The NASCAR Cup Series will be joined by the Truck Series and the Truck Series at Kansas Speedway this weekend. It sucks that NASCAR races on Mother’s Day, but at least they decided to give mom the best race of the season for her special day. Kansas Speedway has multiple grooves, bumps, wind and a worn out surface that will cause some drivers to have a lot of speed and other drivers to struggle for 400 miles. We all wanted a race were the drivers could pass. This race has it. There were 3,653 green flag passes and 27 lead changes in the spring race last year. The race should be the same Sunday.
Here is the schedule for the on-track activity at Kansas Speedway this weekend…
KANSAS PREVIEW
There have been six races at Kansas Speedway in the Gen-7 car and we have had six different drivers in Victory (Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain). The No. 45 car has won three of the six races with Kurt Busch, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace behind the wheel. Six drivers have led over 100 laps at Kansas Speedway in the Gen-7 car. They include Kyle Larson (277), Christopher Bell (194), Denny Hamlin (169), Alex Bowman (113), Ross Chastain (102) and Tyler Reddick (101). Nine drivers have a top-10 average finishing position in the Gen-7 car at Kansas Speedway. These drivers include Denny Hamlin (3.7), Kyle Larson (7.2), Alex Bowman (7.2), Ross Chastain (8.7), Christopher Bell (10.3), Ryan Blaney (10.8), William Byron (10.8) and Chase Elliott (10.8). Any of the drivers listed above will be good picks for your Fantasy NASCAR lineups this week.
FANTASY STATS FOR KANSAS
So, how do we handicap the race at Kansas Speedway? The drivers who ran well at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March, typically run well at Kansas in May. I will use the stats from Las Vegas; add in some of the stats from the race last week at Texas and the last four races at Kansas to predict which drivers will run up front Sunday.
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR KANSAS
ONE & DONE PICK: ROSS CHASTAIN
FANTASY LIVE PICKS
FANTRAX PICKS
* I will post FanTrax article on Wednesday with my breakdown of each driver.
SPEEDWAY COLLECTIVE
EARLY WEEK BEST BETS FOR KANSAS
The Cup Series had eight different winners in the last eight races at Texas Motor Speedway. The win by Joey Logano made it nine for nine. Now we come to Kansas where six different drivers have taken their cars to Victory Lane since the Gen-7 car was introduced in 2022. I think the streak could extend to seven drivers in seven races. I will bet a few drivers who could extend this streak.
DENNY HAMLIN (+800): Hamlin needs a bounce-back race after the blowup in Texas. He should get it at his best 1.5-mile track. Hamlin won at Kansas Speedway in the spring race of 2023 and he finished 2nd in the fall that year and 2nd in 2022. His 3.7 average finishing position in the Gen-7 car at Kansas is four spots better than any driver in the field. I doubt his odds will stay at 8-1 if the No. 11 car looks fast in practice Saturday.
ALEX BOWMAN (+2500): Bowman has been Mr. Consistency at the 1.5-mile tracks. He finished 8 consecutive races on the 1.5-mile, cookie cutter tracks in the top-10, before his 35th-place finish last week in Texas. I look for Bowman to bounce back at Kansas. He has finished 6th, 7th, 10th, 4th and 9th in his five races at Kansas Speedway in the Gen-7 car. That is third-best in the Cup Series at Kansas. Bowman won in the Gen-7 car at Las Vegas. I think he could win this week at Kansas Speedway.
CHRIS BUESCHER (+2200): Buescher lost to Kyle Larson in the spring race at Kansas by .001 of a second. That is the closest finish in NASCAR history. Buescher had an average finishing position of 6.5 at Kansas last year. He also ran well at Las Vegas and Texas this year (although the results do not reflect the speed the No. 17 car had in the races). Buescher will have a good chance to win Sunday if the No. 17 team can bring back the speed they had at Kansas last year and the speed they had last week at Texas.
JOSH BERRY (+3000): You can easily make an argument that Berry has been the best driver on the 1.5-mile, cookie cutter tracks this year. He won the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and he dominated a portion of the race last week at Texas Motor Speedway. His stats at Kansas are not great, but the No. 21 car has been too fast to fade. I will take a chance with Berry in the Heartland.
* I will update these picks this weekend.
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