Event: AdventHealth 400 (Round 12 of 36)
Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, May 5
Location: Kansas Speedway in Kansas City
Layout: 1.5-mile oval
Laps/Miles: 267 laps/400.5 miles
Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 85 laps / Final Stage: 102 laps
TV/Radio: FS1 / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
SHR FAST FACTS:
– Two months ago, in just the third race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Noah Gragson finished an impressive sixth. It was his third career top-10 and it came in his 42nd career Cup Series start, but only his third points-paying start with Stewart-Haas Racing. Since then, the driver of the No. 10 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Ford Mustang Dark Horse has scored four finishes of 12th or better, including a career-best third-place drive two weeks at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and another sixth-place run last Sunday at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. Las Vegas’ 1.5-mile oval is similarly structured to the 1.5-mile oval Gragson will visit this weekend – Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, host to Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 – and he’s eyeing the intermediate-style track for a Las Vegas-esque performance.
– The AdventHealth 400 Sunday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City will be Chase Briscoe’s seventh career NASCAR Cup Series start at the 1.5-mile oval. While Briscoe is still looking for his first top-10 finish at Kansas, he has been quietly consistent, with four finishes among the top-20 and only one result outside the top-25. Briscoe’s best Cup Series finish at Kansas is 13th, earned in September 2022.
– Ryan Preece and the No. 41 HaasTooling.com team return to Kansas Speedway in Kansas City for Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 NASCAR Cup Series race aiming to have another strong showing on an intermediate-style oval. In the series’ most recent visit to an intermediate track, the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on April 14, Preece had an impressive performance during which he ran inside the top-10 for a majority of the race en route to a solid 12th-place finish. It was his best career finish at Texas in eight Cup Series starts.
– Berry took on the Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway concrete mile oval last Sunday for the third time in his Cup Series career. He qualified a career-best 12th and finished 14th and will arrive at Kansas second in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings, 13 points behind leader Carson Hocevar. Berry is 24th in the overall Cup Series standings.
OUR WEEKLY WRAPS:
WHAT OUR DRIVERS ARE SAYING:
Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Ford Mustang Dark Horse
You finished sixth earlier this year at Las Vegas – a 1.5-mile oval that has similar characteristics to Kansas. While that race was back in March, can what you learned in Las Vegas translate to Kansas?
“I think the mile-and-a-halves are the bread and butter for our program. Specifically, it seems like we’ve had good speed at the two we’ve been at, we’ve had good pace. So with that being said, it definitely is one that interests me, going back to a mile-and-a-half. I’m looking forward to Kansas, Darlington, Charlotte and the rest of the mile-and-a-halves this year just because I feel like that’s probably where I excel at, now, as a driver. I used to love the short tracks and felt like I was really good and only got wins on short tracks. Now, I feel like I’m terrible at the short tracks and better at the intermediate-style tracks.”
Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang Dark Horse
While Texas Motor Speedway isn’t an exact copy of Kansas, it’s still an intermediate-style oval. Does your sixth-place run three weeks ago at Texas provide some insight as to how you’ll perform at Kansas?
“I’d like to think it would. Texas is a very unique mile-and-a-half in that you’re way slower in one end than you are in the other. Kansas is also a very unique mile-and-a-half just because it’s very high-speed. I would say it probably has the fastest corner speed of any mile-and-a-half we go to. So if your stuff was OK in (turns) three and four at Texas, I’d say it maybe correlates a little bit to Kansas. Kansas is just so fast and smooth. There are no bumps, no anything, so it’s kind of a weird racetrack. We don’t really go anywhere that’s like Kansas. Our mile-and-a-half stuff’s been pretty good this year. I don’t know if we’re going to have race-winning speed going there, but I do think we’re going to at least be in the hunt.”
Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
You had a strong performance at Texas, the most recent mile-and-a-half track on the schedule. Could we see the same type of performance at Kansas?
“I look back at Texas as being our first real mile-and-a-half race of the season. Vegas didn’t give us a lot. Not being able to turn many laps in practice and switching to a back-up car for the race there didn’t give us an opportunity to see what we had for the mile-and-a-half racetracks this season. So, looking back at Texas, I felt pretty good about our race there. We had good speed during the race. Our emphasis for Kansas is qualifying better. If we don’t do that, it makes for a long day, especially when track position is important like it will be on Sunday.”
Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Kansas is a 1.5-mile track with multiple groves and a lot of opportunity to create speed. How beneficial is it to be able to change lanes and work your way through the field at 1.5-mile tracks when passing has been a challenge in the NextGen car?
“I think having those lane options helps the most when trying to find clean air. The NextGen car is really good in clean air, so being able to move around to find it will give the drivers the chance to race harder and make passes regardless of lane choice. I am looking forward to being able to be aggressive when I need to in order to gain track position.”
