NASCAR: Four Predictions for the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas
Here are four predictions for Kansas. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
The second race of the Round of 12 is this weekend at Kansas Speedway. Before the Hollywood Casino 400 starts, here are four predictions for the race on Sunday.
NASCAR is headed to Kansas Speedway this weekend for the Hollywood Casino 400. There are still 11 Chase drivers looking to win a race to move onto the next round, and after all of the problems Chase drivers dealt with at Charlotte, Kansas could turn out to be an extremely important race.
Jimmie Johnson was able to dominate Charlotte and will be moving onto the Round of 8, but will drivers push themselves to try and win at Kansas or will they try to play it safe to recover from Charlotte? Talladega is the last race of the Round of 12 and the stress from worrying about the “Big One” could impact drivers to play it safe this weekend.
Joe Gibbs Racing ran into different issues last weekend, but most of their drivers were able to recover. Will they be able to finally win a Chase race this weekend and return to the dominant team with saw in the regular season?
The Kansas race last year in the Chase sparked one of the biggest rivalries seen in NASCAR over the last couple of years as Joe Logano spun Matt Kenseth to win the race. Kenseth eventually retaliated against Logano, but these two drivers became a huge talking point for the rest of the season.
Will the rivalry spark up again this weekend?
Kansas will be a critical race in the round of 12, and 11 Chase drivers will be competing for a win. With the threat of Talladega looming overhead though, finishing well at Kansas could be the key to moving onto the next round.
Before the Hollywood Casino 400 starts, here are four predictions for the race on Sunday.
Talladega is the most stressful race in the Round of 12. Drivers will use Kansas as a way to help try and avoid the pressure of a bad finish at Talladega. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Drivers Will Be More Concerned With Talladega at Kansas
When it comes to the Chase races, Talladega is the wild card. By now if you’ve been watching NASCAR this season you know the amount of stress and pressure that comes from Super Speedways like Talladega, as a big wreck can happen at any time and completely take a driver out of the race.
Now mix that with the pressure of making it to the Round of 8 in the Chase and how Talladega is the last race of the Round of 12 and it makes sense why drivers would be more focused on Talladega than the race at Kansas this weekend.
Only Jimmie Johnson can relax in this round, and if a Chase driver wins on Sunday they will be able to join him, but don’t expect drivers to push too hard at Kansas because a bad finish at the Hollywood Casino 400 makes it even harder to handle the pressure of Talladega.
The driver of the two car,Brad Keselowski, knows how important it is to finish well this weekend. He was quoted by NASCAR.com as saying:
“We need to go to this weekend’s race in Kansas, put up a solid finish and get ourselves in position to where we can sleep easy for Talladega. That’s kind of where my head is at.”
This is the type of mentality teams will have on Sunday. Finish well at Kansas so they can try to avoid trouble at Talladega by staying in the back of the field and trying to finish in a good enough spot to advance to the next round.
Someone will win at Kansas, but don’t expect drivers to push their cars if it could end up costing them track position in the long run.
Kyle Larson lost time at practice as a result of him swerving during the cool-down laps at Charlotte. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports
Drivers Will Still Push The Limit With Post-Race Inspection
After the race at Charlotte this past Sunday, several drivers in NASCAR were hit with penalties that prevented them from practicing for the race at Kansas.
Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch and Kyle Larson were all penalized by NASCAR for actions they did post-race.
Recently when a race is over, drivers have been swerving back and fourth on the cool-down laps. This is an attempt to readjust something with the alignment in their cars, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by NASCAR officials. Drivers do this in hopes of avoiding issues with post-race laser inspection.
These three drivers were caught swerving after Charlotte and as a result NASCAR decided to take away time from practice for them, and Kurt Busch has lost pit selection for this weekend’s race.
Drivers swerving on cool-down laps and pushing the issue with the alignment of their cars is a result of how NASCAR is proceeding with post-race LIS inspection failures. Drivers and teams know that only major issues will be penalized so in order to avoid this they swerve to fix the alignment before heading to post-race LIS inspection.
Trying to take advantage of how NASCAR is handling post-race LIS inspection will continue throughout the rest of the season until NASCAR seriously penalizes a Chase race team. They’ve made it clear that they don’t like drivers swerving on cool-down laps, but taking away practice time is not enough to make their message mean something.
At Kansas don’t be surprised to see teams continue to push the issue again with post-race LIS inspection.
The real issue to watch will be how NASCAR reacts.
Joe Gibbs Racing will bounce back this weekend at Kansas. Mandatory Credit: Michael Shroyer-USA TODAY Sports
Joe Gibbs Racing Will Bounce Back
Don’t let the headline fool you; Joe Gibbs Racing Isn’t struggling right now. They ran well last week at Charlotte, and all four drivers are still in the Chase.
When compared to how they were running during the regular season though, they are struggling to find Victory Lane, something they had no problem doing before the Chase started.
This is a team with 11 wins this season between all four if its drivers, and they looked like the top organization to win the first race of the Chase. Instead we’ve yet to see them win a race in the post-season.
During the regular season we saw Joe Gibbs Racing drivers get out in front and the rest of the field just couldn’t keep up.
In the Chase though it’s been a much different story. Last weekend at Charlotte Jimmie Johnson was the car to keep up with and Joe Gibbs Racing drivers ran into trouble during the race. Matt Kenseth had to deal with penalties, Denny Hamlin blew an engine, Kyle Busch had tire issues and even Carl Edwards had to deal with being involved in a wreck during the race.
Even after all four drivers ran into issues at Charlotte though, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch were able to recover from their problems and landed in the Top 10 when the race was over, and Carl Edwards finished in the Top 15.
The one thing the race at Charlotte proved about this team is that after all their struggles they could still come back and earn solid finishes.
Now they are heading to a track where three out of 4 JGR drivers have won. If they can avoid the issues that held them out of Victory Lane last weekend, Kansas will be the race where JGR emerges as the top team once again.
Matt Kenseth will put JGR back in Victory Lane on Sunday. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Matt Kenseth Becomes The First JGR Driver to Win in The Chase
Of all the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers, Matt Kenseth has the most experience with winning at Kansas. He’s won at this track two times and has an average finish of 13.33.
He almost won this race last year in the Chase but an incident with Joey Logano and it took away his chance to win.
After starting the race at Charlotte from the rear of the field and having to overcome two penalties, Kenseth finished the race in second. It wasn’t the finish he was hoping for, he wanted to win like every other driver, but it was still an extremely impressive feat.
It wasn’t just Kenseth who was able to overcome his troubles though, it was a team effort at Charlotte. Great pit stops from the 20 team helped get Kenseth where he needed to be and set him up to finish the race in second.
Now Kenseth is headed to a track that he has not only had success at, but enjoys racing there.
“It’s a great race track and it’s turned into a really ‘racy’ track, that’s a lot faster than other tracks that have gone through repaves.” via Fox Sports
Kenseth should have no problem getting out in front on Sunday, and as long as he can avoid running into another incident like he had with Joey Logano last year, Kenseth and the 20 team will be in Victory Lane for the Hollywood Casino 400.
Who do you think will win on Sunday? Will drivers try to push for the win at Kansas or will they play it safe in hopes of getting enough points to survive Talladega? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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