When one thinks of exotic or unusual destinations, one tends NOT to think of Kansas. I’ve never been there, I have no burning desire to be there in the land of endless fields, bitter winters and fierce tornadoes. It’s kind of like Iowa, but with less respect. Yet in spite of its averageness, there’s no place like Kansas on the NASCAR tour.
Unlike many other NASCAR stops, Kansas City only sees the endless trail of haulers once a year. Think of how this differs from New Hampshire and Dover where all the teams have notes and information from earlier in the year. Further setting Kansas apart is the fact that drivers revert to driving the old style cars after a couple of weeks of Car of Tomorrow driving. This will certainly bring a sigh of relief to teams struggling with their COT programs. Kansas also provides one of the the flattest tracks on the circuit. Think of how differently driving goes for you in a car when you go into banked or unbanked turns. There’s definitely a difference in handling. According to a comment by Rusty Wallace, who’s raced five times at Kansas, the 1.5 mile tri-oval provides great passing opportunities, especially in Turn 2.
Kansas is also a home track of sorts to several drivers that haven’t seen the midwest in a while. Chasers Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards hail from this neck of the woods, as do Jamie Mc Murray and Kenny Wallace. For the chasers, every little edge matters. That feeling of being in your own house provides a definite plus.
Today in qualifying, we didn’t see the spinning and weaving we saw in Dover. Nobody hit the wall, the worst complaints concerned themselves with tightness of the car and the condition of the track for the earlier qualifiers who had problems with a slick track and a slower second lap. Jimmie Johnson claimed the pole once again, with solid performances from Ryan Newman, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., and Jeff Gordon. It was also good to see go-or-go-home team Michael Waltrip Racing get all three of its drivers in, led by Ol’ Mikey himself.
Of course, regardless of where they qualified- you can be sure of two things: 1) Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart will make a run towards the front before the end, and 2) Sadly, Evernham racers Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne, who always seem to qualify so well, will fall back.
I won’t venture to predict a winner in Sunday’s venture into the heartland, but I will go this far. The winner will come from one of the Chasers. Jimmie looks very strong, Jeff is running well and all the other guys have too much to lose to not run well. In addition to the aforementioned racers, I expect something from Penske Dodger Kurt Busch and the ever consistent Matt Kenseth.
You may think of Kansas as Nebraska (but with a better basketall team), but we should see something a little different than what we’ve seen lately- the exception being who we see towards the front. The question, however, still lingers: who will that be?
Turn on, tune in, and let’s all find out.
