XFINITY CONTENDERS TO APPLY ROUND OF 12 LESSONS AT KANSAS

RELATED: Chase Grid

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The first round of the first Chase for NASCAR's XFINITY Series trimmed the field of championship hopefuls from 12 to eight.

The three-race subset also served as a learning tool for those who advanced to the second round, which begins Saturday with the Kansas Lottery 300 (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) here atKansas Speedway.

"I learned that in the first race of the first round the intensity level was very high,"Daniel Suarez (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota) said Friday. "It was definitely more high than what I was expecting."

Elliott Sadler (JR Motorsports No. 1 Chevrolet) won the Chase opener held atKentucky Speedway. Suarez was a close second, won the following week at Dover and finished third last weekend at Charlotte, unofficially taking the mantle of Chase favorite with four races remaining.

"I thought everyone was going to go out there to try to be consistent and to try to make it for the next round and that wasn't the case," Suarez said. "Everyone was going for the win and everything got a little crazy in the first race in Kentucky.

"But, honestly I'm very proud of everyone …. We had three races with three top-three finishes which I think is something really good for the first round. We have to do exactly the same thing for the second round and after that try to put ourselves in a good position for Homestead and pull everything we have for that last race and the most important race of the year."

Sprint Cup Series regular Joey Loganowon the Charlotte event, the only race not won by an XFINITY Series regular in the Round of 12. 

Suarez, 24, said he expects the level of intensity seen in that opening race to return here this weekend as drivers and teams try to knock out an early win and qualify for the Round of 8.

"For some reason everyone – I thought everyone was going to be more relaxed in the first race but for some reason everyone was very, like I said, the intensity level was very high," he said. "And, then for the second race it was lower and everyone was more relaxed because everyone was a little bit too crazy in the first one. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same in this second round.

"I don't think that I was myself, I don't think I got super crazy in Kentucky and we ended up with a pretty good result. Actually I felt like we should've won that race, we just came up one lap short.

"I felt like everything that we learned the whole year we are trying to put that in the most important part of the year in the Chase in the first round and second round in order to get to the last race at Homestead and so far it's been working out. So, hopefully we can keep it up and move forward."

Justin Allgaier (JRM), Erik Jones (JGR),Brendan Gaughan (Richard Childress Racing), Ryan Reed (Roush Fenway Racing), Darrell Wallace Jr. (RFR) andBlake Koch (Kaulig Racing) complete the Round of 8 for the XFINITY Series Chase.

Suarez, Sadler and Jones are the only drivers in the postseason with victories this season.

Gaughan, who has 15 top 10s, including a season-best runner-up at Road America, said the first round taught his team that "organizationally, to make sure we are prepared. 

"Make sure … we have everything kind of set and ready.

"Another thing Shane (Wilson, crew chief) and I learned was (we) still are clowns that do it our way. It works for us. We don't scream and yell. … He doesn't get down on me when I hit a wall twice at Kentucky. And I don't bark at him when I think he makes the wrong call on pit road or we unload and it doesn't handle quite the way I want.

"We're going to do it the way we think it needs to be done, stay patient and stay on each other’s team. A lot of pressure comes on these guys … and a lot of people succumb to that pressure."

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers have won the last three XFINITY Series races at Kansas.

TRUEX, NO. 78 TEAM PASS ON HOMESTEAD-MIAMI TEST

RELATED: Chase Grid

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Martin Truex Jr. and his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team won't take part in next week's organizational test for NASCAR Sprint CupSeries teams, even though the 1.5-mile track hosts the season-ending, championship-determining event for the series next month.

"There's a lot that went into it," Truex said Friday about the decision. "We actually skipped the Chicago test as well and went there and we won, so … that certainly plays into the decision a bit."

The single-car organization is based in Denver, Colorado, also plays a role into such decisions, he said, noting that "Homestead is a long way from Denver."

"Just trying to make sure we are focused on the right things. We feel like testing has not really done anything to help us along. We feel like our time is better spent at the shop getting prepared.

"It seems like every time we've tested this year, we've gone to the race track and spent the first day-and-a-half trying to regroup and figure out where we need to be, so it seems like it's probably hurt us more than helped us and it's just kind of our mindset going forward that we feel like we'll be better off if we don't go."

