{"id":165798,"date":"2025-09-24T09:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/165798\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T09:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:30:11","slug":"good-news-bad-news-for-nascar-cup-drivers-ahead-of-kansas-playoff-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/165798\/","title":{"rendered":"Good news, bad news for NASCAR Cup drivers ahead of Kansas playoff race"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time since late May, the NASCAR Cup Series will race at a 1.5-mile track.<\/p>\n

Kansas Speedway has provided many memorable moments in recent years from Kyle Larson beating Chris Buescher by .001 seconds \u2014 the closest finish in series history \u2014 to last year\u2019s playoff race having 30 lead changes. Three of the last five races at Kansas had the pass for the win take place within the final two laps.<\/p>\n

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Pre-race coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.<\/p>\n

With help from Racing Insights, here is a look at the good news and bad news for Cup drivers and teams heading to Sunday\u2019s race at Kansas Speedway.<\/p>\n

23XI Racing \u2014 Good news: Organization has won three of the last seven Kansas races. Bad news: Tyler Reddick has had one top-10 finish in the four playoff races this season. \u2026 Reddick has finished 17th or worse in six of the last eight Kansas races. \u2026 Bubba Wallace has finished 26th or worse in four of the last six races. \u2026 Wallace has finished 33rd or worse in the last three races on 1.5-mile tracks (all due to accidents). \u2026 Wallace is last in the playoff standings, 27 points below the cutline with two races left in this round. \u2026 Rookie Riley Herbst has not finished better than 19th on a 1.5-mile track in his Cup career.<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR<\/a><\/p>\n

NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children’s 500 – Qualifying<\/p>\n

23XI Racing\u2019s Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace below cutline with 2 races left in round<\/a><\/p>\n

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Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace are both more than 20 points below the final transfer spot, which is held by Chase Briscoe.<\/p>\n

Front Row Motorsports \u2014 Good news: Noah Gragson\u2019s average finish of 17.7 at Kansas makes it his third-best track by average finish (Watkins Glen is No. 1 at 16.0 and Talladega is next at 17.2). \u2026 Gragson\u2019s 16th-place finish was his second top 20 in the last four races. \u2026 Zane Smith has three top-15 finishes in the last six races. Bad news: After scoring nine top-20 finishes in the first 13 races of the season, Todd Gilliland has had only three top-20 finishes in the last 17 races, including last weekend\u2019s 19th-place result at New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

Haas Factory Team \u2014 Good news: Cole Custer has finished in the top 25 in four of the last six races. Bad News: It has been 127 starts for Custer since his lone Cup win in July 2020 at Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Hendrick Motorsports \u2014 Good news: William Byron ranks first in speed and restarts and ranks second in passing in Racing Insights\u2019 season rankings. \u2026 Kyle Larson won the spring Kansas race, leading 221 of 267 laps. \u2026 Larson has won three of the last 10 races at Kansas. \u2026 Larson has scored the most points (212) in the series on 1.5-mile tracks this season, followed by Byron with 189 points and Chase Elliott with 155 points. \u2026Elliott\u2019s average finish of 10.4 at Kansas ranks as fourth-best all-time among drivers who have made six or more starts there. \u2026 Byron\u2019s third-place finish at New Hampshire ended a six-race streak without a top-10 result. \u2026 Alex Bowman\u2019s 11 top 10s at Kansas are his most at any track. \u2026 Bowman has finished in the top 10 in each of his last six starts at Kansas. \u2026 Elliott has two top fives in the last three races. \u2026 The organization has had a car finish in the top two in six of the last eight races. Bad news: Elliott has not started better than 16th in the last five races and has scored only one point in the first stage in that stretch. \u2026 Elliott has failed to score any points in 10 of the last 13 stages. \u2026 Larson and Byron each have had one top 10 in the four playoff races this season.<\/p>\n

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Hyak Motorsports \u2014 Good news: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 11th in May\u2019s Coca-Cola 600, the most recent race on a 1.5-mile track. Bad news: Stenhouse has one top-10 finish in 25 starts at Kansas.<\/p>\n

Joe Gibbs Racing \u2014 Good news: Chase Briscoe is the only driver to finish in the top 10 in all four playoff races this season. \u2026 Briscoe\u2019s average finish of 5.5 in the postseason is the best among all drivers. Christopher Bell has led in the last seven Kansas races, tied for the longest streak by a driver at that track. \u2026 Bell has finished eighth or better in seven of the last eight Kansas races. \u2026 Bell has scored three consecutive top-10 finishes. \u2026 Denny Hamlin has four wins at Kansas, most all-time. \u2026 Hamlin has six top-five finishes in the last eight Kansas races. Bad news: Ty Gibbs has finished no better than 22nd on a 1.5-mile track this season. \u2026 Gibbs ranks second in most laps led (831) among drivers in series history without a Cup win (Mike Skinner ranks first having led 1,029 laps without scoring a Cup win). \u2026 Hamlin has four finishes of 24th or worse in the last eight races. \u2026 Briscoe, who is in the final transfer spot to the next round of the playoffs, has qualified 18th or worse the last two races and failed to score a point in the first stage in both events.<\/p>\n

\"Denny<\/a><\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs NH.jpg<\/p>\n

Joe Gibbs says Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs will get together to \u2018figure it out\u2019 after incident<\/a><\/p>\n

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Denny Hamlin raised questions about how Ty Gibbs drove him after their incident in Sunday\u2019s New Hampshire playoff race.<\/p>\n

