Week of Sept. 30, 2013 To Kansas

Week of Sept. 30, 2013

Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch enter Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (2 p.m. ET ESPN, MRN Radio, SiriusXM Satellite Radio) with virtually identical finishing averages in the first three races of the 2013 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ - 3.0, 3.3 and 3.0.

Kenseth leads Johnson by eight points, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Busch by 12 markers.

So who blinks first?

Kenseth? Probably not this week. Kenseth’s won the past two races at the 1.5-mile track.

Johnson? Unlikely. Johnson also is a two-time Kansas winner, sports a superlative average finish of 7.6 and has led eight of the most recent 10 Kansas events.

That leaves Busch as the potential odd man out. Busch claims two top-10 finishes (most recently 10th in 2012) at Kansas Speedway and an average finish of 22.4. Worse, Busch has been felled by accident in each of his past two Kansas appearances.

By improving one position over last year’s second-place performance in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2, MRN Radio, SiriusXM Radio), Austin Dillon can take the NASCAR Nationwide Series points lead from Sam Hornish Jr. The two drivers are separated by four points entering the season’s 29th of 33 events.

Matt Crafton’s 16-race run of top-10 finishes ended in Las Vegas but the Californian will enter the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ final five events with a 41-point lead over reigning champion James Buescher when competition resumes Oct. 19 at Talladega Superspeedway.