The season's fifth and final organizational test is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 18-19. Unlike Goodyear tire tests which normally feature only four teams among the three manufacturers, organizational tests are open, but limited to one team per organization.

The following drivers are scheduled to participate in the test, including each of those currently in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup:

Brad Keselowski (Team Penske No. 2 Ford); Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet); Kurt Busch(Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevrolet);Carl Edwards (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota); Chase Elliott (Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet); Chris Buescher (Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford); Aric Almirola (Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford); Ryan Blaney(Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford); Kyle Larson (Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates No. 42 Chevrolet); Michael McDowell (Circle Sport - Leavine Family Racing No. 95 Chevrolet); Trevor Bayne(Roush Fenway Racing No. 6 Ford); andDavid Ragan (BK Racing No. 23 Toyota).

Truex has won four times this season, including twice in the opening Round of 16 of the Chase -- at Chicago and Dover.

The team is scheduled to take part in Monday's Goodyear tire test here atKansas Speedway, but Erik Jones is listed as the driver for the No. 78 entry. Jones, who competes in the XFINITY Series for JGR, will move to Furniture Row next season to drive a second full-time entry for the organization.

READ: Furniture Row adds Jones to growing team 

Danica Patrick (SHR), Jimmie Johnson(HMS) and Joey Logano (Team Penske) are also expected to take part in the single-day test for the tire supplier.

Truex and his team were participants for Goodyear tests this year at Charlotte, Pocono and Michigan. Of the four previous organizational test, the team tested one day only at Kentucky and Watkins Glen and both days at Indianapolis. It did not take part in the most recent at Chicagoland Speedway.

"It just seemed like every time we talked about (the Homestead test), it was just like 'I don't really think that we should do it. I think we should continue to focus on the things that we've been doing,' and ultimately I think Cole (Pearn, crew chief) made the decision to say, 'Alright, that's it. We're not going to do it,' and he feels good about that, so I'm with him. I think he's making the right decision," Truex said.

Because of a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, which fields four teams, theFurniture Row Racing group will have access to data gleaned during the Homestead test from the No. 19 team of Edwards as well as TRD (Toyota Racing Development).

Edwards said there are two sides to the opportunity to test at Homestead in the midst of the Chase.

"There's an opportunity to test for the ultimate race -- the race that finishes the year," he said, "but it's also an interruption in your Chase and you have to go do it and it can take away as well."

Dave Wilson, President and General Manager for Toyota Racing Development, USA said while Toyota officials were aware of the move, "ultimately it's their decision.

"In their case, I think it's just a balancing of priorities," he said.

"The good news is with the technical alliance that Furniture Row has with Joe Gibbs Racing, they will still get some of the benefit that JGR will bring back from that test.

"I think the value of testing is considerably different today than it was five years ago, just the influence of technology, the influence of simulation is so great now. And the predictive tools that all these teams have are very powerful; it's amazing how good they are, so it's not as much of a must-do, must attend (event) as it has been in the past."

Truex finished 13th in last week's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the opening race of the Round of 12. He enters Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas (2:15 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) seventh in points. Only the top eight advance to the Round of 8 for stops at Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix before the top four from that group move on to Homestead to determine the 2016Sprint Cup Champion.

MATT KENSETH WINS KANSAS POLE;JGR SWEEPS FRONT ROW

RELATED: Starting lineup | See Sunday's full roster | Chase Grid

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- To learn how to master the track that continued to jinx him,Kyle Busch paid close attention to the wayMatt Kenseth drove Kansas Speedway.

Though Kenseth was helpful, he apparently kept a thousandth of a second in his pocket. That was the margin by which Kenseth edged Busch in Friday's NASCARSprint Cup Series knockout qualifying session at the 1.5-mile track.

Touring Kansas in 28.112 seconds (192.089 mph) to Busch's 28.113 seconds (192.082 mph), Kenseth earned the top starting spot for Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 (at 2:15 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the fifth race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and the second race in the Chase’s Round of 12.

"Smoked him!" chortled Kenseth, as Busch emerged from the radio room after an interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "Smoked him!"

The Coors Light Pole Award was Kenseth's first of the season, his third at Kansas and the 18th of his career. With Busch claiming the second spot on the grid and teammateCarl Edwards (191.015 mph) qualifying third, JGR cars will start 1-2-3 for the first time since August at Bristol.

