Denny Hamlin outduels former NASCAR Cup champions for dramatic Kansas victory

Five wins in 19 races for Hamlin.

July 23, 2020

 

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

 

In what could be a sneak preview of the Championship 4 race later this year, Denny Hamlin outdueled Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. to win the Super Start Batteries 400 presented by O'Reilly Auto Parts Thursday night at Kansas Speedway.

 

After a wild restart on Lap 246, Hamlin passed Harvick for the lead on Lap 255 of 267 and held off a late charge from Keselowski to score his NASCAR Cup Series-best fifth victory of the season, his third at Kansas and the 42nd of his career.

 

Hamlin led four times for a race-high 57 laps to rebound from three sub-par finishes in what otherwise has been a stellar season for the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team.

 

"I don’t know if we had the best car—we definitely had a top-three car all day," said Hamlin, who has won two straight races at Kansas. "We just went and got it there at the end. I saw the 4 (Harvick) getting loose, and usually when you’re loose, you’re not able to run up high, and that was a benefit for us to be able to get that momentum going…

 

"We’ve had a rough three weeks—we were leading at Indy when we blew a tire, but it seems like we’re really hitting on all cylinders right now."

 

Moments after the final restart, Harvick made a deft move to slip past Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman. Hamlin followed and started to close the gap by running the top lane on the 1.5-mile track. Harvick’s car was too loose to take Hamlin’s line, and after chasing for eight laps, Hamlin made the pass for the lead with relative ease.

 

"We needed a miracle," said Harvick, who spent most of the night running in or near the top five, before grabbing his short-lived lead on the final run. "Our Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang was really loose. We got a couple good restarts and had a couple good laps, but we were in trouble there regardless, if it didn’t just keep going yellow.

 

"Our guys did a good job keeping us in the fight all night, but we definitely have some work to do."

 

Keselowski followed Hamlin past Harvick, and Truex soon followed to secure the third position. Truex led 44 laps and Keselowski 30 in a race that featured a surfeit of action, as the 11 cautions implied.

 

"I thought Denny and I were probably pretty close to equal the second half of the night," said Keselowski, who picked up his fifth stage win of the season in Stage 2. "It was just a matter of who got out in front. We didn’t get out in front on the restarts there, and he was able to take advantage and bring home the win. All in all, it was still a really good day."

 

Kyle Busch, who led 52 laps, won the first 80-lap stage to collect his first Playoff point of the season, but his race fell apart with 40 laps left when he slid into the outside wall and was forced to pit road with a flat right front tire.

 

Busch recovered to finish 11th, but the reigning series champion saw his winless streak reach 19 races, his longest drought to start a season since his first full-time campaign in 2005.

 

The race was a disaster for seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who came to Kansas two points inside the current Playoff cutline. Johnson was an innocent victim of a Lap 176 wreck triggered when Joey Logano slapped the outside wall after his left front tire lost air.

 

Matt DiBenedetto and Austin Dillon also were collected in the crash, but Johnson suffered the most, finishing 32nd and dropping to 18th in the standings, eight points behind Sunoco rookie Tyler Reddick in the race for the final Playoff berth.

 

Harvick held the fourth position at the finish. Erik Jones ran fifth, followed by Aric Almirola (scoring his eighth straight top 10), Cole Custer, Bowman, Kurt Busch and Byron. In the race for the regular-season championship, Harvick leads second-place Keselowski by 97 points.

 

NASCAR Cup Series Race - 10th Annual Super Start Batteries 400 presented by O'Reilly Auto Parts

Kansas Speedway

Kansas City, Kansas

Thursday, July 23, 2020

 

               1. (10)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 267.

               2. (7)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267.

               3. (5)  Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 267.

               4. (1)  Kevin Harvick, Ford, 267.

               5. (21)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 267.

               6. (3)  Aric Almirola, Ford, 267.

               7. (24)  Cole Custer #, Ford, 267.

               8. (6)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 267.

               9. (9)  Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 267.

               10. (15)  William Byron, Chevrolet, 267.

               11. (8)  Kyle Busch, Toyota, 267.

               12. (11)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 267.

               13. (23)  Tyler Reddick #, Chevrolet, 267.

               14. (19)  Clint Bowyer, Ford, 267.

               15. (36)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 267.

               16. (27)  Michael McDowell, Ford, 267.

               17. (14)  Matt Kenseth, Chevrolet, 267.

               18. (37)  Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 267.

               19. (30)  John Hunter Nemechek #, Ford, 266.

               20. (4)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, 266.

               21. (31)  Corey LaJoie, Ford, 266.

               22. (28)  JJ Yeley(i), Ford, 265.

               23. (22)  Christopher Bell #, Toyota, 264.

