Tonight’s race at Kansas Speedway marks the final chance for a driver to earn a spot in next week’s Sprint All-Star Race with a victory. Pole-sitter Joey Logano will be looking for his second consecutive win at this track.
Here are the particulars for tonight’s race (all times are Eastern):
START: Jack Griffo, star of Nickelodeon’s hit show “The Thundermans” will give the command for drivers to start their engines at 7:27 p.m. The green flag is scheduled for 7:36 p.m.
DISTANCE: The race is scheduled for 267 laps (400.5 miles) around the 1.5-mile oval.
PRERACE SCHEDULE: The Sprint Cup garage opens at 1:30 p.m., and the drivers meeting is at 5:30 p.m. Driver introductions begin at 6:40 p.m.
NATIONAL ANTHEM: It will be performed by Maggie Marx at 7:21 p.m.
TV/RADIO: Fox Sports 1 will broadcast the race, starting with its prerace show at 7 p.m. Motor Racing Network will broadcast the race on radio and at MRN.com with its prerace show at 6:30 p.m.
FORECAST: The wunderground.com site predicts 70 degrees at race time with a 62% chance of rain.
LAST TIME(S): Last fall, Joey Logano led 122 laps on the way to winning. Tire issues caused problems for others, though. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a tire go down while leading and crashed. Brad Keselowski had a right from tire issue while running fifth and slammed the wall. Martin Truex Jr. finished a season-best fourth. Last spring, Jeff Gordon took the lead with eight laps to go to earn the victory with Kevin Harvick second. Logano placed fourth. Kurt Busch spun twice and finished 29th.
LOCAL DRIVERS: Kansas Speedway is the closest track to the hometowns for Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray but none has won a Sprint Cup race at the track. Edwards has nine top-10 finishes in his last 11 starts at the track, including five top-fives during the stretch. Bowyer has only two top-10 finishes in his last six starts at Kansas. McMurray has one top-10 finish in his last 14 starts at the track but led 27 laps there in October.
STARTING LINEUP:
Row 1: Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne
Row 2: Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr.
Row 3: Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick
Row 4: Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch
Row 5: Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson
Row 6: Jeff Gordon, Erik Jones
Row 7: Denny Hamlin, Aric Almirola
Row 8: Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart
Row 9: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth
Row 10: Jimmie Johnson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Row 11: Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard
Row 12: David Ragan, Casey Mears
Row 13: Justin Allgaier, Sam Hornish Jr.
Row 14: Danica Patrick, Austin Dillon
Row 15: AJ Allmendinger, Trevor Bayne
Row 16: Michael McDowell, Ty Dillon
Row 17: Jeb Burton, Cole Whitt
Row 18: Matt DiBenedetto, Alex Bowman
Row 19: JJ Yeley, David Gilliland
Row 20: Brett Moffitt, Josh Wise
Row 21: Landon Cassill, Joey Gase
Row 22: Michael Annett
Did Not Qualify: Brendan Gaughan