The Cup Series will travel to Heartland this weekend to race at Kansas Speedway. The Cup Series schedule used to be dominated by the 1.5-mile “cookie-cutter” tracks. That is not the case anymore. There are only six races on these types of tracks this year. That is too bad, because these are the tracks where the Gen-7 car puts on the best show. I expect a pretty good race this week at Kansas Speedway. The Advent Health 400 can be seen Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.
There have been two races on the 1.5-mile tracks this year and they could not be more different. The race at Las Vegas only had four cautions (not including the Stage breaks) and the race was completely dominated by Kyle Larson. The No. 5 car led 181 laps and Larson went to Victory Lane. The race at Texas set a new track record with 16 cautions. It was more like a “Battle Royal” race, where the drivers fought to simply stay in the race. Chase Elliott kept his car clean and went to Victory Lane. Kyle Larson led the most laps at Texas too, but there were a lot more lead changes in the Lone Star State. I expect the race Sunday to play out like the race at Las Vegas.
There have been four races in the Gen-7 car at Kansas. Most of these races have been dominated by the same drivers. I doubt that will change this weekend. I used the data from the four races at Kansas and added in the data from the race at Las Vegas earlier this season for the Driver Rankings this week. The race at Texas last month was a mess, so I am not going to use the data from that race to handicap the race at Kansas.
Here are the Driver Rankings for the Advent Health 400…
| DRIVER |
| 1. KYLE LARSON |
| 2. DENNY HAMLIN |
| 3. TYLER REDDICK |
| 4. CHASE ELLIOTT |
| 5. MARTIN TRUEX JR. |
| 6. WILLIAM BYRON |
| 7. RYAN BLANEY |
| 8. ROSS CHASTAIN |
| 9. ALEX BOWMAN |
| 10. CHRISTOPHER BELL |
| 11. BUBBA WALLACE |
| 12. TY GIBBS |
| 13. KYLE BUSCH |
| 14. JOEY LOGANO |
| 15. BRAD KESELOWSKI |
| 16. CHRIS BUESCHER |
| 17. NOAH GRAGSON |
| 18. CHASE BRISCOE |
| 19. DANIEL SUAREZ |
| 20. RICKY STENHOUSE JR. |
| 21. JOSH BERRY |
| 22. CARSON HOCEVAR |
| 23. AUSTIN DILLON |
| 24. AUSTIN CINDRIC |
| 25. ERIK JONES |
| 26. COREY LAJOIE |
| 27. MICHAEL MCDOWELL |
| 28. JOHN H. NEMECHEK |
| 29. DANIEL HEMRIC |
| 30. RYAN PREECE |
| 31. TODD GILLILAND |
| 32. JIMMIE JOHNSON |
| 33. AUSTIN HILL |
| 34. JUSTIN HALEY |
| 35. HARRISON BURTON |
| 36. ZANE SMITH |
| 37. RILEY HERBST |
| 38. DEREK KRAUS |
*Erik Jones is listed to drive the No. 43 car Sunday, but he has not been cleared by the doctors yet. Jones is scheduled to meet with the doctors later this week and then Legacy Motor Club will decide who will drive the car. I would expect to see Corey Heim in the car again, since Jimmie Johnson is also entered into the race.
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