Backstretch Motorsports

OK, everybody sing along, you know the tune:

“I’m going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come - they got a winning little speedway there and I’m gonna get me some…”

No?.. well.. it was worth a shot… (apologies to the late, great Wilbert Harrison)

If the ’stock-car’ racing standards are set in the way many have historically classified them, it breaks down this way:

NASCAR’s historic roots are the short tracks, the basis for the sport’s existence, where it all began.

The Super Speedways, two miles or more, are the excitement factor, the ‘edge of your seat’ , the inches-apart close racing at amazing speeds.

The Road Courses are showcase of driver skill, and sometimes provide the comic relief.

The Intermediate Tracks - 1 mile , 1 1/2 mile to the 2 miler - sometimes called cookie-cutter for the sameness of shape, dimensions, banking numbers - epitomize ability to showcase team strategy and driver ability alike.

They are the bread and butter of NASCAR success.

These tracks do incorporate all that make modern-era stock racing what it is - competitive and dynamic.

Here’s my assessment- If fans are not as excited by 1 1/2 mile track races, then they simply aren’t watching correctly - there are about a million things per lap happening - not always on the racing surface.

This is where the concept of team racing comes into play with the best of what that means.

Kansas Speedway’s 1 1/2 mile track with it’s 15 degree corners, 2000 plus foot straights and “D” shape is a fine example of this.

When the Jayhawker State track added it’s near 82,000 seat capacity to NASCAR’s schedule in 2001, it was seen by many as just another in a series of sameness that was springing up in Las Vegas, Texas, Chicago, Miami in recent years — and all seemingly looking to reproduce the original intermediate venues of Charlotte and Atlanta, long established speed houses with impeccable credentials of racing action and spectacle.

I say that each of those recent additions, with Kansas being a pretty unique facility unto itself, perform to expectations.

With speeds that flirt with the 180 MPH range per lap, a better than 3 million dollar purse and it’s own aged-in quirkiness of lap negotiations for driver and crew chief, it’s a fun race to be a part of.

But the mile and half track presents a level of comfort for Chase teams that aren’t where they want to be.

Many of the teams that aren’t seeing the performance and results they had hoped for from either Loudon and Dover, are circling this track on the schedule - a good chance to get results needed and early on in the final 10.

The third week of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup could present Jeff Gordon with his first solid opportunity to start a championship charge.

Sunday’s Price Chopper 400 presented by Kraft Foods will be held at Kansas Speedway, where Gordon has won twice in his storied career.

After Dover, six of the top 12 Chase contenders changed position in the points standings with Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet) moving up the most spots (two) from 10th to eighth. Only 189 points separate first from 12th this week.

Gordon won the first two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Kansas (2001-02). That 2001 victory more-or-less ensured he would win his fourth title. Gordon leads the series in top fives (five) and top 10s (six) at the 1.5-mile track.

“I think our chances are really good.” says Gordon, “I’ve been really excited about the mile and a halfs in the final ten races in the Chase. I feel like that’s something that we have really done a great job with improving from last season, and I feel like that’s where this championship can really get turned around for us in the DuPont Chevrolet.”

“We haven’t had the best start especially compared to our teammates. But this last week in Dover was certainly a good performance. Didn’t get the finish we were hoping for but I feel in Kansas, we are capable, very capable of getting that win that we need to really move ourselves up to where we need to be to battle for this championship so hopefully we can pull that off.”

One team that certainly has this weekend in sight with a sigh of relief is the Red Bull Toyota Camry group with Brian Vickers

This style of track coming up is where the No. 83 team performs at a high level.

The Price Chopper 400 begins a three-race series of visits to intermediate ovals. First, it’s Kansas. Then, it’s 2-mile Auto Club Speedway. After that, it’s 1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway. In 10 combined races at those three tracks in the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota, Vickers’ average start is 15.4. His average finish is 13.6.

And while Vickers has emerged relatively unscathed after the first two Chase outings, the shot in the arm potential to move up in standings has to be a welcomed sight.

Vickers has his own appreciation for Kansas, away from the track. “Great steaks. Kansas City has great steaks,” Vickers said. “But Kansas also has great race fans. That place is full every time we go there. I like the mile- and-a-half tracks, and we seem to have our act together when we go to tracks like that.”

Tony Stewart has the advantage of time-tested championship strategy and is capable of creating the situations to bring home victory.

He also owns some of the top statistics over the remaining eight tracks.

Kansas is representative of the possible chink in the owner-driver’s armour. This is his crap-shoot.

Stewart’s average Driver Rating of 98.0 at the next eight tracks rank second among his fellow championship contenders. Additionally, he has an Average Running Position of 11.3 (second-best) and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 74.8 (second).

The regular season points leader now trails Martin by 106 points. Though most drivers point to Talladega or Martinsville as the Chase wild card, Kansas might be exactly that for Stewart. Since the inception of NASCAR’s Loop Data in 2005, he has lived on both sides of the success spectrum.

In 2005, Stewart finished fourth and followed it up with a Kansas victory in 2006. But in the last two races, he has finished 39th and 40th. The 39th-place run is a bit deceiving, though. In that race, he had one of the better cars, as his Driver Rating of 93.8 and his Average Running Position of 10.6 would suggest.

Overall in the last four Kansas races, Stewart has a Driver Rating of 91.3 (ninth), an Average Running Position of 12.9 (eighth), 30 Fastest Laps Run (eighth) and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 67.8%.

Greg Biffle, 138 points back, needs to take advantage of this weekend’s race at Kansas, a track at which he has excelled in his career. In terms of Driver Rating, Kansas ranks as Biffle’s second-best track. Over the last four races there, which includes a win, a runner-up finish and a third-place finish, Biffle has a Driver Rating of 117.4, a series-best Average Running Position of 6.4, 88 Fastest Laps Run, 86 Laps Led and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 95.2%.

The Roush Fenway driver ranks second overall in Kansas Driver Rating, behind Jimmie Johnson, who has a 123.1. Johnson comes into this weekend looking for consecutive victories. His win at Dover last Sunday was near-perfect statistically. Johnson scored a Driver Rating of 149.2, eight-tenths short of a perfect 150.0.

This hasn’t been the season for RFR, and Greg Erwin, crew chief on the No. 16 Fusion, says this could be the best shot at redemption for the ailing organization.

“We’re taking a brand new car to Kansas this weekend.” says the head wrench, “It was built with Kansas in mind and it worked out that it was finished in time to take this weekend. Greg has a pretty good record at Kansas and it would be great to get back into victory lane there.”

“Even though Kansas is a mile-and-a-half track, it’s pretty unique. You could say it’s a little like Texas but you really have to go there without comparing it to another track. We were more than disappointed with our run at Dover last weekend so a good run at Kansas would be great for this 3M team. The crew keeps giving a consistently outstanding performance in the pits, so if we can just get the cars figured out, we’ll be all set.”

Stay Tuned…

(this release contains previously published material)