"It's nice to get a pole," Kenseth said. "I feel like our qualifying hasn't been nearly as good this year as it has been in the rest of the years I've been at JGR. We barely got it -- it was by a thousandth, or something like that.

"Obviously, our Camrys have been fast … Round one we were pretty decent -- it was off a little bit -- and then round three it was just right. We almost got beat, but it was as good of a lap as we were going to run. They did a good job today."

Kenseth joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2013. Busch didn't get his first top five at Kansas until the spring race of 2015, which started a run of third, fifth and first in consecutive events at a track where his average finish is 19.2.

Busch's second-place qualifying run on Friday was his best so far at the 1.5-mile track, and he freely acknowledged learning from Kenseth.

"We've talked a little bit, and I've certainly used some of the things that we've talked about with all of my teammates in order to get better here," Busch told the NASCAR Wire Service. "Just looking and studying about technique and things that he does and being able to work on how Matt carries his car around the track and where he makes his speed and me trying to be able to do the same thing.

"A lot of it has just come through technique and just being able to mimic the things that he does, and we've gotten a lot better at that. Certainly, our balance could have been a tick better in order to give me a little more security and feeling in order to go out there and run two thousandths faster."

Chase driver Martin Truex Jr. made it a quartet of Toyotas on the front two rows with a fourth-place qualifying effort at 190.786 mph. Alex Bowman was the only non-Chase driver to crack the top five, turning in a lap at 190.315 mph.

Of the five drivers who finished 30th or worse last Sunday at Charlotte and put their advancement to the Chase's Round of 8 in jeopardy, Joey Logano had the best recovery, qualifying sixth.

"That's better than where we have been," Logano said. "We qualified 14th here the last two times we've come here. We made a serious effort at changing some things here with the way we qualified to start closer to the front which is important.

"That's kind of where we were. We were about a sixth-place car today, and we need to find a little more, but we made progress." 

Denny Hamlin, 30th at Charlotte and the eighth-place Chase driver entering Sunday's race, will start seventh. Kevin Harvick and Austin Dillon, both currently below the Round of 8 cutoff, qualified 11th and 12th, respectively.

Chase Elliott, victim of a late wreck and resulting 33rd-place finish last Sunday, failed to make the final round on Friday and will start 13th. Two other Chase drivers qualified outside the top 12: Kurt Busch(15th) and Charlotte winner Jimmie Johnson (19th).

"From Round 1 to Round 2, the car was much tighter," said Johnson, who was 10th in the first round. "We attempted to free it up, but I'm not sure some of those adjustments didn't change the ride height of the car and affected the splitter orientation with the ground. So, maybe we were on the splitter a little bit. 

"But a ton tighter than what we had in the opening round. But, other than that, our car was repeating very well earlier in the day so kind of leaning that way. I don't know if it is good or bad, but I'm not accustomed to qualifying well all the time. I'm used to racing through traffic. I'm not worried about this; we'll just get that Lowe's Chevy up there."

JIMMIE JOHNSON VS. REGAN SMITH:A RIVALRY IS BORN?

While I normally try to make every effort to watch every lap of every race (I knew I should have taken Kevin Harvick’s advice from that 2003 commercial), I seem to have missed a crucial element to one narrative -- Jimmie Johnson's apparent rivalry with Regan Smith, driver of the No. 7 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet.

Despite Johnson successfully snapping a 24-race winless streak at Charlotte last week, fans of the six-time champ are calling for the 7's head on Twitter.

While Johnson hasn’t yet taken any action or retaliation toward Smith, fans seem to consider it a matter of when -- not if -- Jimmie gets No. 7.

Their question is simple: What's holding him back? Is it the pit crew? A grand conspiracy?

It's unclear what sparked the rivalry with Smith, whose No. 7 Chevrolet isn't battling Johnson in this year’s Chase, but Johnson's fans make it clear that something is coming -- perhaps even this year.

MANUFACTURERS OFFER CARS,MORE IN SWEEPSTAKES

RELATED: Sign up for sweepstakes today

All three NASCAR manufacturers are taking to social media, reminding fans of possible end-of-season rewards -- including new cars.

Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota all have sweepstakes where those who enter can win a Chevrolet SS, Ford Fusion Sport or Toyota Camry XSE. Learn more about that here.

