NASCAR will make its first appearance in the Midwest this weekend as the 1.5-mile oval of Kansas Speedway will play host for a Cup and O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series doubleheader event.<\/p>\n
\ufeff\ufeffMEDIA RESOURCES:<\/p>\n
Photo Gallery | Race Advances<\/p>\n
Chevrolet Newsroom<\/p>\n
With yet another powerhouse performance at Bristol Motor Speedway under his belt, Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team is hungrier than ever to get back to victory lane. With momentum on his side, the reigning champion heads back to the heartland as the event\u2019s defending winner. JR Motorsports is well on its way towards the opportunity for another record season with Connor Zilisch\u2019s return to the organization at \u201cThe Last Great Colosseum\u201d ending with a trip to victory lane \u2013 giving the team its sixth win in the series\u2019 nine-race stretch. The Chevrolet organization is credited with the manufacturer\u2019s most recent O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series win at the Kansas-based venue (2022). Their four-car lineup will see Cup Series regular, William Byron, make his return to the seat of the No. 88 Chevrolet entry.
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ON THE HORIZON OF A RECORD-SETTING STREAK<\/p>\n
One year ago, it was Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Kyle Larson that drove a near-dominate race at Kansas Speedway \u2013 sitting on the pole, sweeping the stages and leading 221 of 267 laps en route to his second consecutive victory in the track\u2019s spring race. When the series returned to Kansas in the fall, Chase Elliott completed the Chevrolet season sweep at the track when he drove from eighth to first during an overtime restart to take the victory and an automatic berth into the Round of Eight. The victory not only extended Chevrolet\u2019s series-leading record to 17 all-time wins at Kansas, but also boosted the Bowtie brand to a streak of four-straight to tie the track\u2019s record for the longest win streak by a single manufacturer in NASCAR\u2019s top division.<\/p>\n
Kyle Larson<\/p>\n
\ufeffNo. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet<\/p>\n
Kansas Speedway \u2013 May 11, 2025<\/p>\n
Chase Elliott<\/p>\n
No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet<\/p>\n
Kansas Speedway \u2013 Sept. 28, 2025
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HENDRICK\u2019S HEARTLAND HISTORY<\/p>\n
Hendrick Motorsports is the only organization to own a double-digit win record in NASCAR\u2019s top division at Kansas Speedway, with Chase Elliott\u2019s victory last fall marking their 11th all-time triumph at the track. The organization\u2019s winning ways date back to the series\u2019 inaugural visit to the Kansas-based oval in 2001 when career Chevrolet driver, Jeff Gordon, put the famed No. 24 entry in victory lane \u2013 his first of three wins at the track. Gordon is one of four drivers who have earned a victory under the Hendrick Motorsports banner at the track, joining the likes of Jimmie Johnson (three wins) and the organization\u2019s current drivers, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, who own two wins each. Along with their wins, Larson and Elliott have each earned other notable leading feats among the series\u2019 active drivers at the track, including Larson\u2019s most laps led of 925 and Elliott\u2019s best average finish of 9.9.
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STACKING STAGE POINTS<\/p>\n
Despite falling just short of his return to victory lane, yet another strong run by Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team at Bristol Motor Speedway paid great dividends in the points standings. The Elk Grove, California, native swept the stages before bringing home a third-place finish \u2013 ultimately netting a 54-point day, which was the second-highest of the field. The effort was enough to propel the reigning champion up four positions in the standings to sixth as he heads to the site of his most recent triumph. For the Cliff Daniels-led team, collecting stage points has been their forte throughout the early-season run. Within the first eight races, Larson has accumulated 72 stage points \u2013 the second-highest of the series.<\/p>\n
During Larson\u2019s tenure at Hendrick Motorsports, his resume at Kansas Speedway is nothing short of impressive. In 10 career starts, the driver has accumulated three wins (second-most of the series\u2019 active drivers), six top-fives and eight top-10s. Qualifying has also been a strong suit for the No. 5 team, owning two pole wins and seven top-five starting positions. From a points perspective, Larson\u2019s earned points in both stages in six events, with the 2025 season seeing him finish no worse than third in each stage, including a sweep of the stages in the spring race.