               24. (32)  Quin Houff #, Chevrolet, 260.

               25. (33)  Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 260.

               26. (26)  Garrett Smithley(i), Chevrolet, 260.

               27. (16)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 251.

               28. (18)  Ryan Newman, Ford, 251.

               29. (34)  Joey Gase(i), Ford, 251.

               30. (29)  Brennan Poole #, Chevrolet, 219.

               31. (39)  Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, Electrical, 216.

               32. (20)  Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, DVP, 200.

               33. (13)  Chris Buescher, Ford, Accident, 182.

               34. (35)  Ryan Preece, Chevrolet, Accident, 181.

               35. (2)  Joey Logano, Ford, Accident, 176.

               36. (12)  Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, Accident, 175.

               37. (17)  Bubba Wallace, Chevrolet, Accident, 170.

               38. (38)  Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, Electrical, 116.

               39. (40)  BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, Rear Gear, 66.

               40. (25)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, Electrical, 58.

 

Average Speed of Race Winner:  121.835 mph.

Time of Race:  3 Hrs, 17 Mins, 14 Secs. Margin of Victory:  .510 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  11 for 47 laps.

Lead Changes:  22 among 9 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   J. Logano 1-27;M. Truex Jr. 28-30;K. Busch 31-82;D. Hamlin 83-96;M. Truex Jr. 97-101;B. Keselowski 102-104;M. Truex Jr. 105-106;B. Keselowski 107-114;M. Truex Jr. 115-144;R. Blaney 145-158;B. Keselowski 159-162;R. Blaney 163;D. Hamlin 164-192;M. Truex Jr. 193-196;W. Byron 197-199;D. Hamlin 200;W. Byron 201-205;B. Keselowski 206-220;W. Byron 221-239;A. Bowman 240-245;K. Harvick 246-254;D. Hamlin 255-267.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Denny Hamlin 4 times for 57 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 52 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 5 times for 44 laps; Brad Keselowski 4 times for 30 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 27 laps; William Byron 3 times for 27 laps; Ryan Blaney 2 times for 15 laps; Kevin Harvick 1 time for 9 laps; Alex Bowman 1 time for 6 laps.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 18,11,19,12,2,8,4,10,88,20

Stage #2 Top Ten: 2,12,10,11,18,4,20,19,48,9

 

NASCAR Kansas Betting Preview: 2020 Super Start Batteries 400

Kevin Harvick is the 9/2 favorite to win at Kansas.

NASCAR Cup Series
Super Start Batteries 400
Betting Resources

Race: Super Start Batteries 400
Date: Thursday, July 23, 2020
TV-Time: NBCSN, 7:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Kansas Speedway
Location: Kansas City, Kansas

Kevin Harvick is leading the NASCAR Cup Series in just about every category halfway through the 2020 season and heads to Kansas Speedway’s 1.5-mile layout for Thursday night’s Super Start Batteries 400 where he owns almost every track record with three wins and 825 laps led. Only he, Ryan Newman, and Kurt Busch have raced in all 28 Kansas Cup races.

“It makes you feel old,” Harvick said with a laugh. “I did one of the first PR days at Kansas Speedway when it first opened and there was not one single thing around that racetrack other than the highway. So, what’s been built has been neat to see and how it’s all developed and how it’s all changed. It’s a fun racetrack because there is just so much to do around the racetrack and it’s been a successful racetrack for us.”

NASCAR Cup Odds
Super Start Batteries 400 Odds
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Kevin Harvick +400
Chase Elliott +600
Martin Truex Jr. +650
Kyle Busch +750
Ryan Blaney +800
Denny Hamlin +800
Brad Keselowski +1000
Joey Logano +1300
Aric Almirola +1800
Alex Bowman +2200
More NASCAR Futures
(Odds Subject to Change)

NASCAR Cup Series
Handicapping the Kansas 400

What’s even more amazing for Harvick regarding his age and tenure with NASCAR is that he comes in as the 9/2 bettingfavorite according to odds released by the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook.

Harvick is only 44-years-old, but modern NASCAR history has shown that great drivers around his age steal a few wins here and there, but they aren’t consistent favorites to win races.

The great Dale Earnhardt won his seventh and final championship at 43 but was rarely the favorite to win races in his last seven years as the Jeff Gordon NASCAR-machine started to take over.

What’s crazy right now is we’re seeing the absolute best of Harvick. He’s like the Benjamin Buttons of NASCAR. While I miss his hostile feudin’ early days, it appears the birth of his son Keelan who is now 8-years-old made him more focused. That, and also getting more consistent equipment with Stewart-Haas Racing starting in 2014 that made him fast everywhere. All three of his Kansas wins have come in his last 13 starts there and he’s led laps in 11 of them.