Kaulig Racing \u2014 Good news: AJ Allmendinger has five finishes of eighth or better in his last seven starts on a 1.5-mile track. \u2026 Ty Dillon has finished in the top 20 in five of the last 12 races. Bad news: Dillon has seven finishes of 27th or worse in the last nine races. \u2026 It has been 50 starts since Allmendinger\u2019s last win, which came at the Charlotte Roval in October 2023.<\/p>\n

Legacy Motor Club \u2014 Good news: The organization\u2019s 14 top-10 finishes this season between John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones and Jimmie Johnson, are 10 more than it had at this time last year. \u2026 Nemechek\u2019s average finish of 17.8 at Kansas is his best among 1.5-mile tracks. \u2026 Jones has nine top-15 finishes in the last 20 races. Bad news: Nemechek has three finishes of 32nd or worse in the last seven races. \u2026 Jones has placed outside the top 20 in the last three races.<\/p>\n

Richard Childress Racing \u2014 Good news: Austin Dillon has six top 10s at Kansas, his most among all 1.5-mile tracks. Bad news: Kyle Busch has one top-15 finish in the last nine races. \u2026 Busch\u2019s eight top 10s this season is his fewest through 30 races in his Cup career. \u2026 Busch has not led a lap in the last 18 races, since Kansas in May, the longest drought in his Cup career.<\/p>\n

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Rick Ware Racing \u2014 Good news: The organization recently settled its lawsuit with Legacy Motor Club over the sale of a charter. Bad news: Cody Ware has not finished better than 29th in the last four races.<\/p>\n

\"AUTO:<\/a><\/p>\n

AUTO: SEP 12 NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops Night Race<\/p>\n

Rick Ware Racing will sell charter to Legacy MC in resolution between two teams<\/a><\/p>\n

Their dispute was scheduled for a January 2026 trial.<\/p>\n

RFK Racing \u2014 Good news: Ryan Preece\u2019s four top 10s on 1.5-mile tracks are tied with Kyle Larson for most in the series this season. \u2026 Preece finished seventh at Kansas in May. \u2026 Chris Buescher has finished 11th or better in five of the last seven races. \u2026 Buescher has two top 10s in the last three Kansas races. Bad news: Brad Keselowski has one top 10 in the last eight Kansas races. \u2026 Keselowski has three DNFs in the last seven races on 1.5-mile tracks.<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR:<\/a><\/p>\n

NASCAR: Clash at Bowman Gray – Practice<\/p>\n

RFK Racing hires new team president <\/a><\/p>\n

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Chip Bowers moves into role vacated by Steve Newmark.<\/p>\n

Spire Motorsports \u2014 Good news: Michael McDowell\u2019s eighth-place finish last weekend at New Hampshire marked the fourth time in the last five races a Spire car has finished in the top 10. \u2026 Carson Hocevar has scored four consecutive top-15 finishes. Bad news: Justin Haley has finished 27th or worse in five of the last seven races. \u2026 McDowell has finished 23rd or worse in five of the last seven Kansas races.<\/p>\n

Team Penske \u2014 Good news: Ryan Blaney\u2019s victory last weekend at New Hampshire not only moved him into the next round of the playoffs but was his ninth top 10 in the last 10 races. \u2026 Blaney has won two of the last five races this season. \u2026 Blaney ranks first in passing, second in speed and fourth in restarts, according to Racing Insights\u2019 season rankings. \u2026 Blaney has scored the most stage points (43) in the playoffs this season \u2026 Blaney has finished in the top five in the last two Kansas races. \u2026 Joey Logano has three consecutive top-five finishes, his longest top-five streak since 2019. \u2026 Since 2022, Team Penske has won 12.5% of the races in the regular season and 26.5% of the playoff races. Bad news: Austin Cindric\u2019s average finish in the first four races of the playoffs is 19.5. \u2026 Cindric has not had a top-10 finish in eight Cup starts at Kansas and has finished 31st or worse in four of the last five races there. \u2026 Logano has finished 14th or worse in five of the last nine Kansas races.<\/p>\n

\"nbc_nas_cupnh_250921.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

nbc_nas_cupnh_250921.jpg<\/p>\n

New Hampshire shows Cup playoff field it has work to do to catch Team Penske cars<\/a><\/p>\n

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Hendrick Motorsports closed the gap to Team Penske, while Joe Gibbs Racing was not as strong at the 1-mile track.<\/p>\n

Trackhouse Racing \u2014 Good news: Ross Chastain won the most recent race on a 1.5-mile track, taking the checkered flag at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte on Memorial Day weekend. \u2026 Chastain won last fall\u2019s race at Kansas. \u2026 Chastain has six top 10s in the last nine races on 1.5-mile tracks, including two wins. Bad news: Daniel Suarez has finished 35th or worse in each of the past three races. \u2026 Suarez has finished outside the top 30 in nine of this season\u2019s 30 races. \u2026 Shane van Gisbergen has placed 25th or worse in the last four races.<\/p>\n

Wood Brothers Racing \u2014 Good news: Josh Berry overcame a spin to finish second last weekend at New Hampshire, giving him three top 10s in the last six races. Bad news: In those other three races in his recent stretch, Berry has finished 36th or worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time since late May, the NASCAR Cup Series will race at a 1.5-mile track. Kansas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[2331,49,48,73229,4386,634,63157,85680,82,60219,9272],"class_list":{"0":"post-165798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-bubba-wallace","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-kansas-speedway","12":"tag-kyle-larson","13":"tag-nascar","14":"tag-playoff-race","15":"tag-playoff-races","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-10s","18":"tag-tyler-reddick"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}