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ALLGAIER ADDS TO SEASON-LEADING ACCOLADES<\/p>\n
A consistent figure within the top-five for much of the race yet again, Justin Allgaier ultimately brought home a fourth-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway \u2013 extending his top-five streak to six-straight. Allgaier heads to the Midwest with a 130-point lead, an effort largely due to his monstrous stage performances throughout the season. Allgaier continues to be the only driver to have earned points in every stage thus far this season, adding another pair of top-five stage finishes last weekend. The veteran driver\u2019s other early-season accolades include a series-best three wins, seven top-fives and eight top-10s.
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JR MOTORSPORTS WITH EARLY STRIDES TOWARDS ANOTHER RECORD SEASON<\/p>\n
With a record-setting campaign in the rearview mirror, JR Motorsports came into the 2026 NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series season with an extra boost of momentum. The Chevrolet organization has quickly turned that momentum into results, already collecting six wins in the first nine races of the season. That pace puts JR Motorsports well on its way towards the opportunity to top its 2025 run, which saw the organization earn 12 of its 17 victories within the first 21 races of the season. When it comes to the early outlook on the true title contenders, JR Motorsports has a strong representation \u2013 led by the organization\u2019s veteran driver, Justin Allgaier, who continues to hold a triple-digit lead in the points standings. His teammates, Carson Kvapil and Sammy Smith, have also resided comfortably in the top-10 of the standings throughout much of the early-season stretch \u2013 heading to the heartland ranked fifth and seventh, respectively.
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ECKES PROVING TO BE A TITLE CONTENDER<\/p>\n
A trip to Bristol Motor Speedway was exactly what Christian Eckes and the No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet team needed to get back into the championship title hunt. The Middletown, New York, native started the day by turning in his season-best qualifying effort of second. Eckes went on to score a stage win, a race-high 132 laps led and his third top-five finish of the season. A performance that culminated into a race-high 48-point day, Eckes moved up to fifth in the standings and just 17-points behind the leader as the series heads into a pair of off-weekends.
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BOWTIE BULLETS:<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Active Chevrolet drivers with a NASCAR Cup Series win at Kansas Speedway:<\/p>\n
Kyle Larson \u2013 three wins (2025, 2024, 2021)<\/p>\n
Chase Elliott \u2013 two wins (2025, 2018)<\/p>\n
Kyle Busch \u2013 two wins (2021, 2016)<\/p>\n
Ross Chastain \u2013 one win (2024)<\/p>\n
\u00b7 In 40 NASCAR Cup Series races at Kansas Speedway, Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 17 victories \u2013 including both the series\u2019 inaugural race (Jeff Gordon \u2013 Sept. 2021) and the most recent race (Chase Elliott \u2013 Sept. 2025).<\/p>\n
\u00b7 With seven-straight victories to start the 2026 NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series season, Chevrolet set the record for the longest season-opening streak by a single manufacturer in the division\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 In 152 points-paying races in the NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen era, Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 68 victories \u2013 a winning percentage of 44.7%.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Chevrolet is coming off its 29th all-time sweep of the NASCAR Cup Series championship titles \u2013 capturing its 34th driver championship and 44th, and fifth consecutive, manufacturer championship in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 With its 44 NASCAR Cup Series manufacturer championships, 34 NASCAR Cup Series driver championships, and 882 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins, Chevrolet continues to hold the title as the winningest brand in NASCAR Cup Series history.
