Ten drivers to watch in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Buschy McBusch race at Kansas Speedway
Ten drivers to watch in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Buschy McBusch Race 400 at Kansas Speedway:
Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Ford
Harvick is one of four drivers to win three Cup races at Kansas Speedway — most recently in the spring of 2018 — and owns a record four second-place finishes. Harvick, the 2014 series champion, made his record 1,198th start across all three NASCAR series last week at Talladega but has yet to win in 2021 for Stewart-Haas Racing despite seven Top 10 finishes. He finished fourth last summer at Kansas and second in the fall.
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota
Hamlin, 39, has won three times at Kansas Speedway, including the summer race in 2020. Hamlin, considered the best active driver not to have won a Cup championship, sits atop the standings by 87 points ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. on the strength of eight top-five finishes in 10 starts but is still looking for his first win of the season.
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford
Keselowski, the 2012 Cup champion, has won twice at Kansas Speedway, both in the spring of 2011 and 2019 and was second last July. Keselowski, 36, is coming off his first win of the season for Team Penske and 35th of his career at Talladega, giving him 11 straight seasons with at least one victory and locking in post-season berths for all three Penske drivers (along with Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney).
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet
Elliott, who has replaced his father, Bill, and former teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., as the Cup series’ Most Popular Driver, is the reigning series champion, though he is still looking for his first win of 2021 for Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott, 24, won the fall race at Kansas in 2018 and was fourth and second in the two 2019 races.
Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford
Logano, the 2018 Cup champion, is a three-time winner at Kansas, winning back-to-back in 2014-15 and last fall’s playoff race for Team Penske, tying for his most victories at any track (Michigan, Talladega). Logano, 30, who owns 27 career wins, is already locked into the 2021 playoffs by virtue of his win on the dirt in Bristol.
Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Toyota
Truex, the 2017 series champion, is the only driver to win both Cup races in a season at Kansas Speedway when he pulled off the sweep in 2017. He nearly made it three straight but finished second in the 2018 spring race. Truex, 40, owns two wins this season, at Phoenix and Martinsville, for Joe Gibbs Racing. He finished third and ninth in the two races at Kansas in 2020.
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Chevrolet
Larson, 28, is looking for his first win at Kansas, but has three top-10s in four starts, leading 161 laps. Larson missed all but the first four pre-pandemic races last year while serving a suspension, but signed by Hendrick Motorsports, he won at Las Vegas, a similar 1.5 mile track to Kansas Speedway for his seventh career win.
William Byron, No. 24 Chevrolet
Byron, 23, retained fourth place in the standings with his runner-up finish at Talladega last week. Byron extended his top-10 finish streak to eight races, starting with his win at Homestead in February. Byron’s run is the longest top-10 streak for a Hendrick Motorsports driver since Dale Earnhardt Jr. from October 2013 to March 2014.
Alex Bowman, No. 88 Chevrolet
Bowman, 28, is driving the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet that Jimmie Johnson won three times at Kansas Speedway. Bowman won two weeks ago at Richmond. He has made 11 starts at Kansas with a best finish of second when he led 63 laps in the 2019 spring race. He finished eighth and third in the two 2020 Kansas events.
Christopher Bell, No. 20 Toyota
Bell, 26, ranks 10th in the standings on the strength of winning on the Daytona Road Course, two top-five finishes and five-top 10 finishes for Joe Gibbs Racing. Bell, of Norman, Okla., posted his first career Xfinity Series at Kansas in 2017.
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Ten drivers to watch in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Buschy McBusch race at Kansas Speedway."