Busch aims for Kansas rebound

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Just about everything that could go wrong at Kansas Speedway has for NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Kyle Busch.

During the April race weekend, the driver of the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing wrecked in practice. He crashed out of the truck series race the next day. Then he spun twice more in the Sprint Cup race, finishing 38th after a hard crash ended his afternoon.

Things haven’t been awhole lot better this weekend, either. Busch hit the wall hard in the opening minute of practice on Saturday and again will be in a backup car for therace today.

If there’s ever a time to figure things, it’s right now. Busch is off to a strong start in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, sitting third in the points. He’s within striking distance of leader Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson, two drivers who have fared much better in the heartland.

Busch has strung together three consecutive top-five finishes, and after testing Goodyear’s new tire at Kansas this summer, he’s confident he can turn around his fortunes.

“It’s not that you might not like a track or might not like a race or something like that,” Busch said. “It’s just a matter of trying to figure it out. Once you kind of get it figured out or get the right situations kind of lined up, you can have a shot.”

Kevin Harvick, who is tied with Jeff Gordon for fourth in points, ended a 254-race pole drought and will lead the field to the green flag. He’ll start alongside Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Johnson will start in the second row next to defending series champion Brad Keselowski, who is trying to play spoiler after failing to make the Chase.

Busch has taken the green flag in 12 Cup races at Kansas and has yet to win. It’s the only track where he has never finished in the top five, his best run a seventh-place in 2006.

Busch has crashed out of the past two races at the 1½- mile tri-oval, the first two races at Kansas since a re-grade and repave significantly altered the way it drives.

“I thought we were running decent there last fall. Actually, I was leading and I spun myself out while I was leading,” Busch said this week. “So, hopefully, we have a good car like that this time around and I don’t make amistake like that.”

If he does, he could head to Charlotte next weekend in a deep hole.

His JGR teammate, Kenseth, has won the last two races at Kansas, and is carrying momentum into the weekend. He opened the Chase with a pair of victories and was seventh last week at Dover, giving him an eightpoint lead over Johnson and 12 points on Busch.

“I don’t really know,” Kenseth said, when asked whether he can extend his string of solid results at Kansas. “It’s six months later, weather is a lot different, there’s a lot that has changed since the last time we werehere in April.”

Busch and Kenseth both have one thing going for them: JGR has dominated on intermediate tracks in NASCAR’s Gen-6 car, winning nine times this season.

Johnson is also bringing plenty of positive vibes to Kansas, where he’s finished in the top 10 nine consecutive times, including a victory in the 2011 fall race. The fivetime series champion won last week to move to second in the standings.

“The mile-and-a-half stuff has been good for the 48 team,” Johnson said. “I wishwe would have closed a few more wins, but we had good speed after working with the new tire.”

This will be the second race that NASCAR uses Goodyear’s “multi-zone tread” after its debut last month at Atlanta. The tire has two distinct sections, one that’s designed for more durability and one that’s designed to give drivers better traction.

Teams had an extra testing session on Thursday to get acclimated to the tires, but they were still trying to figure them out Friday and Saturday, as evidenced by a slew of spins - Kenseth and Johnson also went for a whirl during testing and practice.

Gordon will start in the seventh row, and fellow Chase contenders Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch will be coming from deep in the field.

“All we can do is our best to get the best out of our car,” Gordon said. “We can’t control what our competitors do. We can only control what we do, and to me it’s living up to our full potential and let the chips fall the way they’re supposed to.”TODAY’S SPRINT CUP LINEUPGreen flag at 1:15 p.m. Central, ESPNHollywood Casino 400 After Friday qualifying; race today At Kansas Speedway Kansas City, Kan.

Lap length: 1.5 miles (Car number in parentheses) 1. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevy, 187.526 mph 2. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 187.480 3. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevy, 187.162 4. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 186.233 5. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 186.168 6. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevy, 186.072 7. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 185.893 8. (27) Paul Menard, Chevy, 185.874 9. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 185.669 10. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 185.433 11. (55) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 185.42012. (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevy, 185.261 13. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 185.204 14. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevy, 185.141 15. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevy, 184.982 16. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevy, 184.925 17. (39) Ryan Newman, Chevy, 184.628 18. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 184.603 19. (78) Kurt Busch, Chevy, 184.477 20. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 184.382 21. (51) Justin Allgaier, Chevy, 184.106 22. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 183.730 23. (14) Mark Martin, Chevy, 183.667 24. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevy, 183.380 25. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 183.069 26. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 182.803 27. (83) David Reutimann, Toyota, 182.685 28. (47) A.J. Allmendinger, Toyota, 182.53129. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevy, 182.039 30. (30) Cole Whitt, Toyota, 182.020 31. (98) Michael McDowell, Ford, 181.971 32. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 181.959 33. (36) J.J. Yeley, Chevy, 181.953 34. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, 181.892 35. (32) Timmy Hill, Ford, 181.843 36. (93) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 181.830 37. (13) Casey Mears, Ford, owner points 38. (35) Josh Wise, Ford, owner points 39. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, owner points 40. (95) Reed Sorenson, Ford, owner points 41. (7) Dave Blaney, Chevy, owner points 42. (40) Tony Raines, Chevy, owner points 43. (33) Landon Cassill, Chevy, owner points

Sports, Pages 25 on 10/06/2013

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