Pit Stop Radio News

You read that right, the NASCAR Cup Series is bringing all the action to the fans in a mid-week showdown with  Thursday night’s Super Start Batteries 400 Presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts race at Kansas Speedway at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. This week’s Kansas race will be the 80th time the NASCAR Cup Series has competed on a Thursday.

Leading up to this season in the Modern Era (1972-Present) racing on a Thursday has been rare; it only happened a few times when Daytona International Speedway held their July race on the fourth (1974, 1985). But, prior to the Modern Era, mid-week racing was quite common – 76 of previous 79 Cup races held on Thursday were prior to the Modern Era from 1949 to 1971.

Below are the last 15 NASCAR Cup Series races held on a Thursday:

	Date	Track	Race Winner	Season
1	Thursday, May 28, 2020	Charlotte	Chase Elliott	2020
2	Thursday, July 4, 1985	Daytona	Greg Sacks	1985
3	Thursday, July 4, 1974	Daytona	David Pearson	1974
4	Thursday, July 15, 1971	Islip	Richard Petty	1971
5	Thursday, April 15, 1971	Maryville	Richard Petty	1971
6	Thursday, April 8, 1971	Columbia	Richard Petty	1971
7	Thursday, February 11, 1971	Daytona	Pete Hamilton	1971
8	Thursday, February 11, 1971	Daytona	David Pearson	1971
9	Thursday, August 6, 1970	Columbia	Bobby Isaac	1970
10	Thursday, July 9, 1970	Thompson	Bobby Isaac	1970
11	Thursday, May 28, 1970	Maryville	Bobby Isaac	1970
12	Thursday, April 30, 1970	Columbia	Richard Petty	1970
13	Thursday, February 19, 1970	Daytona	Charlie Glotzbach	1970
14	Thursday, February 19, 1970	Daytona	Cale Yarborough	1970
15	Thursday, September 18, 1969	Columbia	Bobby Isaac	1969

Kansas Speedway has hosted the NASCAR Cup Series 28 times, but this week’s will be the first on a Thursday. The 28 previous Cup events have produced 16 different pole winners and 15 different race winners. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick leads the series in poles at Kansas with five (fall 2013, 2014 sweep, spring 2018, spring 2019). NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon (2001, 2002, 2014), Kevin Harvick (2013, 2016, 2018) and Jimmie Johnson (2008, 2011, 2015) are all tied for the series-most wins at Kansas with three each. NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon won the first NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway on September 30, 2001; actually, Gordon won the first two series races at Kansas (2001, 2002). The series’ most popular driver Chase Elliott holds the record for the youngest series Kansas winner at  22 years, 10 months, 23 days (October 21, 2018) and NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin is the oldest series Kansas winner at 46 years, 9 months, 0 days.

NASCAR Cup Series
Kansas Active Race Winners
Active Race Winners	Wins
Jimmie Johnson	3
Kevin Harvick	3
Brad Keselowski	2
Denny Hamlin	2
Joey Logano	2
Martin Truex Jr	2
Matt Kenseth	2
Chase Elliott	1
Kyle Busch	1
Ryan Newman	1

In this week’s event, 10 of the 15 former NASCAR Cup Series Kansas race winners are entered; including last season’s winners Brad Keselowski (May) and Denny Hamlin (Playoffs). The May race last year was dominated by Kevin Harvick, who led 104 laps, but it was Brad Keselowski who passed Alex Bowman with 11 laps to go to take the checkered flag and his second career win at the 1.5-mile track.

Of the 10 former Cup Kansas winners entered on Thursday, four of them are still looking for their first win in 2020 – Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman.  Of the four, Kyle Busch is the most recent winner at Kansas grabbing his lone victory at 1.5-mile track in 2016.

Playoff picture is taking shape; two new winners in last two races

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff picture is starting to become clearer over the last two weeks as two new drivers – Cole Custer (Kentucky) and Austin Dillon (Texas) – have locked themselves into the postseason on wins. Now just six spots are left to make the Playoffs as the series heads to Kansas Speedway for Thursday night’s Super Start Batteries 400 Presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.  