All four of Harvick’s win this season have come in the 13 races using the race package with engines producing 550 horsepower. Thursday’s night’s race will be the 14th race using it and the eighth race using it on 1.5-mile tracks. Harvick won on the 1.5 at Atlanta on June 7, one of seven different winners on the cookie-cutter layouts.

Bang the Long Shots...

The most surprising win of the season came from Harvick’s SHR teammate Cole Custer at Kentucky Speedway which paid out as high as 300/1 odds. Last week, Austin Dillon would win at Texas Motor Speedway and the few bettors that did take a chance getting paid out at 100/1 odds.

It’s the single largest back-to-back payouts in NASCAR betting history in Las Vegas. I’ve never seen anything like it which raises the question more about how it happened, and can it happen again. Is Christopher Bell next with Joe Gibbs Racing equipment? How about Dillon’s RCR teammate Tyler Reddick?

...Lean to Experience?

Or do we go back to Harvick and Denny Hamlin winning some more? Hamlin with four wins in 2020 like Harvick, won the fall Kansas race in 2019.

The common theme with Custer and Dillon winning, and you can throw in Joey Logano winning at Las Vegas too, is the right-side Goodyear tire compound was all the same. It was a hard compound on relatively smooth tracks and the smart pit strategy was to forego new tires and just take fuel on the last pit stop to gain position.

We should see some teams gamble like that Thursday night. Logano stayed out at Vegas when the leaders pitted (Ryan Blaney) late and Logano held on to win. Kansas isn’t a grind on tires like Darlington, Atlanta, or Fontana.

Of course, the pandemic has brought about a crazy schedule that races on Thursday night and has announced that no 2020 races will have practices or qualifying which has hurt several teams get a proper set-up to start each race.

Kyle Busch hasn’t won yet and it’s frustrating for him because he’s watched teammates like Hamlin win four times and Truex win once. He likens his 2020 to 2014 when the entire JGR team struggled with the new Gen-6 body and the team didn’t start to show signs of being top contenders until 2015 after he had to sit out the first part of the season with a broken leg but would go on to win his first Cup Championship.

“When we fired off the ’15 season, I was injured,” Busch said. “I was watching from home. I was seeing we were still kind of slow. The 11, the 19, the 20, they weren’t quite there yet. Then Martinsville, they all ran really good. When I came back at Charlotte time a few weeks later, it started to kind of click, everybody started to go in the right direction. We won four, five times. Then it seems like Matt (Kenseth) won a couple, Denny (Hamlin) won a couple, Carl (Edwards) won a couple. Started to go there. It took us a good year and a half to get back up to the top of the circle. I don’t know if that’s what we’re on now. I certainly hope not. It’s definitely frustrating. Trust me, it’s not very fun where we’re at. I know everybody is kicking themselves and trying to do all they can to work harder and be smarter.”

Similar to Harvick, Busch didn’t become a two-time Cup Champion until his five-year-old son Brexton came about. Busch has a 2016 Kansas win to his credit to go along with seven top-fives. His fourth-place finish last week at Texas was his eighth top-five of the season, but it’s wild to believe that 10 drivers have a win before he does. He’s still listed as one of the favorites at 6/1 odds.

