Kansas Post Practice Fantasy NASCAR Predictions
Well it’s a good thing that the GoBowling.com 400 is on Saturday night this week because it’s probably going to be raining at Kansas Speedway on Sunday. The Sprint Cup teams had some great weather for their practice sessions on Friday afternoon and the forecast for the actual race looks very nice as well. This track was repaved in the middle of the 2012 season and has been very fast ever since. I think we’re going to see some great racing action this weekend.
As mentioned before, there were two practice sessions in the middle of the day on Friday, and those results can be found here: Practice #1 — Happy Hour. Also be sure to check out our notes for each: Practice #1 — Happy Hour. Qualifying was then held on Friday evening and Martin Truex, Jr. won the pole for Saturday night’s race. The full starting lineup can be found by clicking here. Personally, I wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in the practice speeds this weekend. There are some good cars starting outside of the top 10, and some cars that qualified well who probably won’t finish up there. Remember back to Texas and how unexpected that race kind of was. That was the other Saturday night race.
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Final Top 15 Ranking For Kansas
1. Kyle Busch – Starts 6th – DraftKings Price: $10,200 – Yahoo! A Group
**Risk Factor: Medium Risk**
There are going to be quite a few people that stay away from Kyle Busch this weekend but I wouldn’t recommend that you be one of them. Statistically, this is one of the worst tracks on the circuit for Kyle, as he has a career average finish of 20.4 over sixteen starts here. Only Talladega and Homestead are worse for Rowdy from an average finish perspective. However, this isn’t the same Kyle Busch from two years ago (and beyond). Rowdy finally broke through here at Kansas with his first top 5 finish in the 2014 fall race, and after missing last year’s spring race here, he grabbed a second straight top 5 here last fall en route to his championship win. So, to put it simply, I’m not at all worried about his very rough history at this race track. This #18 team picked up their eighth top 5 finish of the 2016 season last week at Talladega and should definitely be in position to grab a ninth in Saturday night’s GoBowling.com 400. Rowdy struggled some in Practice #1 this weekend but wound up with the 5th-best lap in Happy Hour (and 10th-best ten-lap average). Don’t forget that in the only other Saturday night race this season (Texas), Kyle Busch went out and won the race. I think he has a shot to go out and do it again this weekend.
2. Carl Edwards – Starts 12th – DraftKings Price: $10,100 – Yahoo! B Group
**Risk Factor: Low Risk**
Cousin Carl was pretty competitive here at Kansas even when Roush-Fenway Racing was on the decline, so I can only imagine how excited he is to race here on Saturday night with one of the best team/car combinations currently in the Sprint Cup garage. Edwards has ended up between 5th and 8th in four of the last five races at this track and has to be considered one of the favorites this weekend. He was 3rd-fastest in the first practice held on Friday and ended up 12th on the speed chart in Happy Hour. In terms of ten-lap average, the #19 Toyota was 9th in that final session. Looking at the other intermediate track races that we’ve ran so far this season, the #19 Toyota finished 5th at Atlanta, 7th at Fontana, and led 124 laps at Texas (from the pole) before finishing 7th. Really, Edwards’ only bad race this season was at Las Vegas, and he was pretty much average at best all weekend long. I guess even the best teams have a slip up every once in a while. Carl has never won here at Kansas Speedway but in seventeen career starts at this race track he has amassed six top 5s (35.2%) and twelve top 10s (70.6%). His career average finish of 10.6 here ranks 2nd among all active drivers, right behind Jimmie Johnson’s 8.7.
3. Martin Truex, Jr. – Starts 1st – DraftKings Price: $9,200 – Yahoo! B Group
**Risk Factor: Medium Risk**
Martin Truex, Jr. was very fast off the truck this weekend and that is typically what he needs to have a good race. In Practice #1 on Friday, Truex was 2nd-fastest behind Kurt Busch on the speed chart, and in Happy Hour he laid down the fastest lap with the 7th-best ten-lap average. Later on in qualifying, he went out and won the pole. Now the question becomes whether or not this #78 team can put together a full race and come home with a solid finish. They still haven’t had a top 5 result since the season-opening Daytona 500. In fifteen career starts here at Kansas Speedway, Martin Truex, Jr. has posted just five top 10 finishes (33.3%) but it should be noted that four of those were also top 5 results and all five of them have came in the last four years (eight races). As far as the cookie cutter races go this season, Martin had one of the cars to beat at Atlanta (finished 7th) and definitely had the car to beat at the other Saturday night race (Kansas) but ended up finishing 6th. The speed is there for this team, they just haven’t quite gotten the finishes yet. In this race last season, Truex piloted the #78 Chevrolet to a 9th-place finish after leading 95 laps. I think we could see him lead quite a few here on Saturday night as well.
