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How the 12 remaining playoff drivers fare at Kansas

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer

Welcome to the final race of the second round of the NASCAR playoffs. Before each playoff race we’re taking a look at how each of the playoff drivers have done at the track hosting the upcoming race. Let’s look at the stats from Kansas.

Alex Bowman

6 starts
1 top 10
Average finish: 27.7
3,015 points (12th)
Bowman has two starts at Kansas for Hendrick Motorsports. He was seventh in the fall of 2016 and 18th earlier this year.

Aric Almirola

13 starts
5 top 10s
Average finish: 19.8
3,087 points (clinched third-round berth with Talladega win)

Almirola is on a run of two straight top-10 finishes at Kansas. He was ninth in his final race at the track for Richard Petty Motorsports and ninth in the spring race. He crashed out in the previous two races, including a nasty crash in the 2017 spring race that sidelined him with a fractured vertebra.

Kyle Larson

9 starts
2 top 5s, 3 top 10s
Average finish: 19.1
3,047 points (11th)

Larson was 39th a year ago at Kansas because of a blown engine. That engine failure knocked him out of the playoffs. The fall race has bedeviled him; he finished 30th and 29th in the previous two fall races after he was second in 2014. He’s had better luck in the spring recently, finishing sixth and fourth in each of the past two seasons.

Joey Logano

18 starts
2 wins, 7 top 5s, 7 top 10s
Average finish: 18.1
3,104 points (3rd)

Logano had five straight top-five finishes at Kansas from the fall of 2013 through the fall of 2015. In the five races since he’s been 38th, third, 37th, 21st and third. He needs to be closer to third to advance safely to the third round of the playoffs.

Chase Elliott

5 starts
1 top 5, 2 top 10s
Average finish: 17.0
3,066 points (clinched third-round berth with Dover win)

Elliott has finished 12th and fourth in the last two races at Kansas.

Kyle Busch

21 starts
1 win, 5 top 5s, 9 top 10s
Average finish: 17.0
3,111 points (2nd)

You used to be able to say Kansas was Busch’s worst track. He’s reversed that trend since a third-place finish in the fall of 2015. Busch has been fifth, first, fifth, fifth, 10th and 10th in the six races since.

Clint Bowyer

20 starts
2 top 5s, 6 top 10s
Average finish: 16.8
3,086 points (6th)

Bowyer’s home track hasn’t been too kind for him. Lots of mediocrity. He’s finished ninth, 19th and, most recently, 15th in his three races at Kansas for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Kurt Busch

25 starts
3 top 5s, 9 top 10s
Average finish: 16.0
3,095 points (4th)

Busch has finished outside the top 15 just once in the last seven races at Kansas. He was second in the fall race of 2017.

Martin Truex Jr.

20 starts
2 wins, 7 top 5s, 8 top 10s
Average finish: 14.4
3,083 points (7th)

Truex swept both races at Kansas in 2017. He was second in the spring. Another second-place finish means he moves on to the third round.

Ryan Blaney

7 starts
3 top 5s, 4 top 10s
Average finish: 13.9
3,061 points (10th)

Blaney was 37th in the spring after leading 54 laps but getting caught up in a crash. He finished third in the fall in 2017 and was fourth in the spring of 2017.

Brad Keselowski

17 starts
1 win, 3 top 5s, 8 top 10s
Average finish: 13.2
3,065 points (9th)

Keselowski’s lone Kansas win came all the way back in 2011 in his third start at the track. He’s finished 10th, 38th, second, 13th and 14th in his last five starts.

Kevin Harvick

25 starts
3 wins, 8 top 5s, 14 top 10s
Average finish: 9.6
3,128 points (1st)

Harvick led 79 laps as he won the spring race earlier this season. He’s led laps in each of the last four races and won the fall race in 2016. Harvick hasn’t finished any lower than 16th since the 2010 fall race.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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