Read More Here.....Top-5 Finish Prediction on VegasInsider.com

Clint Bowyer returns home 40/1 to win at Kansas

CLINT BOWYER It's Still Kansas KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (July 20, 2020) – This week won’t be the type of homecoming he expected, but Clint Bowyer returns to his home track of Kansas Speedway in Kansas City Thursday night ready to compete in a race that means as much to him as any in the NASCAR Cup Series. “I think every driver in our sport would say they want to win the Daytona 500 more than any other race but, for me, Kansas would be right up there,” said Bowyer, who owns three top-five finishes but has never won at Kansas. The Emporia, Kansas native expects trips back to Kansas to include family visits, as well as a busy track schedule meeting and greeting fans and sponsors. But COVID-19 will curtail those plans, leaving the grandstands empty, the sponsors at home and Bowyer wishing it was like the pre-virus days. “Certainly, going back home isn’t going to feel like home,” said Bowyer, who finished 11th Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. “I can’t go and have dinner with 20 people like I have been accustomed to, and go back and have family and friends and people who have followed my career tailgating in the infield and go have a beer with them or whatever the case may be. I won’t be able to do that this time around. It is not going to be the same.” Thursday night’s race is the NASCAR Cup Series’ 15th since its return May 17 from a 10-week hiatus due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As it did at the previous 14 races, NASCAR series and team personnel in the infield will continue to operate under a comprehensive health and safety plan at Kansas that permits limited crew, strict social distancing, and mandated personal protective equipment and health screenings for all. Unlike the most recent two races at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and Texas, there will be no fans in the stands at Kansas, but that won’t lessen what is at stake Thursday. When the green flag flies, Bowyer is going to do his best to bring home a trophy from Kansas.  “There is still a lot of pride in running and racing in the Cup Series of NASCAR at home at Kansas Speedway that means so much to you,” he said. “That pride is still there, but it is going to be different this time around, just like it has been everywhere else.” Bowyer also has a lot of pride carrying the One Cure decals that will be adorn his No. 14 Ford Mustang Thursday night at Kansas. The One Cure project is led by the Flint Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University. It is founded on the principle that cancer affects all creatures and that treatment breakthroughs come through collaboration between scientists and doctors working with people and animals. This approach is known as comparative oncology and it is the guiding concept of One Cure and the Flint Animal Cancer Center. The center works to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in pets, and teams with the human medical field to translate research findings that will help people with cancer. The center, located in Colorado State’s James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital, sees more than 1,500 new animal cancer patients every year, with approximately 130 of them enrolled in carefully monitored clinical trials specific to their cancer type. The canine and feline patients are helping pioneer cancer research, moving cutting-edge treatments out of the laboratory and into clinical practice, ultimately providing hope for the next generation of animal and human cancer patients. One Cure has been one of Bowyer’s partners at SHR since he climbed into the No. 14 racecar in 2018. The program’s goal is to direct fans to www.OneCure.com, where they can learn about the research and to offer financial support. Kansas is not only important to Bowyer personally, but key to securing a playoff spot with just eight races left in the regular season. He is 13th in in the driver standings, but in the playoff standings he is 15th with a 36-point cushion over the final transfer spot in the 16-driver playoff field. A win at Kansas secures a spot in NASCAR’s postseason, but a good run helps in padding his points cushion. “We’ve just got to go and compete the way we’re capable of competing,” he said. And if he does that Thursday night and finally wins that Kansas trophy, it will be a homecoming like no other.

CLINT BOWYER, Driver of the No. 14 One Cure Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What will Kansas Speedway be like Thursday without fans? “Obviously, it is going to be drastically different not having fans. That is what put this sport on the map. That is what has kept it on the map all these years and, without that, it is just a void that can’t be replaced. Are we putting a product on the racetrack? Yes. Are there people at home watching? Yes, the ratings show that and these are the things keeping us alive and relevant. I think the rest of the sporting world is fixin’ to see firsthand just like we have experienced in the last few months the difference and challenges and impact of not having that fan presence there. It isn’t just the presence, it’s the atmosphere and your event. Without that, it isn’t quite the event it could be or should be or would be.” You race Thursday night, and then you get Sunday off. What are your plans? “My wife is on me nonstop, ‘What are we doing?’ And my plan, man, you get an idea and go down that path and that doesn’t work. I’ve been going over to the lake (Lake of the Ozarks) a lot and I enjoy that. But it’s like, ‘I want to go somewhere different, I want to take my family somewhere.’ The kids are fixin to go back to school or whatever the heck that’s going to look like. It’s just hard. Camping. I love to camp. We camp every weekend, anyway. And it’s kind of funny to say, ‘Oh, let’s take the bus and go camp somewhere.’ We were going to do that. Good luck finding a campground somewhere you can get into to do that. I would say we’ll probably end up back over at the lake. It makes the most sense. It’s two hours from Kansas City, or a three-hour drive over there. But who knows? We’re trying to figure it out. That’s a great question. And that’s a question that, when my eyes woke up this morning, she was staring at me saying, ‘What are we doing this weekend?’ I still don’t have an answer.”

Jimmie Johnson is 30/1 to win Thursday night at Kansas

Jimmie Johnson has three wins at Kansas.

Driver Jimmie Johnson on Kansas Speedway:
“Kansas is one of my favorite tracks we go to. I’m so encouraged as to how we ran at Texas before we had the accident. It (the Ally Chevrolet) was such a rocket. Major kudos to the guys at the shop setting up these cars week in and out for us – without the ability to practice if the cars were way off we would be in big trouble. They are really close every week. Kansas has evolved so much and there is this aging that happens with the racing surfaces on these tracks to with they come into their own after 10 or 15 years and Kansas is now one of those tracks in its ‘prime’. I find it to be one of the most racy and competitive mile and a half tracks we race on right now.”


KANSAS WINS: Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson has seen plenty of success over the course of his 27 starts at Kansas Speedway, accumulating a record three wins at the 1.5-mile track. The driver’s most recent win there came on May 9, 2015, when he led the final 10 laps to edge Kevin Harvick for the victory. Johnson owns 28 career Cup Series wins on 1.5-mile tracks, the most of all-time. At Kansas, he also has the second-most top-five finishes (nine), the most top-10s (19) and the fourth-most laps led (601).

