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| Brad Keselowski has won at Kentucky three times. |
There's lots of racing to go and lots of improvements to be made by teams like Stewart-Haas Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, and Hendrick Motorsports and they're all still in the Playoff mix. If they get up to speed by the 10-race Playoffs they have just as good a shot as anyone.
Hendrick has already made their move with Alex Bowman winning at Chicagoland for his first career race after he finished second at Kansas and seventh at Charlotte. Jimmie Johnson has top-fives in his last two starts on the schedule, and Chase Elliott has a Talladega win as one of his six top-fives in 2019.
It's been a slow process for Hendrick, but they showed back in March at Texas that they were on the path to becoming one of the best on 1.5-mile tracks again. Johnson started from the pole and led 60 laps -- more than he led all of 2018 -- before finishing fifth. William Byron led 15 laps before finishing sixth and Elliott led 35 laps before finishing 13th.
Do well on the 1.5-mile tracks and winning a championship is more likely just because there are more of them on the schedule. It was how Johnson paved the way to winning seven Cup Championships. There have been six races on 1.5-mile tracks so far this season and five more to go starting with Saturday night's Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway.
Kyle Busch has four wins so far, but none have come on 1.5-mile tracks. His two wins using this race package with aero ducts and engines producing 550 horsepower came on the 2-mile layout at Michigan and the 2.5-mile tricky triangle at Pocono. However, he's statistically the best ever at Kentucky.
“I love Kentucky," said Busch. "It was special there in 2011, when we were able to win the first Cup race there, and it stayed that way during our win there four years ago. I look forward to going back every year. It’s a pretty challenging racetrack. It used to be a place that lends itself to different kinds of setups because it was so rough. Fast lap times at Kentucky come from momentum. The place is so round that there’s not a ton of banking compared to some other 1.5-milers. It’s all about how round the corners are and just being able to maintain corner speed and stay on the gas. It’s a place we get excited about, for sure.”
In addition to winning the inaugural Cup race from the pole at Kentucky in 2011, he also won there in 2015. His fifth-place average finish is a track record, as is his six top-fives and 549 laps led. He's also got three Kentucky wins in the Xfinity Series and two more in the Truck Series. He's got quite the resume, but the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has posted him the second choice to win at 5/1 odds.
The 7/2 favorite is Martin Truex Jr. even though he's had only two top-fives in eight Kentucky starts. However, both those top-fives were wins and they came in each of the last two races there. He's taken over Johnson's mantle as being the cookie-cutter King on these tracks. It's how he also won a championship. He's tied with Busch with four wins this season, one of which came at Charlotte in May when he led 116 laps for his third career win on the 1.5-mile layout.
I don't think I did Truex justice by just saying he won at Kentucky the last two seasons because they were dominating wins in all phases. In 2017, he started second, won the first two stages, and led 152 laps before winning. Last season he started from the pole, won the first two stages and led 174 laps before winning.
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