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TUNE-IN:<\/p>\n
NASCAR Cup Series<\/p>\n
AdventHealth 400<\/p>\n
Sunday, Apr. 19, at 2 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90<\/p>\n
NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series<\/p>\n
Kansas Lottery 300<\/p>\n
Saturday, Apr. 18, at 7 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90
\u200a<\/p>\n
QUOTABLE QUOTES:<\/p>\n
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet<\/p>\n
How unique is Kansas Speedway compared to some of the other 1.5-mile tracks, and how will you attack the track this weekend?<\/p>\n
\u201cKansas Speedway has its own personality for sure. Even though it\u2019s a mile-and-a-half like some other tracks, the surface has aged a bit, so you get a lot of tire fall-off and have to manage your run. It\u2019s wide, which gives you options\u2014up by the wall or down on the bottom\u2014so you can move around depending on how your car\u2019s handling. This weekend, we\u2019ll focus on getting the balance right early in the run and try to keep the speed over the long haul. If we can do that, I think we\u2019ll be in good shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet<\/p>\n
As you head into Kansas this weekend, what\u2019s your outlook for the race?<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoy racing at Kansas. It\u2019s a great track with multiple grooves, which gives you a lot of options during a run. You can run the bottom, middle, or top depending on how the car is handling. I\u2019ve been watching the weather for qualifying and there\u2019s a chance of rain. If that happens and qualifying gets washed out, we\u2019d line up 13th for the race. Track position is important at Kansas, so that wouldn\u2019t be a bad place to start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet<\/p>\n
What makes Kansas unique?<\/p>\n
\u201cKansas is a cool track. It\u2019s a mile-and-a-half racetrack that lends itself to two, three and even four-wide racing with progressive banking. You can race anywhere, high or low and set up moves where you slide up in front of a guy and mess up his air. Aerodynamics play a big role with how fast we\u2019re entering the corners, so there\u2019s a lot of reliance on aerodynamic grip. You\u2019ve got to get out front in clean air to get to victory lane.\u201d<\/p>\n
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet<\/p>\n
\u201cKansas is definitely a racetrack that was difficult for us last year. But in the past, there we\u2019ve had at least decent competitive speed. I feel like after the off week and the good run we had at Bristol, we\u2019re learning as a race team of what we need. At least Bristol was a confidence booster. We\u2019re taking small victories and we had speed there all weekend.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about having solid weekends and keep learning whether it\u2019s a good or bad weekend. We\u2019re doing a good job of that. I\u2019m happy with some of the progress we made at Bristol. Kansas is a racetrack that you have to kind of run the fence most of the time. It might be cooler weather there, so, maybe you can kind of change lines around. Even though it\u2019s been a difficult racetrack for us, we\u2019re going there with a good mindset. We\u2019ll have a decent qualifying order, which will help. Hopefully, we can go out and have a good practice like we did at Bristol and be close. I think that\u2019s the most important thing for us is having a good practice and when we do that, we\u2019re able to not make a lot of changes going into the race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to Kansas. It\u2019s going to be cool out, we are all going to be wide open, really fast around the track the whole weekend. It\u2019s a really fun track, you can run all over the place, but it will be even more fun with how much throttle we are carrying around it. Our HaasTooling.com Chevy is going to be wide open and a lot of fun!\u201d<\/p>\n
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet<\/p>\n
\u201cKansas is always a fun place to race because you can move around and search for speed. We\u2019ve had some good runs there over the years, and hopefully we can keep that going this weekend. It\u2019s great to have Pylon Aviation back on the No. 47 car. They\u2019ve been a great partner for our team, and we\u2019re looking forward to putting together a strong weekend for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet<\/p>\n
\u201cKansas (Speedway) is one of my favorite tracks and one I always look forward to. It\u2019s no secret it\u2019s been a tough start to the season for our No. 48 team. With that, it\u2019s hard to say that we could go win, but we are typically so good that we really could. We\u2019ve got a lot of work to do but Kansas is a good place for us to get things turned around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet<\/p>\n
\u201cKansas is a mile-and-a-half track that\u2019s in great condition. No bumps, no wear, you can pretty much run that track from top to bottom. If you want to run the apron, you can run the apron. If you want to run the wall, you can run the wall. And you can run any combination of lanes in between. You\u2019re not having to fight through bumps. You\u2019re not dealing with a rough track surface. It\u2019s really just a very good, solid, smooth, clean racetrack, which makes it easier to extract the car\u2019s full potential. I feel like everyone typically unloads really, really well at Kansas. Because the track allows you to move around, you can find a line that suits you and your racecar the best. You can get your car 99 percent there with where you want it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet<\/p>\n
