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Martin Truex Jr. to start at rear at Kansas

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Jeff Burton, Dale Jarrett, and Kyle Petty look ahead to the Round of 8 race at Kansas, preview the drivers who have work to do below the cutline, and predict the drivers who are potential locks for the Championship 4.

Playoff driver Martin Truex Jr. will start at the rear of the field in Sunday’s Cup race at Kansas Speedway after his car failed inspection twice.

Truex was to have started fifth in the opening race of the Round of 8.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver enters this race sixth in the standings. He is 10 points behind Chase Elliott, who holds the final transfer spot to the championship race.

MORE: Details on Sunday’s Cup playoff race

“It’s not optimum,” Truex said of moving to the rear for the start. “It’s not what you are hoping for. I don’t know. We will see. We have done it a lot this year. It is what it is. We will deal with it. This place, fortunately, there are a lot of lanes that you can run, really the whole racetrack works. You just have to go where they are not and pick them off one-by-one.”

Truex finished third in the July Kansas race won by teammate Denny Hamlin. Truex has finished in the top three in four of the last seven Kansas races. His five top 10s in the last eight races ranks tied for second in the series during that span. Alex Bowman has a series-high six top 10s during that time.

James Davison’s car was the only other car to fail inspection multiple times. Davison also will move to the rear before the race. He was to have started 33rd in the 40-car field.

Today’s race airs at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Countdown to Green airs at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.