Kentucky Speedway comes a callin’ this week for the Quaker State 400. He is tied for the series-lead in wins with three in 2016. Kyle Busch seems to be the favorite but can the driver of the 18 vehicle, and defending victor at Kentucky, get it done on Saturday night? He also took part in last month’s Kentucky test session.
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Statistically, Busch is the top competitor at Kentucky.
His skid at Kentucky isn’t quite as lengthy: 0 for 5 dating to the track’s inaugural race in 2011.
“I don’t know if there are words that can describe how much it would really mean to me”, Rhodes said. Tony Stewart was fined $35,000 in April when he said NASCAR was putting drivers at risk by not mandating teams apply and tighten the maximum five lug nuts to a wheel each time a auto leaves pit road. His best result came in 2014 when he finished 14th. We jumped in a vehicle to feel it for ourselves.
Kurt Busch leads the field during last years race.
“We’re in about six different buildings right now, trying to assemble everything”, Rhodes said. In the same vicinity, the pit exit has been widened, meaning a narrower racing groove in Turn 1, which used to have enough room to host a land rush on re-starts. “I would expect that to be the same, and I would expect Turns 3 and 4 to really, really be a challenge, because it’s such a finesse corner already”. It’s the old school mile-and-a-half; flat, hard and really tough to get around with the speed we carry. “That’s really important to me”. His worst finish was 10th in 2012.
Fantasy NASCAR Expert Brian Polking ranks the top drivers racing in this coming weekend’s Quaker State 400!
A virtual shoo-in for the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase at fifth in the point standings (115 points above Ross Chastain on the cutoff line), Gaughan believes he can start piling up some wins.
“Jeff Gordon can’t say he won at every track he ran at so, if I could win those two in the dream season, that would be awesome for us”, Stewart said. “To race here in NASCAR, I never thought I’d be here”. In five Cup Series races held at Kentucky, Busch has averaged 85.65 fantasy points per race, about nine more than any other driver.
Rhodes will try to further improve by going for a win in his debut race at his hometown track of Kentucky Speedway – Thursday’s Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 (8:30 p.m. ET on FS1).
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has raced three times at Kentucky in his Sprint Cup career and has finished in the top 25 each time. “That’s a second home track for me”.
– The Camping World Trucks Series made news on Wednesday, as Joe Gibbs Racing made a surprising move, as just an hour before the first practice they pulled John Wes Townley from the vehicle due to a possible concussion. Eleven drivers have combined to win the first 17 races, meaning there are five positions remaining in the Chase. We are the best in the business!
What To Watch For: On Saturday, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will run the updated lower downforce rules package it ran at MI.
Keselowski is buoyed by last weekends victory at Daytona that has him 14 points behind Harvick in second place.
The Xfinity Chase will begin on September 24 at Kentucky Speedway with the VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300. Johnson has not won at Kentucky, but has an average finish of 7.4 at the track and a driver rating of 111.9.
Wallace, who drives the No. 6 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, will not appeal.
With drivers racing three wide at an excess of 190mph around the track, crews at the Kentucky Speedway have spent the last few years softening the walls in preparation for a big crash. Full-time series wins leader Erik Jones searches for his third victory of the season.
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Trucks also sustained damage at Martinsville, Dover and Kansas, so there has been a lot of fixing of race trucks this year.
