But there’s another important reason why Bowyer wants to win Saturday’s race. His home town of Emporia-Kansas is approximately 100 miles away and he now considers the Kansas Speedway as his home track. Look for a lot of Bowyer fans in the stands Saturday.
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While the top ten in points will be honored at the Nationwide Series awards banquet in December, only the top five will get stage time during the live television broadcast of the ceremony. This is a huge opportunity for drivers to say thank you to the sponsors who helped them get to that stage as well as an opportunity to perhaps entice new sponsors to join their teams.
The battle for fifth in the Nationwide standings has been more intense than who’s on top of the points list. Steve Wallace, driver of the #66 U.S. Fidelis Chevrolet for Rusty Wallace Racing currently holds the fifth place. But Wallace only has a 19 point lead over Justin Allgaier, driver of the #12 Verizon Wireless Dodge for Penske Racing. This will be one of the big story lines to follow during the Kansas race.
So will the Raybestos Rookie Of The Year standings because that also involves the Penske and Wallace racing organizations. Penske’s Justin Allgaier goes into Saturday with a 16 point lead over Wallace’s Brendan Gaughan.
The honor of being the best in the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series’ freshman class is huge for any racing organization. It could also strengthen the chances of acquiring additional sponsorship for future races.
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THE RACE BREAKDOWN.
The Kansas Lottery 300 is 200 laps-300 miles around the Kansas Speedway’s 1.5 mile quad oval.
The race has a very healthy 53 entries vying for the 43 starting position so qualifying could become a very intense affair. A whopping 22 of those entries are on the “go or go home” list meaning they do not have a guaranteed start in the race because they are outside of the Nationwide Series’ top 30 in owner’s points. 11 of the race entries are teams from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series who are often referred to as “Insurance Whackers.” (Seriously, we have to come up with a new name for these guys).
The defending race champion is Denny Hamlin but he’s not entered in this year’s event. Eight Nationwide Series races at the Kansas Speedway has produced eight different winners. No one has ever won a race there from the pole position.
Chevrolet has three wins at Kansas. But Toyota, based on the performances of Joe Gibbs Racing, continues to lead the series’ manufacturer’s standings with 187 points. However Clint Bowyer’s win at Dover last week has helped second place Chevrolet trim that lead to a mere 11 points. Ford is in third with 166 points followed by Dodge at 87.
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