NASCAR race at Kansas to begin the way record-setter ended

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway on Sunday is going to begin the same way this race ended last year with Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher side-by-side coming to the flag.

One year later, Larson won the pole over Buescher by just 0.057 seconds, which was actually much greater than his record setting margin of victory in the AdventHealth 400 last year, which was 0.001 of a second.

“It’s definitely ironic and really cool,” Larson said in his post qualifying press conference. “It adds to the storyline of what happened last year and builds some anticipation for the race tomorrow. But I won’t be like thinking about when we’re rolling around under caution but it is ironic, funny and cool at the same time.”

The irony wasn’t lost on Buescher either.

“We couldn’t have manufactured a better story if we tried, could we? That was a really awesome lap for this Ford Mustang,” said Buescher. “I'm proud of this group. Practice was really solid and Texas last week was awesome so we came into here with a lot of high hopes and it's really showing up already. Missed it by that much, but we're in a good spot and that will put us in clean air for the start of this race at a track we've been really good at.”

This was the 22nd career pole at the highest level of NASCAR for Larson but his first at Kansas, meaning he gets a trophy that he’s long coveted, but especially now with three kids.

The pedal car.

Finally got the pedal car! P1 tomorrow @kansasspeedway pic.twitter.com/jel0sdvOCc

“I hope they still give out that pedal car because that's what I've always wanted,” Larson said after climbing out of the car on the Prime Video broadcast. “Especially with having some kids so I hope that's still a thing.”

Indeed it was.

Eventful qualifying session

Josh Berry and Kyle Busch both made contact with the wall, leaving them 35th and 38th in the rundown.

Hold on! 😬 pic.twitter.com/vIXncbvbyN

The track is still close to full throttle in qualifying on fresh tires but finding just how much to lift was the key to the session.

In #BuschLightPole qualifying, you NEED to commit to the throttle. pic.twitter.com/VsZvZd9jiN

Denny Hamlin didn’t get the wall but also drifted up against it before lifting and Bubba Wallace had a similar experience.

The challenge was articulated well by Larson during his post session press conference.

“You’re watching (telemetry data) and you can tell drivers are starting to hold it wide open in 1 and 2 but some guys were getting tight in 3 and 4,” Buescher said. “Buescher was able to run a good 3 and 4 so I kind of had a plan on where I wanted to run and just tried to match it with the throttle and fortunately everything felt good, and the balance was good … a perfect feeling lap.”

Eventful practice session

First, some backstory, in that Goodyear has delivered to the industry a softer left side tire for intermediate tracks this year that have already been raced on at Las Vegas, Darlington, Texas and now Kansas.

NASCAR Cup teams are getting ready to practice/qualify at @kansasspeedway. They are on the same RS they ran here last year, with a different LS (compound change for more wear and laptime falloff). Cup teams have 1 set of tires for practice and 1 set for qualifying.

But this was the first time for teams to dial in there set ups on this tire combination at Kansas and it bit several teams in the first group of practice, a session that is split into the groupings. Goodyear recommended a PSI of 22 but teams go as low as they go to maximize speed without failure.

Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs, Shane Van Gisbergen and Chase Briscoe all had issues on that front in practice.

Fortunately for each, none of them had significant damage, beyond whatever rubbed when the car dragged on the surface while getting back to pit road.

Keselowski said the warning the tire gave him prevented that from being worse.

“I was going through [Turns] 3 and 4, and it felt a little soft. Thankfully it did give me a warning, so I didn’t spin out and crash,” said Keselowski. “We’re just all pushing the cars to the limit. I didn’t think we were going to be that close, but we’ll work on it and get it better for Sunday.”

Zane Smith had a right rear.

“We saw the issues in the first group, and then I thought we were safe on the pressures we were running, and then, out of nowhere, blew a right rear in the middle of [Turns] 3 and 4, and it unfortunately tagged the fence,” Smith said. “Just a spot bad for that to happen. Before that happened, though, an unbelievably fast Horizon Hobby Ford. I feel really good about our car; I felt our long run pace was as strong as anybody’s.

“Hopefully we get it back to the way it was … everyone at FRM is going to be working hard to get this thing back right, but all the confidence in the world in them.”

Starting lineup

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Car

Driver

Lap Time