The first round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is in the books and we now have 12 drivers competing for a championship. That sure went by fast… NASCAR wanted chaos in the Round of 16 and they got it at Atlanta and Watkins Glen. This round has two “wild card races” (Talladega and the Charlotte Roval). The top drivers are going to need to finish up front this weekend at Kansas, because anything can happen next week at Talladega. It should be fun to see how it all plays out in the Heartland. The Hollywood Casino 400 can be seen Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.
Finally, we get a race that should be easy to handicap. We can use the data from the five races in the Gen-7 car at Kansas Speedway and the data from the four races on the 1.5-mile intermediate tracks this year to predict which drivers will finish up front at Kansas.
Here are the Driver Rankings for the Hollywood Casino 400 …
| DRIVER |
| 1.KYLE LARSON |
| 2. DENNY HAMLIN |
| 3. TYLER REDDICK |
| 4. CHRISTOPHER BELL |
| 5. CHASE ELLIOTT |
| 6. ALEX BOWMAN |
| 7. WILLIAM BYRON |
| 8. ROSS CHASTAIN |
| 9. MARTIN TRUEX JR. |
| 10. CHRIS BUESCHER |
| 11. KYLE BUSCH |
| 12. JOEY LOGANO |
| 13. TY GIBBS |
| 14. RYAN BLANEY |
| 15. BRAD KESELOWSKI |
| 16. BUBBA WALLACE |
| 17. AUSTIN CINDRIC |
| 18. NOAH GRAGSON |
| 19. MICHAEL MCDOWELL |
| 20. RICKY STENHOUSE JR. |
| 21. ERIK JONES |
| 22. CARSON HOCEVAR |
| 23. DANIEL SUAREZ |
| 24. AUSTIN DILLON |
| 25. TODD GILLILAND |
| 26. JUSTIN HALEY |
| 27. JOSH BERRY |
| 28. JOHN H. NEMECHEK |
| 29. CHASE BRISCOE |
| 30. COREY LAJOIE |
| 31. JIMMIE JOHNSON |
| 32. RYAN PREECE |
| 33. ZANE SMITH |
| 34. DANIEL HEMRIC |
| 35. HARRISON BURTON |
| 36. KAZ GRALA |
| 37. TY DILLON |
| 38. J.J. YELEY |
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