

Top 10 Driver Ratings at Kansas

1.) Jimmie Johnson…………………… 119.5

2.) Greg Biffle………………………….. 113.0

3.) Matt Kenseth………………………. 106.4

4.) Jeff Gordon………………………… 101.5

5.) Tony Stewart……………………….. 100.8

6.) Carl Edwards………………………… 95.1

7.) Mark Martin…………………………… 91.3

8.) Kevin Harvick……………………….. 90.6

9.) Martin Truex Jr…………………….. 90.5

10.) Brad Keselowski……………………. 90.1

 

Best Average Finish at Kansas

1.) Jimmie Johnson——-8.0

2.) Greg Biffle————–9.5

3.) Brad Keselowski——-9.8

4.) Carl Edwards———–10.8

5.) Jeff Gordon————-11.0

6.) Tony Stewart———–11.7

7.) Kevin Harvick———-12.9

8.) Denny Hamlin———–14.0

9.) Clint Bowyer————14.0

10.) Kasey Kahne———–15.0

 

Most Wins at Kansas Speedway

1.) Jimmie Johnson——–2 (2008 & 2011)

2.) Greg Biffle—————2 (2007 & 2010)

3.) Tony Stewart———–2 (2006 & 2009)

4.) Jeff Gordon————-2 (2001 & 2002)

5.) Matt Kenseth———–1 (2012)

6.) Denny Hamlin———1 (2012)

7.) Brad Keselowski——1 (2011)

8.) Mark Martin———–1 (2005)

9.) Joe Nemechek——–1 (2004)

10.) Ryan Newman——1 (2003)

 

Most Top 5’s at Kansas Speedway

1.) Jeff Gordon———8

2.) Greg Biffle———–7

3.) Tony Stewart——-6

4.) Jimmie Johnson—5

5.) Matt Kenseth——-5

6.) Carl Edwards——-4

7.) Denny Hamlin—–3

8.) Ryan Newman——3

9.) Martin Truex Jr.—-2

10.) Kasey Kahne——-2

 

Most Top 10’s at Kansas Speedway

1.) Jimmie Johnson———11

2.) Jeff Gordon————–10

3.) Greg Biffle—————9

4.) Tony Stewart———–9

5.) Matt Kenseth———–8

6.) Carl Edwards———–8

7.) Kevin Harvick———6

8.) Dale Earnhardt Jr.—-6

9.) Kasey Kahne———-5

10.) Mark Martin———5

Considering all that, Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon look like the biggest threats to take the victory this weekend. Biffle has finished inside the top 10 in seven of the last eight races, Johnson is currently on an eight race top 10 streak at while Gordon has had some lackluster results the past three races. Another driver you have to watch out for but isn’t very high in most of the stats is Matt Kenseth. He won the first race at Kansas after the repave, is riding a streak of three straight top-5’s and hasn’t finished worse than 7th since 2009. A dark horse would have to be Martin Truex Jr. He doesn’t have a great record here but he did finish second in both races last year. Make sure you keep an eye on both him and Kenseth this weekend.

Drivers you may want to stay away from include Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose and the 2005 winner of this race, Mark Martin. Ambrose has never led a lap at Kansas, has a best finish of 9th and a best starting position of 18th. Martin did win at Kansas but that is just about the only bright spot on his resume at the track. Martin finished 20th or worse in nearly half the races he’s participated in and has only broken inside the top-20 twice in his last five races.  Busch’s stats really surprised me and I had to look at a few times thinking no way are these his stats. His average finish of 21.0 is very low for him and in his whole career, Busch has posted two top 10’s and no top 5’s at the track. He hasn’t led very many laps either proving he’s never really a factor.

I expect that this race will be very fast paced and will feature out of control race cars a lot like last fall’s event. The track has a lot of grip and you can expect to see bottom feeders as well as drivers riding the cushion just inches away from smacking the wall. I don’t think it will have wrecks every 10 laps like it did last year but I don’t see long runs forcing them to make green flag pit stops either.