ABOVE AVERAGE AT KANSAS: Johnson had the sixth-best average finish at Kansas Speedway last season. He finished sixth in the spring event and 10th in the fall for an average finish of 8.0. Hendrick Motorsports was strong overall at Kansas in 2019, with Chase Elliott posting the top average result (3.0) and Alex Bowman the fifth-best (6.5).

TEXAS REWIND: Fast cars don’t always win. Mired by a pit road penalty after driving into the top 10 from his 20th-place starting position at Texas Motor Speedway, Johnson again drove back into the top 10 from 32nd after serving his penalty. As he continued his forward march, misfortune struck when Johnson got into the marbles and hit the wall on lap 117 causing significant damage. The team stayed the course even though they were multiple laps down and moved from 40th to 26th for the finish. All in all, Johnson passed 32 cars for position under green flag conditions throughout the race at Texas.

PLAYOFF PICTURE: With eight races remaining in the regular season before the NASCAR playoffs begin, Johnson is 15th in the point standings, two points above teammate William Byron in 16th. Johnson missed the event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in early July due to a positive COVID-19 test, but NASCAR granted the driver a playoff waiver if he were to otherwise qualify for the post-season.

BUSY IN THE PITS: The No. 48 crew ranks ninth in the NASCAR Cup Series with an average four-tire stop time of 14.21 seconds. The team is coached by Jon Carvin and consists of veteran gasman Brandon Harder, tire carrier Allan Stallings, jackman Kyle Tudor and tire changers Calvin Teague and Donnie Tasser.

ALLY SALUTES: On Thursday night in Kansas, primary sponsor Ally will honor Airman First Class and United States Airforce reservist LaToya Freeman with her name on the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet. Freeman, a Jacksonville, Florida, native is stationed at Duke Field, 919th Special Operations Wing, and has been a supervisor in Ally’s Jacksonville office for the last 10 years.

Chase Elliott is 8/1 to win Thursday night at Kansas

Half of Chase Elliott's eight Kansas starts have been top-fives.

Driver Chase Elliott on Kansas Speedway:
“To me, Kansas feels like such a small mile and half compared to some of the other ones we go to. I just feel like the corners are sharper than some other places and with it being progressively banked, the top side is going to continue to become dominant. I think in a way, it’s going to turn into Homestead in some situations and as time goes on. The way the corners are shaped, it’s kind of small and that top groove having more banking than the other ones as you move down the track is going to make it a top-dominant racetrack. Typically, those tracks put on good shows, so I expect it to age really well. I look forward to racing there this weekend. It is a fun track.”


HALFWAY THERE: The NASCAR Cup Series has officially hit the halfway point of 2020. Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, has seven top-five finishes – the most he has collected through 18 races in a season – and nine top-10s. His 451 laps led are also a career high at this point in the year and are currently fifth-most in the series. He continues to lead all drivers with five stage wins. In the first half, Elliott also has garnered the third-most stage points (179) and is currently fifth in the driver standings, 117 points behind leader Kevin Harvick.

KANSAS STATS: On Thursday, Elliott is set to make his ninth Kansas Speedway start in the NASCAR Cup Series. He averaged a third-place finish in the two races at Kansas in 2019, the best of all drivers in the series. In Elliott’s previous eight starts at the track, he garnered one win, four top-five finishes – tied with Charlotte for the second-most at any track in his career – and five top-10s. He has finished inside the top five in four of the last five races at the 1.5-mile track. Elliott’s three consecutive top-fives are tied with Charlotte and Michigan for the most at a single track in his Cup Series career. He also has finished inside the top 10 in every stage in the last three events at Kansas.

LAST TIME AROUND: Last October, in a double-overtime event at Kansas Speedway, a gutsy late-race drive from Elliott yielded a second-place finish. The runner-up result allowed him to advance to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs Round of 8 for the third consecutive season.

WEEKDAY WARRIOR: Since the Cup Series returned in May from a two-month hiatus, Elliott has won two of the five events run on weekdays: the 300-mile race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday, May 28, and the NASCAR All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Wednesday, July 15.

1.5-MILE TRACKS IN 2020: In seven 1.5-mile races in 2020, Elliott won at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 28 and has two runner-up finishes, which lead all drivers. On 1.5-milers, he has led the fifth-most laps (189) in the Cup Series and his three top-five finishes are tied for the third-most. His two stage wins are tied for second-most in the series this season.

