Sprint Chase heads to Kansas for Hollywood Casino 400 – NASCAR preview
The Sprint Cup keeps getting interesting as the new points system introduced by NASCAR for the 2011 season assure that no one has yet been able to take a strong lead in the Chase so far.
The teams now head to Kansas for the 4th Chase race in the calendar, the Hollywood Casino 400.
This is the first time in Sprint Cup History that Kansas is hosting two races in a season.
Kevin Harvick currently leads the Chase, albeit on the NASCAR tiebreaker rule. His 10th place finish at Dover helped him climb up to first place in the standings but he knows that another performance like that can drop him down
the table. Harvick is yet to win a race at Kansas and has only finished once in the top 5.
Carl Edwards is joint leader with Harvick and is the in-form driver at the moment. Despite having never won a race at Kansas, Edwards has looked strong in all the three Chase races so far and was by far the fastest driver in Dover. He will be looking to
put the pit-stop speeding mistake behind him and rely on his consistency to come up with yet another strong finish in the Chase.
After two consecutive Chase victories, Tony Stewart had a day to forget at Dover and will be looking to bounce back from it. He is only one of three drivers who have two victories at Kansas and will be hoping to make it three this time around.
Kurt Busch will be looking to capitalise on his victory at Dover and with just 9 points between him and the leaders, he will have his eyes set on the Sprint Cup. However, Kansas has not been his favourite hunting ground, having never finished in the top
5 in 11 starts. His highest finish has been 7th in 2006 and Busch will know that he needs to do better if he is to stay within touching distance of the top.
Jimmie Johnson was down and out after the first two Chase races. In 10th place, Johnson breathed life into his title challenge as he finished second in Dover and moved up to 5th place. He will be looking on making further
ground in Kansas where he has a great record. He won the race here in 2008 and has not finished outside the top 10 since 2006.
Brad Keselowski has had a topsy-turvy season and now moves back to the track which started his revival for the season. Keselowski was all but out of his season’s chase before pulling off a victory at Kansas which saw him start off on a great run and qualify
for the Chase. Keselowski will be looking for similar charms from this track as he aims for his first Sprint Cup Championship.
Matt Kenseth will be looking to come out of the shadows of his partner Carl Edwards as he looks to stake his claim for the Sprint Cup. After a strong finish at Dover where he finished 5th, Kenseth will be hopeful of a good performance at Kansas, where he
has only two top 5 finishes in 11 starts.
Kyle Busch has not had the best of times in the Chase so far. He started at the top of the points table but now lies in 8th position after 3 unimpressive performances. To make matters worse, Kansas is probably his least favourite
track so he is expected to be well behind the leaders come the end of the race.
Jeff Gordon might be down in number 9 but he is still the favourite for this year’s Sprint Cup. He has the best record at Kansas of all the drivers in the Chase and will be looking to make that count and reduce the 19-point gap between him and the top.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin are still in the race but have left themselves a mountain to climb and with very little to show for their recent visits to Kansas, it is highly unlikely that they will make a comeback in this year’s Chase
for the Sprint Cup.
Austin Dillon is expected to make his first appearance in the Sprint Cup at Kansas and the current leader in the Camping World Truck Series will have a lot of eyes on his performance, grandfather Richard Childress being just one of them.
The race has all the ingredients to be an exciting affair. The qualifying for the Hollywood Casino 400 will take place on Saturday, October 8, 2011 at 1:30pm Eastern Time (ET) and the race will start on Sunday, October 9 at 2pm ET.
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