THE RACE BREAKDOWN
The Price Chopper 400 is 267 laps,400.5 miles, around the Kansas Speedway’s 1.5 mile oval.
The race has 45 entries vying for the 43 starting berths in the race. Ten of those entries are on the “go or go home” list meaning they are not guaranteed an automatic starting berth because they are outside of NASCAR’s top 35 in owner’s points. If qualifying gets rained out then drivers Kevin Hamlin and Max Papis will have to load up and go home early.
Inclement weather is a major possibility for disrupting Friday’s qualifying day. The forecast calls for cloudy skies and a 40 percent chance of rain. The Saturday forecast calls for variable cloudiness and 63 degrees while Sunday race day calls for a return to sunny skies and a pleasant day time high of 69 degrees.
Jimmie Johnson is the defending race winner from 2008 and won the race from the pole position. In eight previous races at the Kansas Speedway there has been seven different winners. There has been six different winners in the last six years. Only Jeff Gordon has multiple wins, two, which were in consecutive order in 2001 and 2002. Five of the last eight races have been won by drivers who started within the top ten positions. Chevrolet has the most manufacturer’s win at Kansas with five.
Matt Kenseth holds the track qualifying record, 180.856 MPH, which was set in October of 2005.
The track record for the most lead changes is 24 set in 2004. The record for the fewest lead changes is 13 set during the 2002 race.
13 is also the number of the most race leaders set in 2006. The fewest amount of race leaders is ten which happened three times with the most recent being in 2008.
The 2001 race set the track record for most caution flags, 13, and the most caution flag laps at 70. In comparison the 2008 race had both the fewest cautions, 7, and the least caution laps, 25.
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THE TRACK BREAKDOWN
Official groundbreaking for the Kansas Speedway occurred in May of 1999 with the official opening ceremonies held in 2001.
The first event was scheduled in June of 2001 and featured the ARCA ReMax Series and NASCAR’s Camping World West Series. The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held in September of 2001 and was won by Jeff Gordon.
The speedway is a 1.5 mile quad oval. There is 15 degrees of banking in the turns, 10.4 degrees in the tri oval and five degrees of banking in the backstretch.
The speedway presently has 81,779 seats.
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THE LAS VEGAS BREAKDOWN
The Las Vegas based World Sports Exchange-WSE, to no real surprise, is solidly behind Jimmie Johnson and has placed him at 4 to 1 odds to win the race Sunday. His team mate, and main championship rival, Mark Martin is right behind him at 6 to 1 odds.
But the most interesting wager line, not to mention a chance worth taking, is Jeff Gordon at 8 to 1 odds. That ranking is a little surprising in light of the fact that Gordon owns most of the really impressive performance stats at this speedway. Yet another interesting wager is Tony Stewart at 10 to 1 odds.
Grouped together at 12 to 1 this week are drivers Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. Brian Vickers and Kurt Busch are rated 15 to 1, Kasey Kahne is set at 18 to 1, Matt Kenseth is at 20 to 1 odds while the WSE higher rankings close with Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr at 22 to 1.
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