With Ryan Blaney’s victory Monday at Talladega and his two Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano inside the Top 8 of the Playoff standings heading to this Playoff round’s elimination race, this team has every reason to feel optimistic.
Blaney has an automatic berth in the Round of 8 – the second time he has advanced that far in the Playoffs. And Keselowski and Logano are currently two points apart, ranked seventh and eighth.
Keselowski is the most recent Kansas winner, taking the trophy in May after a dramatic overtime finish – his second career victory at the track. He has 10 top-10 finishes in 19 races there including a runner-up showing (2017-1) to go with his wins. Before being collected in an accident at Talladega, Keselowski had four top-11 finishes in the four previous Playoff races, including a best of third in the Las Vegas opener.
He has three victories (at Atlanta, Martinsville and Kansas) this season in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford and would love to join Martin Truex Jr. (2017) as the only drivers to sweep a season at the Kansas 1.5-miler.
Logano, the defending Cup champion, has certainly had to work hard for a chance to become the first back-to-back Cup champ since Jimmie Johnson won five consecutively from 2006-10.
The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford has a pair of Kansas wins – the 2014 and 2015 Playoff races – and seven of his career eight top 10s are also top fives. He was 15th here in May. In last October’s Playoff race, he won the pole and led a race-best 100 laps but finished eighth.
Logano managed an 11th-place finish at Talladega despite being caught in a multi-car accident. He’s had four finishes of 11th or better in the five Playoff races – the lone exception a 34th-place finish at Dover.
Blaney, who has already earned his ticket to the Round of 8, has five top-10 Kansas finishes in nine starts with a decided tip to the Playoffs. The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford has earned four top-10 finishes in the last five Playoff races at Kansas with a career-best third place at the track in the 2017 Fall race.
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