The NASCAR playoffs continue today with the Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN BET at Kansas Speedway. Kansas Speedway is a 1.5 mile tri-oval located in Kansas City, Kansas. First opened in 2001, Kansas has many different lanes you can make speed on, as you will see cars running from the white line all the way up to right against the wall. Kansas is one of the best tracks for the Next Gen car, including being the host of the closest finish in NASCAR history, where Kyle Larson edged out Chris Buescher by .001 seconds in the spring of 2024. Today marks race two of the Round of 12 of the playoffs, with Ryan Blaney already advanced with his win last week. Playoff drivers will want to have a great points day to position themselves as good as they can with the Roval and elimination looming next week, where they’ll go from 12 drivers down to eight drivers. Entering today, with Blaney already advanced, you have Byron 47 points above the cutline, Larson +41, Bell +29, Hamlin +27, Logano +24, Elliott +14, Briscoe +12, Chastain -12, Cindric -19, Reddick -23 and Wallace -27. Tune in today to see if anyone can win and guarantee themselves into the Round of 8, and see what the cutline looks like going into next week.
It is no secret that 2025 has been a rough year for Kyle Busch. You used to think Kyle had a chance to win each and every week, but with the Next Gen car and the pace of RCR most weeks, that just isn’t the case anymore. Starting 29th and not showing much pace in practice, I predict Kyle Busch’s 2025 struggles will continue today, and he will finish outside the top 20 in Kansas.
Erik Jones has four top 5’s and six top 10’s in 17 career Cup Series starts at Kansas. While Legacy didn’t show a lot of speed early in the year, they’ve really come on strong later in the year, showing consistent speed with both cars at a lot of tracks. Rolling off from 10th and showing good pace in practice, we predict Erik Jones will bring home a top 13 finish today.
While Christopher Bell doesn’t own any Cup Series wins at Kansas, he does have three top 5’s and eight top 10’s in 11 career starts here. He also owns an Xfinity Series win at Kansas. Starting 5th today, we predict Bell will be in the mix all day and bring home a top 10 finish.
Kyle Larson already owns three Cup Series wins at Kansas, including two of the last three races there, winning earlier this year and last spring. Larson rolls off from 3rd and showed a lot of speed in practice, especially over the long run. We predict Larson will pick up the win today in dominating fashion and lock himself into the Round of 8.
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