This Sunday’s inaugural STP 400 is a homecoming of sorts for a trio of drivers – but so far Kansas Speedway hasn’t been very hospitable to its native and adopted sons.
Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray count one NASCAR national series Kansas victory between them – and none in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Edwards, from Columbia, Mo. won the 1.5-mile track’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series stop in 2004.
“I’d like to race at Kansas every week,” said Edwards, whose best finish of second in 2008 is one of five top-10 finishes in the current NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader’s seven starts at Kansas. “It’s a lot of fun for me because so many people from Columbia, Mo. go to this race so I’m glad they have two races now.”
Based on his team’s record – Roush Fenway Racing has won three times at Kansas Speedway – Edwards would seem to have a solid chance to break through. “The way this team is running I think we have the best chance we have ever had,” he said.
Bowyer, from Emporia, Kan., finished second in his second trip to Kansas Speedway in 2007. He once was a regular at nearby Lakeside Speedway.
“The race is very exciting to me. Always, to go back home, and race in front of the hometown crowd; two dates there is just big, it’s very special for me,” said Bowyer, whose Richard Childress Racing team continues to pursue its first Kansas Speedway victory. Click here to listen to audio from Bowyer on his return home.
A victory at Kansas Speedway would be special on several levels for McMurray, whose hometown of Joplin, Mo. was virtually leveled by tornado on May 22. McMurray hasn’t had much luck at the track since back-to-back top-10 finishes in his first two appearances.
McMurray, however, will leave thoughts about the upcoming race until later this week after a Thursday visit to his hometown with Convoy for Hope, a group bringing tornado relief supplies to the devastated city.
”I haven’t been back to Joplin for four or five years and I moved away from there when I was 20 years old,” said McMurray. “But Joplin will always be my hometown. And I’ve got, I don’t know, maybe it’s a different outlook now, but when we go do fundraisers, certainly I’m still going to do a lot with Autism, but I think for a long time it will be about Joplin and trying to get the city back where it was.”
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