NASCAR at Kansas 2015: Start Time, Entry List, TV Schedule and More
Jeff Gordon won the first trip to Kansas Speedway in 2014. He'll be hoping for a repeat performance this weekend at the SpongeBob SquarePants 400. Gordon will be looking to rebound after a disappointing 31st-place finish at the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.
Gordon earned the pole position but couldn't parlay that into a strong showing. He's currently 13th in the Sprint Cup standings and 117 points behind leader Kevin Harvick.
On the other side of things, Dale Earnhardt Jr. hopes to make it two wins in a row after he captured the checkered flag at Talladega. The win moved him up three spots to fifth in the standings. He's just 75 points behind Harvick, who was eighth at the Geico 500 but is still clinging to a 40-point lead over the hard-charging Martin Truex Jr.
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While he's yet to win a race this season, Truex Jr. does have nine top-10 finishes to his credit.
Things are getting interesting with a little over five months before the Challenger Round begins. Here's a look at the entry list for Saturday's race, per NASCAR.com.
| 1 | Jamie McMurray |
| 2 | Brad Keselowski |
| 3 | Austin Dillon |
| 4 | Kevin Harvick |
| 5 | Kasey Kahne |
| 6 | Trevor Bayne |
| 7 | Alex Bowman |
| 9 | Sam Hornish Jr. |
| 10 | Danica Patrick |
| 11 | Denny Hamlin |
| 13 | Casey Mears |
| 14 | Tony Stewart |
| 15 | Clint Bowyer |
| 16 | Greg Biffle |
| 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 18 | Erik Jones |
| 19 | Carl Edwards |
| 20 | Matt Kenseth |
| 22 | Joey Logano |
| 23 | J.J. Yeley |
| 24 | Jeff Gordon |
| 26 | Jeb Burton |
| 27 | Paul Menard |
| 31 | Ryan Newman |
| 32 | Joey Gase |
| 33 | Ty Dillon |
| 34 | Brett Moffitt |
| 35 | Cole Whitt |
| 38 | David Gilliland |
| 40 | Landon Cassill |
| 41 | Kurt Busch |
| 42 | Kyle Larson |
| 43 | Aric Almirola |
| 46 | Michael Annett |
| 47 | AJ Allmendinger |
| 48 | Jimmie Johnson |
| 51 | Justin Allgaier |
| 55 | David Ragan |
| 62 | Brendan Gaughan |
| 78 | Martin Truex Jr. |
| 83 | Matt DiBenedetto |
| 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
| 95 | Michael McDowell |
| 98 | Josh Wise |
Here's the TV schedule for the race:
When: Saturday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m. ET
Where: Kansas Speedway; Kansas City, Kansas
TV: Fox Sports 1
Still the Favorite
According to Odds Shark, Harvick is still the favorite to win the Sprint Cup championship for the second straight year. His most updated odds are 15-4. There's still a ton of racing left on the schedule, but you have to like Harvick's consistency.
He has two wins and seven top-five finishes this season. He's only finished outside of the top 10 in one race. It's going to take a strong and consistent effort from the likes of Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson to run Harvick down.
While he has his fellow drivers chasing him in the standings, NASCAR officials might be after him with a tape gun for his mouth soon.
Harvick may not have made any new friends in Kansas when he made comments about NASCAR's stagnant schedule earlier in the week. Per Jeff Gluck of USA Today, Harvick said this about the current schedule structure and venues:
"You can beat a dead horse as much as you want, but it doesn't come back to life. Sometimes you just have to change things up to keep the excitement and the enthusiasm in our sport, and I think our schedule is definitely the weak link along with some of the venues we go to.
"
It's unclear if he was referring to Kansas Speedway—which NASCAR visits twice in the season—or speaking in general, but it would be easy to see how Kansas City natives might take Harvick's comments as an insult.
Expanding to new markets isn't a bad idea, but NASCAR must be careful not to abandon the venues that have been good to the series.
Don't Forget About Jimmie
It's times like this when six-time champions make their presence felt. Jimmie Johnson has already won twice this year and finished in the top five six times. His consistency has led to a third-place spot in the Sprint Cup standings.
He's had obvious success this season, but Johnson has just two wins in 17 career starts in Kansas.
That's a winning percentage just under 12 percent. For his career, he has a total win percentage on all tracks of just under 15 percent. Even if Johnson doesn't capture the checkered flag on Saturday, he'd love to best Harvick.
Keeping the pressure on the defending champion is key at this point in the season. Who's ready for Saturday night racing?
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