Top 5 and 5 to watch: Kansas

Top 5 and 5 to watch: Kansas

Here's a look at the top five drivers in the Sprint Cup Series standings and five drivers to watch in Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway. All statistical references are for Sprint Cup races at Kansas unless otherwise indicated. Driver rating is based on the past five races at the track.


1. Denny Hamlin, 80.9 driver rating. This could be a swing race for Hamlin. He has one top 10 in five starts with an average finish of 19.0. His record on 1.5-mile tracks this year is a mixed bag: 19th, 21st, 1st ( Texas ), 18th, 8th and 43rd ( Atlanta ). He came through last week at Dover , which also is one of his weaker tracks. Expect him to shine again Sunday.


2. Jimmie Johnson, 122.6. Johnson won last week and heads to a track at which he has one win and six top 10s in eight starts. But a bigger number is Johnson's three poles. He has started six races inside the top five, and he is qualifying very well this year. Johnson won from the pole last week, and you know Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus want the first pit selection. We could have a new leader Sunday afternoon.


3. Kyle Busch, 74.4. This is not one of Busch's better tracks. He has one top 10 in six starts, and his 24.3 average finish is his second worst in the Cup series. Overall, Busch is working on the longest active top-10 streak at five races. If crew chief Dave Rogers can get the No. 18 dialed in, Busch should do just fine Sunday.


4. Kurt Busch, 82.0. Kurt hasn't performed much better than his brother at Kansas : two top 10s in nine starts. On the other hand, Busch has a season-best two wins on 1.5-mile tracks ( Atlanta , Charlotte ). In fact, Busch's past four Cup wins have been on 1.5-mile tracks. Busch is highly capable of cutting into his 59-point deficit to Hamlin.


5. Kevin Harvick, 81.2. Harvick has three top 10s—all sixth-place finishes—in nine starts. Since winning at Michigan in August, Harvick has two top 10s in five races, hum-drum stats for the regular-season points leader. More ominous, though, is that Harvick hasn't led a lap since his win. He finished 15th last week.


Five to watch:
6. Carl Edwards, 94.2. Edwards continued his brilliant late-season surge last week with his sixth top five in the past 11 races. His worst finish in that span is 12th, one of his two finishes outside the top 10. Edwards still hasn't won since the last race of 2008, but he's getting closer. He has four top 10s in six starts at Kansas , and a win Sunday isn't out of the question.


7. Jeff Burton, 73.0. Burton has two top 10s in nine starts with a mediocre 18.6 average finish. He must do better Sunday to stay within striking distance of the lead (he's 80 behind Hamlin). Burton finished second last week, but he hasn't shown the ability to close the deal this year. His winless drought is five races longer than Edwards'.


8. Jeff Gordon, 104.7. Gordon has an excellent record at Kansas—two wins, six top fives—and if ever he needed to tap into that, it's Sunday. He finished second last year, and his only finish worse than 13th was a 39th in 2006 when his fuel pump broke. He trails Hamlin by 83 points.


9. Greg Biffle, 119.6. The big drop-off among Chase drivers begins with Biffle, who is 140 points back. But there is hope. Since crashing in his first start at Kansas in 2002, Biffle has one win among his five top fives and he finished 12th in his other two starts. On the other hand ... Biffle has started the Chase with finishes of 17th and 19th, which followed finishes of 36th and 32nd to close the regular season.


10. Tony Stewart, 99.0. Stewart won last year's race, and he also won in 2006 when he took advantage of being outside the Chase and was free to gamble on fuel mileage (he coasted to the victory). Two weeks ago in the Chase opener, Stewart gambled on fuel mileage and lost (coasted home 24th). He finished 21st last week and finds himself 162 points off the lead. So what can we expect to see Sunday? Stewart has nothing to lose and everything to gain, so if he thinks he can steal a win on fuel mileage, he'll go for it again.


By Bill Marx

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(September 30, 2010)