Drivers with wins that are locked into the Playoffs are Kevin Harvick (four wins), Denny Hamlin (four), Brad Keselowski (two), Joey Logano (two), Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon,  and Cole Custer (each have one win).

With just eight races left in the regular season, each event will ratchet up the pressure on the drivers to win; especially the six drivers clinging to their points in Playoff contention. 

Heading into this week’s race at Kansas, Aric Almirola (109 points up), Kurt Busch (108) and defending series champion Kyle Busch (95) all have sizable points leads over 17^th place William Byron. Almirola is the highest ranked driver in the standings without a win. He has made 16 starts at 1.5-mile track posting six top 10s. Kurt Busch leads the series in the most starts at Kansas without a win at 28, but he has had some success putting up four top five and 11 top 10s. Of the three with sizeable points cushions heading into Thursday night, Kyle Busch has had the most success at Kansas posting one win (2016) and seven top fives. In last season’s May Kansas race Kurt Busch finished seventh, Almirola finished 12^th and Kyle Busch was 30^th.

Wood Brothers Racing’s Matt DiBenedetto is next in the driver standings and is having a career year, currently 14^th in the Playoff outlook with a 51-point cushion up on 17^th place William Byron – the first spot outside the Playoff cutoff. This season DiBenedetto has collected two top fives and five top 10s. He has made 10 series starts at Kansas posting an average finish of 25.6; including his career-best finish in last season’s Playoff race of 15^th.

Next up in the Playoff outlook is Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer, currently 15^th just 36 points up on postseason cutline. This season Bowyer has amassed two top fives and five top 10s. But the Emporia, Kansas, native is hoping a trip to his home track can get him his first win of 2020 and locked into the Playoffs. Bowyer has made 23 series starts at Kansas posting three top fives and eight top 10s. He finished fifth in the May Kansas race last season.

Just like last week, Jimmie Johnson continues to teeter along the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff’s cutline, currently 16^th in the driver standings a mere two points up on his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron in 17^th – the first spot outside Playoff transfer spots. Johnson is riding a winless streak that has reached 113 races – dating back to Dover in 2017 – but all that could change this Thursday at Kansas, a track at which Johnson shares the series lead for wins. Johnson has made 27 series starts at Kansas posting three poles, three wins, nine top fives and 19 top 10s. His average finish at Kansas is a strong 10.3.

Johnson finished sixth in the May Kansas race last season.

Rank	Driver	Points	Race Wins	Stage Wins	Playoff Pts	Pts From Cutoff
11	Aric Almirola	534	0	2	2	109
12	Kurt Busch	533	0	1	1	108
13	Kyle Busch	520	0	0	0	95
14	Matt DiBenedetto	476	0	0	0	51
15	Clint Bowyer	461	0	2	2	36
16	Jimmie Johnson	427	0	1	1	2
17	William Byron	425	0	2	2	-2
18	Tyler Reddick #	413	0	1	1	-14
19	Erik Jones	403	0	0	0	-24
20	Bubba Wallace	351	0	0	0	-76
21	Chris Buescher	341	0	0	0	-86
22	Christopher Bell #	325	0	0	0	-102
23	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	321	0	1	1	-106
24	Michael McDowell	320	0	0	0	-107
25	John Hunter Nemechek #	307	0	0	0	-120
26	Ryan Newman	300	0	0	0	-127
27	Ty Dillon	255	0	0	0	-172
28	Matt Kenseth	253	0	0	0	-174
29	Corey LaJoie	243	0	0	0	-184
30	Ryan Preece	190	0	0	0	-237

Of the five drivers outside the Playoffs but within a 100 points of the cutoff,  Tyler Reddick (9.0) has the best average finish at Kansas Speedway; followed by Erik Jones (16.9), Chris Buescher (17.8), William Byron (24.0) and Bubba Wallace (28.2).