NAPA AT KANSAS: On Thursday night at Kansas Speedway, the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE will don the familiar blue, white and yellow NAPA AUTO PARTS paint scheme. The Atlanta-based company is serving as majority sponsor for Elliott and the No. 9 team for a total of 26 NASCAR Cup Series races this season.

PIT PROWESS: Through 18 NASCAR Cup Series races in 2020, the No. 9 NAPA team owns the second-best average time for four-tire stops at 13.92 seconds.

WELCOME HOME: No. 9 team jackman T.J. Semke hails from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, less than 40 miles from Kansas Speedway. Before stepping on the football field at the University of Kansas in 2012, Semke was a part-time bounty hunter. The 25-year-old was a defensive lineman for the Kansas Jayhawks for three years, earning Academic All-Big 12 Second Team honors twice. Semke signed with Hendrick Motorsports in October 2016.

BEHIND THE 9: Crew chief Alan Gustafson is trying his hand as a host in a new Hendrick Motorsports video series called “Behind the 9” in which he interviews each member of the No. 9 crew. Fans are able to learn about where they came from and the role they serve on the team, with each bringing a unique personality and skillset. Episodes are released every Tuesday on the Hendrick Motorsports Facebook page and YouTube channel. The most recent episode features tire carrier Jared Erspamer.

Cole Custer is 100/1 to win Thursday night at Kansas

COLE CUSTER Making First Cup Start at Kansas KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (July 21, 2020) – With the NASCAR Cup Series season in the middle of the summer stretch, Cole Custer and the No. 41 HaasTooling.com team will race Thursday night at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. The Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) driver will pilot the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang at the 400-mile event for his 22nd Cup Series start. Last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Custer started 19th and ran in the top-15 before his day ended prematurely after being caught up in a multicar accident on lap 219. It was a disappointing finish for the rookie driver who secured his first Cup Series win in only his 20th start the week prior at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta. “I mean, it’s always one of the most humbling sports you can be a part of – winning one week and being part of a wreck the following week,” Custer said. Team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, was launched as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas’ cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users. Beginning July 1, HaasTooling.com products became available nationally. The cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com are even more important during the current COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment.   There are eight races left in the regular season before the playoffs start Sept. 6 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, and Custer’s win at Kentucky earned him one of the coveted playoff spots.   The win also put Custer in a category with 33 other drivers who have won in all three NASCAR national series. All of Custer’s SHR teammates have won in all three national series. “Being in this spot so fast, I couldn’t even think of it coming into this year,” Custer said. The young driver has also won in NASCAR’s ARCA and K&N Pro Series. Additionally, 122 drivers have won in their first 20 starts. Before Custer’s win at Kentucky, the last five drivers to win in 20 starts or less are Trevor Bayne, Justin Hayley, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Juan Pablo Montoya.   Kansas is the third consecutive mile-and-a-half track in as many weeks for the Cup Series. In his last seven starts at intermediate tracks, Custer has the Kentucky win, and an average starting position of 24.0, an average finishing position of 18.6 and he’s completed 94.4 percent of all possible laps.     Custer has four Kansas appearances in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with a best finish of 11th, an average starting position of 10.2, an average finishing position of 22.8, and 85 laps led. In the Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series at Kansas, the Ford driver’s lone appearance was in May 2016 when he started fourth and finished seventh.   In 66 starts at Kansas, SHR has three wins – team co-owner Tony Stewart in October 2009, and Kevin Harvick with a pair of wins in October 2016 and May 2018. In total at Kansas, SHR has 12 top-fives, 24 top-10s and 828 laps led.   Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.   Even though Custer had a trio of starts in the Cup Series in 2018, 2020 officially marks his Rookie of the Year campaign in NASCAR’s most prestigious series. He’s competing for rookie honors with notables Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick. The three have battled against each other in the Xfinity Series and are making the full-time transition to the Cup Series together. Custer is the first of the 2020 rookie class to earn a win this season.

Cole Custer: Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You were the youngest winner in the Truck Series at 16 years old. Do you feel more comfortable winning now that you’re a little older and in the Cup Series? “Definitely never felt really comfortable in that role at 16. It was kind of strange. I was always kind of the quieter kid and winning that race when I was 16, I was doing interviews with big media outlets and didn’t really know what I was doing. It was cool but you have to keep winning races to make it and I’ve been lucky enough to drive some good cars. Hopefully, we can have more wins here in the future.” How much can you carry over from one 1.5-mile track to another? “Every single track is different. You can’t bring the same thing to them, but I think we have a really good idea on what we need to bring to the mile-and-a-half tracks. We should be pretty good on them obviously after Kentucky, but we are still making our best educated guess because we don’t have practice or anything to work our cars in. You just have to hope you hit it right.” Without practice and qualifying, how much are you relying on your crew chief Mike Shiplett and your engineer Davin Restivo to get you comfortable in the car? “A lot. It’s been cool to work with Mike and Davin because I worked with them last year in the Xfinity Series. We all have a little bit to learn in the Cup Series, but it’s nice to already have our communication down and know what each other is looking for in the cars. It’s been good, it’s just a matter of perfecting these cars and getting better each time we are out there.”

