With two races remaining to set the Round of 8 to contend for NASCAR's 2016 Sprint Cup title, the four most vulnerable drivers in the standings have vastly different histories at this week's venue, Kansas Speedway for the Hollywood Casino 400 (Sun., 2:15 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
And with the unpredictable nature of Talladega Superspeedway's
restrictor plate brand of racing coming up next week for the Round of
12's elimination race, the more traditional Kansas 1.5-mile venue offers
a relatively calmer opportunity to climb the standings. Now.
The four drivers hoping to race back inside the top eight are separated by only five points. Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott are tied, only three points behind eighth place Denny Hamlin, whose Toyota suffered a rare engine failure last week late in the Charlotte race.
The two veterans -- Harvick and
Logano -- currently trying to race their way to a top-eight transfer
position have historically fared well at Kansas. The younger competition
-- Dillon and the rookie Elliott -- still don't have much of a track
record to lean on.
Harvick sits eight points out of
the cutoff position after a 38th-place finish -- due to mechanical
issues -- at Charlotte last weekend and a 37th-place result at Dover International Speedway
the week before. Harvick, however, won the fall race at Kansas in 2013
and has three runner-up finishes there in the last five races.
In the last six Kansas races, he
has led the most laps (392) of the four drivers hoping to climb back
into the top-eight in the standings. In the last three years, he has
three pole positions (fall of 2013 and both 2014 races) and an average
finish of 10.8 at Kansas.
"The repave is definitely what
changed and turned things around for us at Kansas," Harvick said.
"Really, I liked the racetrack the way it was before with the asphalt
really worn out and cars sliding all over. But, once the repave
happened, we were able to really hit on some things and, for whatever
reason, it kind of fits my driving style and we have gotten some good
results out of it.
"It has been a really
good-performing racetrack for us and one that we look forward to going
to and hopefully continue to get good results out of it because it's
been so good for us in the past."
Logano, who is currently ranked
11th of the 12 still-eligible Chase drivers, had five consecutive
top-five finishes at Kansas until a crash this May, which resulted in a
38th-place showing.
But most importantly -- and encouraging -- to Logano's Team Penske crew, he is the two-time defending winner of this week's Chase race.
"Things happen," Logano said of
his 36th-place showing at Charlotte. "It's part of racing, but we're not
out. We're not gonna die. This team is resilient.
"We've proved it before and we'll
just have to go out and prove it again. We just have to have two
flawless races. It's something we can make up."
Dillon and Elliott, who are both
three points behind the top-eight cutoff, don't have an extensive Kansas
track record to examine.
The 20-year old Elliott finished ninth in his only Sprint Cup race there this Spring. He also scored top-10 finishes in both XFINITY Series races he competed in at the track.
He hasn't led a lap at Kansas previously in either series. However, his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports
Chevrolet has turned in impressive work out front during the Chase,
with 176 laps led in four races -- more than half of his season-long
total.
Dillon, 26, has two top-10
finishes in six starts at Kansas, including a sixth-place effort this
May. However, he also has three finishes of 20th or worse, including a
41st place showing in this race last year.
"What we think of is,'What has made us faster in the past?' and 'What
can we do to be faster?' Dillon said this week. "I look at everything I
can as a driver, from the lines in the track to the history of the
track -- what typically happens, who is good there? We're just going to
do our best and try to not leave anything behind. This opportunity is so
great. It doesn't happen often."
Hamlin -- who currently sits in
the final playoff transfer position -- won at Kansas in Spring of 2012,
but has had an inconsistent record here. He crashed out of the spring
races the last two seasons, taking finishes of 41st and 37th. He was,
though, runner-up to Logano in this race last fall.
"I think each race you're going
to have a handful that are going to have issues -- Kansas I don’t think
will be any different and Talladega we know will be crazy," Hamlin said.
"That's why we're not out of it my any means, we just have a little
hole we have to dig out of."
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