Busch has been great in 2013 and will have his best race to date at Kansas blowing his best finish of 7th out of the water but he won’t win.  I am going with a very hungry driver who is desperate to reach victory lane, Truex Jr. He will finally get that second career win this weekend at Kansas Speedway. Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne will be major factors throughout the race but I am going with Truex Jr. to steal the show Sunday!

Feel free to post who you think will win the STP 400 below!

210 Races & Counting… When Will Truex Finally Get That Breakthrough Win?

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: David Scearce

Martin Truex Jr. is a highly underrated driver in my eyes but it’s easy for people to overlook a guy who has just one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) victory in 268 races. On June 4, 2007, Truex Jr. won at Dover International Speedway by a staggering 7.3 seconds over Ryan Newman capturing his lone NSCS win at what happened to be his home track. If fate was just a little bit kinder to Truex Jr., he could be nearing ten total wins right now instead of still searching for his second. Last weekend he was a few laps away from victory lane until a late race caution ripped it away from him once again. It’s a feeling the Mayetta, the New Jersey native knows much too well.

This weekend, NASCAR visits the recently repaved Kansas Speedway which put on a very eventful race last fall. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought we were in Bristol after a race that had 16 cars post DNF’s and 14 cautions marring the event. In the two races held there in 2012, we had two different winners but the race runner-up remained the same in both…..Truex Jr. It was hard to watch him drive his heart out in the closing laps last weekend only to come up empty handed after running so well. Let me make it clear that in almost every situation, it hasn’t been his fault when these wins got away. Mechanical failures, wrecks, bad pit stops and questionable cautions have all have plagued him every time he seems to have one in the bag.

Truex Jr. has won two Nationwide titles and a total of 19 races across every NASCAR division so don’t think for a second that he lacks the talent to get the No.56 to victory lane. I should also add that he was the 2005 IROC runner-up defeating prominent racers such as 3x Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, 6x Grand-Am champion Scott Pruett, 4x CART champion Sebastian Bourdais and NSCS champions Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch. You don’t just accidentally out-perform those guys. I believe that once Martin gets his second win and he will get it, then the racing world will finally witness his true potential. This illusive win is holding him back and once he gets it, the field better watch out because that NAPA Toyota Camry will quickly become a regular sight in the winner’s circle.

Kansas is a good place for the 30 year old racer to rebound from the disappointment of Texas and finally snag a victory considering his recent record at the 1.5 mile track. There is a contingent of people out there that say losing at Texas will bring him down but I think it will have the reverse effect. All that heart-breaking finish will do is make him hungrier and more driven than ever to get to victory lane. If it’s the last lap and you find yourself battling Truex Jr. for the win, you better be ready to race harder than you’ve ever raced before because you can bet Truex Jr. will put up one hell of a fight.  He has the potential to be a championship contender once he finally has that race where all the pieces come together.  That monumental victory that is coming will work wonders for his Sprint Cup career and you will see a new, happier and more competitive driver out on that race track.

I know that’s a very bold statement but despite his lack of wins, he’s shown on multiple occasions that he can get the job done behind the wheel of a race car. Motivation and confidence has a funny way of turning a decent driver into a NSCS champion and if you want an example of that, look no further than a driver by the name of Brad Keselowski. It wasn’t too long ago we looked at him as just another driver that had won a race at Talladega back in 2009.

Truex Jr. is a true racer who fought his way to where he is today and I firmly believe that he will win many Cup races in the years to come.

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Roush Fenway Advance – Kansas

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INDYCAR NEWS AND NOTES – April 17, 2013

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Danica Patrick continues to improve with each race and test session

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Mike Meadows/ISC

Rookie Danica Patrick was one of the nine drivers to take to Daytona International Speedway as part of the Goodyear tire test. The test involved some single car runs, followed by some pack runs to see how the different tire compounds handled.

“Everything has been going smooth so far,” she commented during her media availability.

“We’re testing stuff here for when we come back in keeping the car attitude a certain way, working on speed, working on all kinds of little things – the balance in race runs and how some of those changes effect it. We’re always working.”

