Kentucky Speedway
Quaker State 400
By Richard Tix
Last week NASCAR headed into wine country and its first taste of road course racing in the 2014 season. Surprising to some, a dark horse did not come in and steal a Chase spot at Sonoma (Carl Edwards, who already had a 2014 win, won). This week NASCAR heads to Kentucky for a Saturday night Summer race which should provide some excitement. The interesting thing I am taking into Kentucky? The fact that this could be a wild card race when it comes to the race for the Chase. Three Cup races here is enough to get some data on who runs well here (and the fact that we can pull from similar tracks), but it also leaves the door open to a non win team to steal a win. Will it happen? The closer we get to the Chase the less of a probability there is, but I think this should be on teams radar.
Kentucky Speedway doesn't have a lot of past stats to go off of for Cup (three races in fact). So this week will be a short view on the stats. You can also take a look back at last years preview and review from Kentucky for more on this track. Also, if you want a social media blast from the past check out Tweets of the Week: Kentucky. If you want a preview, Harraka hit another car on pit road before the race started, speculation started about the 3 coming back, Kyle Petty said Danica Patrick is not a "race car driver," and Denny Hamlin has a LOT of Jordon shoes.
The Good, Middle, and Bad
(This is just a review of each drivers recent past performance, generally about 5-10 past races)
The Good
- Kyle Busch- Kyle is one of four drivers who have finished in the top 10 all 3 times the Cup Series has run here. He is also the only driver with 2 top 5's in those three races and to top it off he is 1 of 3 drivers to have a win. On the little stats we have at just Kentucky (I will not get into a fantasy side of it, where we could look at similar tracks), Kyle has to be included.
- Matt Kenseth- In the three races here, Kenseth is the only driver with a better average finish then Kyle Busch (4.7 compared to 5.3). Kenseth has finishes of 6th and 7th while he was with Roush but he upped that when he moved to Gibb's by winning last year.
- Brad Keselowski- In BK's first to starts at Kentucky he led a total of 147, last year he lead zero. BK gets this spot as 1 of 3 winners at Kentucky. He did have a slip up with a bad outing last year after Kurt Busch got loose and started a wreck that tangled BK in it and ended up with him finishing 33rd. He has yet to start outside the top 10 and the way knock out qualifying has gone this year for Penske cars he should start with good track position.
- Extra Credit- Jimmie Johnson
The Middle
- Kevin Harvick- Harvick is the definition of the middle in his three starts here (obviously I don't mean the middle as in finishing 20th, because that isn't worth going into). Rather, Harvick has one top 10 (10th) and no finishes lower then 16th. his finishes are 10th, 11th, and 16th. This year will be his first start with SHR so maybe he will break into the top 10 again.
The Bad
- Josh Wise- You win the fan vote at the All-Star Race, and gain new sponsors online, then you are fair game to end up in this category. Fact is, in two starts, Wise has finishes of 37th and 39th. I can give guys free passes at other tracks where so many other top tier drivers have struggled, but this week its too easy to spotlight Wise.
- Greg Biffle- In the three years NASCAR has come to this track Biffle has yet to record a top 10, in fact he hasn't even recorded a top 20! Last year he ran into bad luck, but the fact remains he hasn't even started the race out in the top 10 in three tries.
- Tony Stewart- Smoke has yet to finish in the top 10 at Kentucky with finishes of 12th, 32nd, and 20th. Last year Stewart was even heating up before coming to Kentucky. His previous three finishes (throwing out Sonoma) were 5th, 4th, and 1st. So what more does he need to get hot at Kentucky?
Track Stats
- Kyle Busch won the first Cup race at Kentucky in 2011
- Kyle Busch is the only driver to win from the Pole (2011)
- Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and Matt Kenseth are the three drivers who have won at Kentucky
- The most cautions was last year, 2013, with 10 that went for 42 laps.
- The first every Cup Race Qualifying was rained out in 2011. Kyle Busch started 1st.
- That means, while Kyle started 1st, a driver has not yet won the Pole and won the race in three years.
- The two Pole winners were Jimmie Johnson (2012) and Dale Earnhardt Jr (2013).
- Kyle Busch has the most laps lead at Kentucky (243) followed by Jimmie Johnson (203).
- Only 18 drivers have lead a lap at Kentucky in three years.
- 10 drivers have run 801 of 801 laps here in three races.
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