Kyle Busch is 6/1 to win at Kansas Thursday night

KYLE BUSCH Thank You, Mars Associates HUNTERSVILLE, North Carolina (July 20, 2020) – When Kyle Busch heads to work in his M&M’S Fudge Brownie Camry for Thursday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, he’ll take some inspiration from Mars Associates across the globe who have been hard at work during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, just 55 miles away in Topeka, Mars Associates make the same M&M’S Fudge Brownie product featured on Busch’s No. 18 Toyota this week, along with many of their other favorite colorful products. So as Busch travels to the Midwest for the Cup Series Kansas 400, his Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) M&M’S Fudge Brownie Toyota will feature signatures from 124 Mars associates who are based at the Mars Topeka plant in the backyard of Thursday night’s race. The latest M&M’S creation tastes like freshly baked brownies with its fudgy, chewy center – only there’s no baking necessary. Busch will hope to record another strong finish at Kansas, a place where he struggled mightily during his first 14 visits. However, looking at his past 10 starts at the 1.5-mile oval, Busch has scored seven top-five finishes and nine top-10s, an astounding turnaround from his early years there. The Kansas oval was built in 2001 and originally featured a constant 15 degrees of banking in the turns. But it underwent a massive renovation project leading into its October 2012 event. The changes included repaving of the existing track surface, reconfiguration of the oval, and the addition of a new infield road course. The oval’s geometric shape also was changed to feature variable banking of 17 to 20 degrees in the turns. To say that Busch didn’t take well to the new surface would be quite the understatement. From October 2012 to 2013, he had three consecutive DNFs (Did Not Finish) there, with accidents ending his day each time, for final results of 31st, 38th and 34th. Feeling snakebit on the new Kansas surface, Busch and his M&M’S team took a different approach starting with the April 2014 race by starting from scratch with a brand new car. They attacked Kansas with the hopes that a fresh outlook would produce vastly different results. While a pit-road speeding penalty cost them precious track position and an even better finish in the race, the result and effort was much different than the three previous trips. Instead, they were competitive enough to turn the corner in terms of results. In the October 2014 Cup Series race, Busch brought home his first-ever top-five finish at Kansas. Again, the 2015 Cup Series champion has never cared much for moral victories. However, the momentum kickstarted by his first Kansas top-five has remained to this day. Finally, with the surface starting to wear, Kansas has become a place much more agreeable to Busch’s driving style as he brought home his first victory there in NASCAR’s top series in May 2016, putting an exclamation point on the aforementioned strong runs there. As he and the Cup Series head to Kansas for Thursday’s race under the lights, Busch will no doubt roll up his sleeves and get to work, just like the many Mars Topeka associates riding along with him for the 400-mile race in hopes of leaving the Heartland of America with his second career Cup Series win there.

KYLE BUSCH, Driver of the No. 18 M&M'S Fudge Brownie Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:

What are some of the challenges racing at Kansas? “Going to Kansas, it is a night race, so it is cool to be able to race on Thursday night and get a weekend off after we’ve been going pretty hard since we got back racing in May. It’s really cool with the Mars Topeka associates being on the car this weekend. They’ve been working so hard during the whole pandemic making M&M’S Fudge Brownie and other great treats, I can’t thank them enough for their hard work and support. Would love to get those 124 associates to victory lane on Thursday night, for sure.” Have you looked forward to racing at Kansas more since you won there? “I do. Also, I did even the last few times before we won there when we had some really strong runs. We finished in the top-five, I think, six races in a row and we have also been in the top-10 a lot, so it’s a place where we’ve really picked it up. We seemed to have gotten a setup or ahold of that place, I’d say, and hopefully we don’t screw that up this time around and we can continue our strong runs and our fast pace of being able to have a shot to win with our M&M’S Fudge Brownie Toyota.” Have you had this kind of season before, feeling, as you say, like you’ve spent the whole year one step behind? “I think 2014 was really close to this. We struggled super bad when we came out with this new body style, the Gen-6 body style. We were pretty bad as a company at JGR that year. We won one restrictor-plate race that year, that was at California. The rest of us didn’t win at all. That was a frustrating season. Unfortunately, I don’t have a win yet. But it feels just like that year. I don’t know where it’s going. We do have six second-place finishes. I think, four, five, six, whatever the hell it is. We’ve been close a couple of times. Many of the other races we’re getting run into. We’ve had flat tires, gone two laps down, tried to do the right thing and drive it back to pit road, not drive a caution. It penalizes us in the day. Now I understand why those guys do that. Other than that, you get run into by a guy who shouldn’t be pitting on the same pit lap as you, I think, at Talladega. I mean, I can keep going. No point in that. We got to fight harder, do better. That’s all there is to it.” How did you come out of it in 2014?  Did it roll into 2015 before you started to see the benefits of working so hard? “When we fired off the ’15 season, I was injured. I was watching from home. I was seeing we were still kind of slow. The 11, the 19, the 20, they weren’t quite there yet. Then Martinsville, they all ran really good. When I came back at Charlotte time a few weeks later, it started to kind of click, everybody started to go in the right direction. We won four, five times. Then it seems like Matt (Kenseth) won a couple, Denny (Hamlin) won a couple, Carl (Edwards) won a couple. Started to go there. It took us a good year and a half to get back up to the top of the circle. I don’t know if that’s what we’re on now. I certainly hope not. It’s definitely frustrating. Trust me, it’s not very fun where we’re at. I know everybody is kicking themselves and trying to do all they can to work harder and be smarter.”