She was asked her thoughts on whether she feels that she will be quicker come July, however she put that off as being not important.

“I think it’s about the entertainment that we’re producing out there for the fans so I feel you’ll see a more exciting race in the summer just cause it’s hotter,” she said. “Maybe a little slippery so we may get a little uncomfortable out there and everybody got the feel the way this car performs in a pack, or a line for the most part. I found myself trying some things to see what happens when you take chances out there in the pack. I wasn’t in a position to take chances in the race. I felt doing it out there in practice was good and everybody will learn and then it will make the racing better.”

Learning how to make the moves late in the plate races is just one of the many things that Patrick has to learn to get better in the Sprint Cup Series. As a result, she has been doing a lot of testing, more so than any other year that she has raced.

“If I’m not testing, I know Scott Riggs went to Nashville with (crew chief Tony) Gibson and they ran,” she said. “So there’s been a lot more and there’s still a lot on the schedule and there’s a lot to schedule when each one of those official tests can be three days. You put a lot on the schedule. So there’s no official schedule whatsoever – it’s just a matter of when you have time and what you need to work on.”

 

She admits that sometimes it can be boring, but you have to pay attention.

“While it does feel easy, you have to respect the machine and the peed and the track and something can happen,” she said. “It’s a not a matter of the car feeling uncomfortable but a matter that something can happen and you need to be ready. That’s kind of what I think about when I’m out there and I’m trying to rest my (left) leg and look around. I think ‘you’re still doing 200’.”

One of the tests that she felt has paid off was going to Little Rock before the race at Martinsville Speedway. She said that they hit on something during the second last run, which carried over to the race at Martinsville earlier this month. It showed during the race as it marked a 12th place finish at a track that is known for being tough for rookies, and only her second top 15 of the finish. She finished eighth in the Daytona 500 after starting on the pole.

However, there is no secret that she has struggled on the intermediate tracks this year, finishing 33rd, 26th and 28th. However, she feels its a company-wide program as her and boss Tony Stewart had the same comments following the race at Texas Motor Speedway. Stewart currently sits 22nd in points with finishes of 11th, 22nd and 21st on those same tracks.

“We just need to work it out,” she said. “We need to go through the process of elimination of what it can be and work it out. We need to go testing and work on some platforms to see what we can to do to make the car faster and feel better. I think we need to work on both so I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s the new car, the different tires, data we’re getting from other people, sim programs – I don’t know what it is. If I did, we would fix it.”

It can be frustrating at times, but she says that can sometimes be good as it gets people working harder. However, sometimes that frustration does make her do things that d0n’t need to be done.

“I think there was no need for me at Texas to drive it home how uncomfortable the car was there where it was loose in, loose off, or just so tight in the middle you couldn’t do anything,” she said. “There was no point in driving it home anymore as its get to be enough after so long and it’s just a matter of putting it on the schedule to create a solution.”

There is a worry that with the schedule, the amount of testing and her off-track obligations that she will get burnt out. However, she doesn’t feel that will happen, having adjusted well from IndyCar’s schedule to NASCAR’s schedule.

“When I go home and if I spend a few days there, I get bored,” she said. “Really going home is about getting my hair cut and getting my facials and seeing my normal people. That’s pretty much what I do when I get home.”

Though with the races under her belt and the testing she has done, she says that she is 10 times better than when she went for her first test at Walt Disney World Speedway.

“I remember driving the car for the first time and I knew I liked it – first thing I pulled out of the pits,” she said. “I was having fun out of the get-go. I knew I wasn’t comfortable enough to look at my gauges. We were at Orlando and I was white-knuckling it. I didn’t even feel I had time to look in my rearview mirror to look at what was going on.

“Now going to Martinsville, I feel I can look around and relax my leg and that’s much smaller so comfort level comes along and I am definitely getting educated in what is going on with the car. I am starting to learn how to explain to Tony what he car is doing.

“I’m going to use an expression and say that I am 10 times smarter, but have so much further to go.”

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