What makes Kansas different from the other traditional mile-and-a-halves?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a big part of it is that Kansas is one of the easiest tracks to get multiple lanes going right away. Even on the first lap of practice, you can run the top, where at places like Charlotte (Motor Speedway), Texas, or other 1.5-mile tracks, you really have to build up to that. Kansas has multiple lanes and grooves, and everything comes together fairly early in a run, which usually leads to a pretty good race because you\u2019re able to move around. It\u2019s always been a great track, and everyone eventually migrates toward the wall, so it gets intense. The track changes a lot throughout the weekend. It typically starts out really fast, then by race time it drops off, forcing you to slide more and search for grip. It\u2019s been a strong track for us in the past, but it can be tough to hit it just right. The speed we\u2019ve shown at tracks like Vegas and Texas last year gives us a solid baseline, so I feel good with what we have and hopefully we can maximize our day in Kansas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet<\/p>\n
What stands out about Kansas?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a fun track. You can move around a lot for sure, but the top lane has by far been the fastest the last couple years, especially when it\u2019s really warm. You want to get as close to the wall as you can without putting yourself in the fence, just like at Darlington and Homestead. The track has gotten abrasive, so managing your tires is important. Then to top it all off, the restarts are crazy with the runs you can build and the ability to run three wide through the corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoy the mile-and-a-half tracks, and we have shown we can run up front at the intermediates over the past year. We\u2019ve shown speed the last few weeks, and I know we can continue that this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet<\/p>\n
What do you expect this weekend at Kansas Speedway?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited for Kansas this weekend. I\u2019ve been there a few times. I love Kansas and it\u2019s one of my favorite racetracks, just being able to move around so much and run so many different lanes. I\u2019m always excited to go back there. I finished second there in the O\u2019Reilly race last year. Kansas has always been pretty good to me. I\u2019m looking forward to it. Hopefully we can go out and get ourselves a win and check that box. We will certainly do our best in our Choice Privileges Chevrolet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where is your favorite lane on the racetrack at Kansas? Do you like to run up against the wall?<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like you have to run up high but there are a lot of different ways to slice it at Kansas. You can run down at the bottom, you can top seam, you can run against the fence. There are a lot of ways to do it but I\u2019m sure at some point I\u2019ll be up there running the fence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wind can be a big factor at Kansas. Is that sensitive to the race car?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can change things a little bit but it\u2019s not too crazy. If the wind is really gusting you can have some moments because of it, but it\u2019s really got to be blowing hard to make a big change to what you\u2019re feeling inside the race car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet<\/p>\n
A 10th-place finish last year at Kansas, your best oval finish of the 2025 season. Any particular reason you did better there than other places? Do you enjoy racing at Kansas?<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it was later in the year. We were just getting better and better. I think we had some races where we had better speed than that, but I didn\u2019t get it right or we got crashed out or something. I felt like we were getting toward the top 10 more often than not at the end, which was really cool. But yeah, I really like Kansas (Speedway), you can run all over the track and try to find grip and speed. Hoping for another good result there this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Your oval progression is certainly improving. What have you done and focused on to continue your oval progress?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really just time. Every race I\u2019m learning something new and trying to keep good notes. I try to have a good notebook of set up stuff too. Even though we have a new body and rule set, the set-up advancements that we have made for my style of racing, have certainly translated this year. It\u2019s time and experience, going back to these tracks now for my third and fourth races there, kind of makes the difference. I know what to expect, how to approach the weekend, and how the track is going to change. All of that stuff just adds up.\u201d<\/p>\n
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