Kevin Harvick is 9/2 favorite to win at Kansas Thursday night

KEVIN HARVICK ‘Just Keep Matriculating the Ball Down the Field, Boys’  KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (July 21, 2020) – Hank Stram always liked Kansas City. The Gary Lew Wallace High School and Purdue University graduate was head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs from 1963 to 1974. Stram led the Chiefs to two Super Bowls, winning Super Bowl IV 23-7 over the Minnesota Vikings. He was made famous by wearing a microphone for NFL Films during the winning Super Bowl and telling the offense, “Just keep matriculating the ball down the field, boys.” And, with the Chiefs on the goal line, calling for his favorite play, “65 toss power trap.” Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the 2019 Chiefs duplicated the efforts of Stram’s team from 1969 by winning Super Bowl LIV this past January. Stram and Mahomes are winners. So is NASCAR Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick, especially at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), has five poles, three wins, three second-place finishes, eight top-threes, 15 top-10s and has led a total of 855 laps in his 28 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Kansas. He is one of only three drivers who have participated in all 28 Cup Series races held at the 1.5-mile oval. The others are Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman. Harvick is coming off his 700th career Cup Series start, which took place Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, during which he also completed his 200,000th career lap, and he went on to raise his total to 200,112 by race’s end. With his four wins, 11 top-five finishes and 15 top-10s in 18 races this season, Harvick leads the points by 91 over Joey Logano,. He’ll race again with Busch Light Apple on his car, as he did last week in the non-points NASCAR All-Star Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Busch Light Apple is a refreshing, light lager, which combines the crispness of Busch with the light sweetness of apple flavor. It’s like the sound of refreshment meets the taste of the orchard, and is the first flavor innovation in the history of the Busch Light brand. Similar to the All-Star Race, Busch Beer will again be running a social promotion throughout the race. Busch Beer will be giving away a case worth of beer every lap of the race, so fans have a chance to win during all 267 laps. Make sure to check Busch Beer’s Twitter to learn how. Harvick is looking for win number five of the season and number four at Kansas, which would keep him matriculating toward another great season.

KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman and you are the only drivers to start all 28 races at Kansas Speedway. You’ve been racing there since 2001. Can you talk about the track as it approaches its 20-year anniversary? “It makes you feel old (laughs). I did one of the first PR days at Kansas Speedway when it first opened and there was not one single thing around that racetrack other than the highway. So, what’s been built has been neat to see and how it’s all developed and how it’s all changed. It’s a fun racetrack because there is just so much to do around the racetrack and it’s been a successful racetrack for us.” Why have you been so successful there recently? “I don’t really know. It’s a racetrack where I’ve won a couple races and, for whatever reason, it just kind of fits my style and what we do with the cars. We’ve had a lot of good racecars there to capitalize on the good characteristics that fall into my driving style and we’ve been able to have some good results with it.” Take us on a lap around Kansas. “It’s definitely a little bit different just for the fact the (corner) entries are a little different than at most places. Turns three and four remind me of turns three and four at Chicagoland Speedway, but there’s a lot more grip and fresher asphalt than what Chicagoland has nowadays. It’s a very high-speed racetrack. You run the middle to the bottom of the racetrack. But I’m sure, as time goes on, that the groove will move back up. But, for right now, it’s very fast and very sensitive to your line and, with all the speed and how tricky the entrance is into turn one, you can miss your line easily. So, you have to be very specific about where you put your car and pay attention to what you’re doing.”