The second elimination race of the Monster Energy Cup Series playoffs will see Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick share the front row for the start of the Hollywood Casino 400 Sunday at Kansas Speedway.
NASCAR Kansas 2017: Lineup, starting grid for Hollywood Casino 400
Championship leader Martin Truex Jr. starts on the pole in Sunday’s playoff elimination race at Kansas Speedway.
Truex won his third pole of the season by posting a 188.029 mph lap that unseated Harvick (187.682) off the top spot during the waning minutes of qualifying Friday. Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and rookie Daniel Suarez completed the top five, with all but Suarez among the 12 playoff-eligible drivers.
Kansas is the third of three races in the second playoff round and where the four drivers with the lowest points totals and lacking a win within the round will be eliminated. Truex, who won two weeks ago at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Brad Keselowski, who won last week at Talladega Superspeedway, are the only two drivers locked into the eight-driver semifinals.
Kyle Busch (seven points behind the cutoff line), Matt Kenseth (eight points), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (22 points) and Jamie McMurray (29 points) are the four drivers facing elimination Sunday. If anyone of them were to win the Hollywood Casino 400, it would automatically advance them to the next round regardless of their points ranking.
The playoff race will air on NBCSN, with the network’s coverage beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET and the green flag waving at 3:15 p.m. Rick Allen will handle play-by-play duties and be joined in the broadcast booth by analysts Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte. Online streaming is available through NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.
The complete Hollywood Casino 400 starting lineup is below.
Kansas starting lineup
Hollyood Casino 400
Position | Driver | Make | Speed (mph) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Truex, Jr. | Toyota | 188.029 |
| 2 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 187.682 |
| 3 | Matt Kenseth | Toyota | 187.604 |
| 4 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 187.461 |
| 5 | Daniel Suarez | Toyota | 186.909 |
| 6 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 186.716 |
| 7 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 186.329 |
| 8 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 185.637 |
| 9 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 185.599 |
| 10 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 184.849 |
| 11 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 184.093 |
| 12 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 185.957 |
| 13 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 185.88 |
| 14 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 185.765 |
| 15 | Kurt Busch | Ford | 185.274 |
| 16 | Michael McDowell | Chevrolet | 185.185 |
| 17 | Joey Logano | Ford | 184.976 |
| 18 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 184.97 |
| 19 | Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | Chevrolet | 184.824 |
| 20 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 184.679 |
| 21 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 184.533 |
| 22 | Danica Patrick | Ford | 184.496 |
| 23 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | 184.212 |
| 24 | Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. | Ford | 183.542 |
| 25 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 183.492 |
| 26 | A.J. Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 182.723 |
| 27 | David Ragan | Ford | 182.088 |
| 28 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 182.063 |
| 29 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 181.928 |
| 30 | Matt DiBenedetto | Ford | 181.83 |
| 31 | Landon Cassill | Ford | 179.146 |
| 32 | Brett Moffitt | Toyota | 179.11 |
| 33 | Gray Gaulding | Toyota | 178.66 |
| 34 | Corey LaJoie | Toyota | 178.601 |
| 35 | Cole Whitt | Chevrolet | 178.542 |
| 36 | B.J. McLeod | Chevrolet | 177.667 |
| 37 | Reed Sorenson | Chevrolet | 177.369 |
| 38 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | Chevrolet | 176.875 |
| 39 | Derrike Cope | Chevrolet | No speed |
| 40 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | No speed |
Kansas news
Jimmie Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team are supposed to be unflappable. It’s been one of the defining traits that’s spurred Johnson to seven Monster Energy Cup Series championships.
But the No. 48 team has been uncharacteristically sloppy over the past two weeks, contributing to Johnson finding himself squarely on the playoff bubble entering the Round 2 playoff elimination race Sunday at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN).
“We are a team and a group that thrives on adversity,” Johnson said. “Whenever we have been backed into a corner we have always stepped up and have delivered. All the members of this No. 48 team love a challenge and we are not even close to losing that desire and that fight to be out there and compete and race for the win and race for the championship.”
Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski are locked into spots in the Monster Energy Cup Series semi-finals by virtue of winning the past two weeks at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, respectively.
Although without the same level of security, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott should feel good about their chances. While conceivable that one of these four could stumble, it would take a combination of circumstances for anyone of them to not advance.
That effectively leaves two spots available to be decided among the six remaining playoff-eligible drivers in the Round 2 elimination race Sunday at Kansas Speedway. Ryan Blaney (nine points ahead of the cut off) and Jimmie Johnson (two points) provisionally occupy the final two transfer slots, though the slim margin means both could easily find themselves on the outside looking in when the Hollywood Casino 400 concludes.
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