Kansas Speedway Tag

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Surviving a race of attrition just to crash coming to the checkered flag may be dramatic, but it does not win you the race. Richard Petty Motorsports driver Aric Almirola did just that, finishing fifth. The Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was anything but calm for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competitor. With just a handful of undamaged cars and several competitive repaired cars, Almirola was in the thick of the battle for the lead in the No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion. Even inRead More

It’s that time of the year again. After the 16 driver field for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs was set last weekend at Richmond, the intensity of the season is about to ramp up over the final 10 weeks of the season as we’ll whittle the championship field down to four at Homestead to see which driver will walk away with the title at season’s end. As a refresher, there will be three rounds of eliminations before the Championship Four is set. The Round of 16 will includeRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After eight weeks of recovery time, Aric Almirola will be returning to the cockpit of the No. 43 Ford this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Almirola was injured at Kansas Speedway in early May, suffering an acute compression fracture to his T5 Vertebra in his back after a vicious multi-car crash with Joey Logano and Danica Patrick. Entering Turn 1 on lap 200, Logano appeared to have something break on the right-front of his car, which turned his Ford to the left, making contactRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer CONCORD, N.C. – The events that occurred on the 200th lap of the 2017 Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway are ones that Aric Almirola and his family would like to forget. Ahead of Almirola, Joey Logano and Danica Patrick had wrecked violently in turns one and two. Unfortunately for Almirola, he had already committed to running the high line in the corner. He ran into some fluid and slid out of control into Logano’s car at over 160mph. The impact was so violent itRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Martin Truex Jr. finally ended his Kansas hex. Truex streaked away on the final restart with two laps left in Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400 to win his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway. Truex led a race-high 104 of 267 laps to win for the ninth time in his career and for the second time this season. Three times in the past, Truex had led the most laps in a Kansas race—without winning. But onRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer The Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway was a battle against loose conditions for the 2017 Sunoco Rookie of the Year (ROTY) contenders in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Several found their cars to be so loose that it affected their position on track. Of the five ROTY contenders only Gray Gaulding has no previous experience at Kansas. Daniel Suarez qualified the best of the rookies once again, placing his No. 19 STANLEY Toyota Camry 15th on the starting grid. Suarez ran well often,Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After winning his first career pole on Friday, Ryan Blaney headed into Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400 at Kansas as one of the favorites to be able to contend for the win and after a strong run from the driver in his sophomore season, the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team would bring home a fourth-place finish when the checkered flag flew. Blaney would lead the first nine laps of the race before ceding the lead over to eventual race winner Martin Truex, Jr., butRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Kansas Speedway is not normally a track known for its vicious crashes, but with 67 laps to go in Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400, a three-car crash involving Joey Logano, Danica Patrick, and Aric Almirola, would bring out the red flag as safety officials worked to extricate Almirola from his car. Entering Turn 1 on lap 200, Logano appeared to have something break on the right-front of his car, which turned his Ford to the left, making contact with the right-rear of Patrick’s car andRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Kyle Busch didn’t do a celebratory burnout when he won Friday night’s Toyota Tundra 250 at Kansas Speedway. He didn’t do his customary bow after notching his 47th victory in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Heartbreak for Ben Rhodes, who was leading by more than a second when his engine expired with eight laps left, provided the stroke of serendipity that launched Busch into Victory Lane. And Busch knew it. “That’s one of the worst ones to swallow rightRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Improving in each round of knockout qualifying in relation to other cars, Ryan Blaney won the pole for Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1), claiming his first career pole by a mere .009 seconds over Joey Logano. During a Friday qualifying session in which 11 cars failed to make it to the grid because of inspection issues, Blaney toured the 1.5-mile speedway in 28.481 seconds (189.600 mph) in the final round to earnRead More