KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Though Chevrolet driver Kyle Larson received final 12 months’s spring race at Kansas Speedway by the closest margin in NASCAR Cup Sequence historical past over Ford driver Chris Buescher, Larson nonetheless thinks Toyota drivers have an edge on the 1.5-mile monitor.
Relying in your viewpoint, you may make an argument for all three producers coming into Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 on the intermediate speedway.
“Whether or not I received or I didn’t, it was actually neat to be part of a end like that,” mentioned Larson, who edged Buescher by 0.001 seconds final Might. “So clearly, I used to be pleased to come back out a thousandth forward, however nonetheless, to be part of a end like that was fairly neat.
“The Toyotas — they’re nonetheless the most effective there, I believe, in any case. We’ve chipped away at it and gotten higher, I believe. I’ve led numerous laps there since we’ve gone there with the Subsequent Gen. I simply hadn’t gotten the win till final 12 months. However you at all times work to get higher each time you go to a monitor.”
Though Chevrolet drivers swept final 12 months’s Kansas occasions, with Ross Chastain profitable within the fall, there’s ample cause for Larson to look to the Toyotas as fierce competitors. Earlier than 2024, 4 totally different Camry drivers—Kurt Busch, Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick—received 4 straight races on the monitor.
Wallace, nonetheless, acknowledges that his No. 23 23XI Racing group has misplaced a little bit of the magic that propelled him to the second and most up-to-date of his two profession wins in 2022.
“I don’t know the place we bought off tempo there, however we did,” mentioned Wallace, who completed seventeenth in each Kansas races final 12 months. “However I believe we all know what we have to do there, so it’s only a matter of getting again on the horse and doing it…
“It’s not like we’re approach out in left discipline from what we had a pair years in the past. It’s perhaps one factor that’s giving us the unsuitable really feel. It’s loopy. We simply have to indicate up and, like I mentioned, get again on the horse and get on the market and trip.”
Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver Christopher Bell has received the final three poles at Kansas Speedway, which is internet hosting the second of three straight Cup Sequence factors races on 1.5-mile intermediate speedways.
The final driver to win 4 straight poles at a monitor was Larson at Sonoma Raceway from 2017 by means of 2022.
On the flip facet of Larson’s win, Buescher prefers to not dwell on his runner-up end final 12 months.
“When it does come up, I attempt to make a joke about being the closest loser ever,” he mentioned. “In the end, we’re making an attempt to look additional forward… In the end, don’t look again, simply because, one: it’s not going to alter something; two: to relive that second in that race and research it, I’d do issues in another way going again, however no time wasted in that.”
Joey Logano, final week’s winner at Texas Motor Speedway, is the one Ford driver to go to Victory Lane at Kansas within the final 12 races there.
Nonetheless, with Josh Berry profitable for the Wooden Brothers at Las Vegas, Ford drivers have claimed victory in two of the three 1.5-milers to date this 12 months. Larson’s victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway accounts for the opposite.
Regardless of whom you may favor, Kansas Speedway is a venue prone to produce excessive drama. Not solely does the monitor have the closest Cup end in Cup historical past to its credit score, but it surely additionally featured 37 lead adjustments within the spring race of 2023 — most on a 1.5-mile speedway in sequence historical past utilizing a traditional downforce competitors package deal.
