The GoBowling.com 400 is this weekend at Kansas Speedway, and this will be our second Saturday night race of the season. The last time we raced at that time was the Texas race in mid-April, and we will be referencing that event throughout this article. As far as the practice/qualifying schedule goes this weekend, we’re running a condensed Friday again: two practice sessions in the afternoon and then qualifying in the evening before race day. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t rain. As of Wednesday the forecast looks pretty good, but you never know. Kansas Speedway was repaved during the 2012 calendar year, and since then we have seen the best drivers typically finish up front with starting position not meaning a whole lot, which limits our Fantasy NASCAR sleeper opportunities this weekend.
Yahoo! A Group Picks for Kansas
Joey Logano (8 starts remaining) – Although we are a little apprehensive about picking Logano this weekend, he’s probably going to be one of our two A Group picks. Joey has won two of the last three Kansas races and has finished inside the top 5 in each of the last five events here. The reason we are a little apprehensive in picking him is because this #22 Ford has definitely lost its edge on the intermediate tracks and isn’t as dominant as it was last season. Still, Logano has six top 10s through the first ten races of this 2016 season and kept his live streak alive last weekend at Talladega with a 25th-place finish. That means Joey is due for a single-digit finish here at Kansas on Saturday night. In the Texas night race last month, he started 2nd and ended up finishing 3rd when the night was overwith. And yes, Kansas is the place where Logano wrecked Matt Kenseth last season, but we don’t see anything happening with those two this time around, even though they did have an exchange of words at Talladega.
Jimmie Johnson (8 starts remaining) – We debated a long time between Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, and Jimmie Johnson in this spot, but we’re going with the #48. Honestly, we don’t think Harvick has really hit his peak yet this season, and we’re down to just 6 starts remaining with Kyle Busch. Start saving isn’t as important in the A Group but it should still be considered nonetheless. Anyway, Jimmie Johnson owns the best career average finish (8.7) here at Kansas Speedway and is a three-time winner at this race track. He has finished inside the top 10 in sixteen of his nineteen career starts at this track (84%) and in thirteen of the last fourteen races here. Finally, Jimmie has been great at the intermediate tracks in 2016 with wins at Atlanta and Fontana, a 3rd-place finish at Las Vegas, and a 4th-place run at Texas last month. “Six Time” is probably the safest Fantasy NASCAR pick in the field this weekend.
Yahoo! B Group Picks for Kansas
Carl Edwards (7 starts remaining) – We’re ready to unleash the best of the B Group this weekend. Kansas is a track where the best drivers will find their way to the front. There’s probably not going to be many sleepers than finish high in Saturday night’s GoBowling.com 400, so we’re not even really looking for any. As far as Carl Edwards goes, he is coming off of his worst finish of the season at Talladega but this #19 Toyota has been the best car in the field for pretty much the last month. Looking back at the Texas race–which was another night event–Edwards started on the pole and led over one-third of the race en route to his 7th-place finish. We expect a similar outcome this weekend at Kansas, although hopefully a better finish. Carl has never won here but he has ended up 8th or better in four of the last five races at this track and owns the 2nd-best average finish here among active drivers (10.6).
Martin Truex, Jr. (8 starts remaining) – In two of the intermediate track races this season, Martin Truex, Jr. has had one of the cars to beat. In both of those events (Atlanta and Texas), he failed to finish in the top 5. We’re hoping that changes this weekend at Kansas. Since Truex established himself as a legitimate Sprint Cup Series racer in the 2012 season, Kansas Speedway has been one of his best tracks on the circuit. Martin finished 2nd in both races here that year and has five top 10s in his last eight starts at this track overall. Four of those five were also top 5s. In this race last season, Truex led 95 of the 267 laps and ended up finishing 9th. We believe that this 2016 #78 Toyota has more speed than his #78 Chevrolet of 2015, so if this team can shake this small monkey off their back this weekend, they should be in position to grab their second top 5 finish of the season in the GoBowling.com 400.
Kasey Kahne (8 starts remaining) – There are very few race tracks that we can (somewhat) confidently put Kasey Kahne on our roster without seeing any practice, and one of those is Kansas. Statistically, this is Kasey’s 3rd-best track on the Sprint Cup Series schedule, and although he has never been to victory lane here, he has finished inside the top 10 in about half of his starts at this track (8-for-17). Kahne finished 4th in the fall race here at Kansas last season and started 2nd in the earlier spring race before ultimately finishing 17th. Still, Kasey has ended up 8th or better in six of the last nine races here, and he came home 8th in the Texas race earlier this year, which was also on a Saturday night. He’s nowhere near a lock for a good finish in Saturday night’s GoBowling.com 400, but Kasey Kahne has the highest potential of a great finish over the rest of the B Group, in our opinion.
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (8 starts remaining) – You have plenty of options when it comes to this fourth B Group spot this weekend, and really it just comes down to who you like the best. Going into the GoBowling.com 400 race weekend, we don’t see any other B Group driver as a top 10 threat–at least without seeing any practice or anything. There’s small things to like about many drivers in this group–Austin Dillon, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson, and Ryan Newman are others we considered–but we’re going to roll with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. again. He finished 13th in the fall race here last season (right about the time Roush-Fenway was starting to get strong again) and in the Texas race this season, the #17 Ford started inside the top 5 before coming home 16th at the checkered flag. That’s part of three 16th-place finishes for Stenhouse over the last four Sprint Cup races.
Yahoo! C Group Picks for Kansas
As we said before, Kansas is a track where the cream rises to the top. That means that there isn’t a very good possibility that start saving is going to work this week. We’re ten races in to the 2016 season, and that leaves twenty-six races left. We have 8 starts remaining with Ryan Blaney and 7 remaining with Chase Elliott. So right there is fifteen starts to be filled with other drivers. With two more restrictor plate races on the schedule, and two road course events, that beings that number down to eleven. Our point? Yes, we’re going to need to continue to start save, but this just isn’t the week to do so. We’re going with the best talent and the best equipment for the GoBowling.com 400 this weekend, and that means Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney in the C Group. The former has never made a Sprint Cup start at this race track but Blaney ended up finishing 7th in last year’s fall race here at Kansas.