Beyond even a new car, fans can win multiple prizes from each manufacturer, including a trip to Las Vegas for Champion's Week.

See below as Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and more fill in the details via social media.

TALLADEGA CHAIRMAN EXPLAINS BURN BAN FOR RACE WEEKEND

Open campfires, long a staple of fans attending NASCAR races at Talladega Superspeedway, will not be allowed on track property during next weekend's race events at the track featuring the Sprint CupSeries and the Camping World TruckSeries.The ban is in conjunction with a Drought Emergency Declaration signed by Alabama Governor Robert Bentley that covers 46 counties, including Talladega County.
"We're not going to allow any open fires," Grant Lynch, Chairman of the 2.66-mile track, told NASCAR.com Thursday.
Campfires, fire pits, fireworks, flying lanterns and other similar outdoor activities or items will not be permitted. The use of grills for cooking will still be allowed "but you can't use it as a heat source (to stay warm)," he said.
"We are probably just a couple of days ahead of the state putting the same (restrictions) on maybe all the counties that are currently under the burn ban. It's just really a tough situation in the fact that our parking lots, our campgrounds, everywhere is just bone dry and crunches under your feet.
"I've been here 23 years and we've never had to do this. There are fires everywhere in Alabama right now. And it's depleting the resources. We are doing the thing that is safest for our fans and to protect the folks that are going to be here having to put out any potential issues we have anyway."
While the Carolinas coastal region continues to recover from Hurricane Matthew's heavy rain and high winds, Lynch said last week's wet weather never made it far enough inland to impact his facility.
"Not a drop. It never got this far," he said. "We would have taken all we could have gotten. There is no green grass on the property; it's all brown."
Approximately 1,200 acres of track property is used for parking and campgrounds. The infield alone accounts for nearly 250 acres.
"People say, 'Well, you should water everything,'" Lynch said. "You can't water 1,200 acres."
If there's a bright side to the situation, it's the weather outlook for next weekend's doubleheader. Currently, the extended forecast calls for unseasonably warm temperatures.
"It's not like we're telling fans you can't have a campfire and it's going to be 30 degrees at night," Lynch said. "A nice jacket and you should be fine all weekend.
"If everyone cooperates, it will keep everyone safe here and we don't have unnecessary, runaway fires. We've already had a fire by the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. We put it out and about three hours later it came back. We put it out again. This stuff can go down into the ground and come up somewhere else.
"We're not doing this without a lot of thought and a lot of concern for taking care of everybody that's going to come to our property in the best way we can and we have to enforce this. It's our duty to do that for our fans."

Homestead-Miami Speedway to collect donations for Hurricane Matthew relief

Homestead-Miami Speedway, in partnership with Chris Fellowship Church, will be collecting donations on Oct. 14 at Fast Lane Friday presented by The Ticket Clinic to help those affected by Hurricane Matthew.

Homestead-Miami is also offering car enthusiasts who donate the chance the chance to enter their street-legal car for an opportunity to compete on the 1/8-mile drag strip from 6 p.m. to Midnight. Donations will be accepted started at 5 p.m.

Those who make donations from 5 – 9 p.m. will also have the opportunity to take a paced lap around the 1.5-mile speedway. Contributions can also be made without having to enter into Fast Lane Friday. Any individual who donates an item will be entered into a raffle with the chance to win a $100 gift card.

Those wishing to donate to the cause are encouraged to bring the follow supplies:

• Anti-Bacterial Bar Soap
• Antibiotic ointment
• Aspirin/Tylenol
• Baby blankets
• Baby bottles
• Baby clothing
• Baby formula
• Baby scales
• Bandages
• Batteries
• Diapers
• Feminine products
• First aid kits
• Flashlights
• Gauze
• Hand sanitizer
• Hygiene kits
• Mosquito nets/bed nets (for pregnant women to protect from Zika)
• Pedialyte
• Powdered baby formula
• Protein bars
• Protein drinks
• Tents/tarps
• Thermometers
• Vitamins
• Water purification tablets

Hurricane Matthew was a category 2 storm when it traveled up the Florida coast the weekend of Oct. 7. In addition to the damage it caused in Florida, Hurricane Matthew is reported to be responsible for the death of nine individuals while leaving one million people without power.

For more information on Fast Lane Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Hurricane Matthew donations, you can visit here.