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.