Image via WikipediaThe Camping World Truck Series is idle until October 23, so there are just two races on the schedule this weekend -- both at Kansas Speedway, just outside of Kansas City, Kansas. The Nationwide Series race, the Kansas Lottery 300, takes place Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET (ESPN2). The Sprint Cup race, the Price Chopper 400 presented by Kraft Foods, kicks off Sunday at 1 p.m. ET (ESPN).
The Cup race is the third in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. After his dominating win last week at Dover, Jimmie Johnson seems like the odds-on favorite to win his fifth straight Cup championship, but he still trails Denny Hamlin by 35 points. And six other drivers are still within 83 points of the lead, so a lot can happen between now and Homestead in November.
Two points to keep in mind: since the Chase format began, no driver who has led in the points after two races has gone on to win the championship, but no driver has ever had as big a lead as Hamlin after two races.
Greg Biffle (-140), Tony Stewart (-162), Matt Kenseth (-165) and Clint Bowyer (-235) are technically still alive for the championship, but on life support.
Bowyer, who had his 150-point penalty upheld Wednesday after failing inspection at the R&D Center after his win at Loudon, still has one final appeal left with NASCAR chief appellate officer John Middlebrook. Bowyer is convinced that he has no chance of winning that final appeal and therefore has no chance of winning the championship this year. He is vowing to help his RCR teammates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, and might end up doing a little research and development on the track for them. Meanwhile, an analyst who testified for RCR at Wednesday's appeal showed that the wrecker that pushed Bowyer to Victory Lane could have caused the inspection violation. Dr. Charles Manning of Accident Reconstruction Analysis called NASCAR's arguments against his analysis "a bunch of malarkey."
It will be an all-Richard Petty Motorsports front row Sunday. Kasey Kahne turned a lap in 30.920 seconds (174.644 mph) in Friday's qualifying session to grab the pole. His RPM teammate Paul Menard will start in the second spot after his lap of 30.951 seconds. It will be the first time two Petty cars will lead the field to green. It's the 19th pole in Kahne's career and his third for the season, tying Jamie McMurray for the series lead.
Jeff Gordon starts third, followed by Joey Logano and Greg Biffle. Only four Chasers start in the top 10 -- in addition to Gordon and Biffle, Kenseth starts eighth, and Kurt Busch starts ninth. Hamlin starts 12th, Stewart 14th, Kyle Busch 19th, Johnson 21st, Burton 23rd, Harvick 24th, Bowyer 27th and Carl Edwards 31st.
Joe Nemechek, Mike Bliss and Jason Leffler failed to qualify for the 43-car field. (Race lineup)
Kansas Speedway is a 1.5-mile, D-shaped tri-oval. There are several tracks of differing sizes with a very similar layout on the Cup circuit. When the track first opened, the racing was fairly boring because drivers could only run in one groove and it was so hard to pass. As the surface has aged, the track has become multi-grooved and the passing is much easier. There have only been nine Cup races at Kansas Speedway. Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart lead all drivers with two wins each.
No comments:
Post a Comment