NASCAR Weekend Preview: Bubba Wallace Needs Kansas to Love Him Again

In the early days of the Next Gen era, 23XI Racing owned Kansas Speedway—from a performance standpoint, at least.

Kurt Busch claimed the 34th and final victory of his NASCAR Cup Series career in the first Gen 7 race at the 1.5-mile track in 2022. Later that year, Bubba Wallace won the Playoff event at Kansas as a non-Playoff driver.

After Denny Hamlin won for Joe Gibbs Racing in May of 2023, Tyler Reddick gave 23XI its third victory in four races and Toyota its fourth straight.

Then, inexplicably, the magic disappeared, as Chevrolet drivers claimed the trophy in the three most recent races at the Wyandotte County track. Kyle Larson won the last two spring events at Kansas, and Ross Chastain took the checkered flag in last season’s Playoff race.

“Kansas—we haven’t had much to brag about the last few times we’ve been there,” said Wallace, who has posted an average finish of 24.75 in his last four starts at the track. “We’ve got to find our mojo back there.”

That’s especially true entering Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). After a solid first round in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Wallace is 12th in the standings after the points reset and a lackluster 26th-place finish in the Round of 12 opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Wallace is 27 points below the current elimination line for the Round of 8. Reddick is 11th in the standings, 23 points in arrears, after running 21st at Loudon. Both 23XI drivers need exceptional performances at Kansas to maintain realistic hopes of advancing.

Lately, however, it has been Larson who has been the dominant forced at the track. The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led 221 laps in his May victory, most ever in a 400-mile race on a 1.5-mile track in NASCAR Cup history.

“Kansas is probably statistically one of our strongest tracks as a team,” Larson said. “We got a win there earlier this year, which is great, so we have a great setup for those mile-and-a-half tracks. It’s a great track, it wears the tires out, so I feel like you really have to manage your tires.

“For the most part, everyone runs the top, but I feel like at the end of the run you can kind of move around and find some grip. It’s probably our best track for Next Gen racing because of the options.”

Larson is the only repeat winner in the last 10 races at Kansas, having won three times in that span. He’s currently third in the Playoff standings behind New Hampshire winner Ryan Blaney and Hendrick teammate William Byron.

Byron is 47 points above the elimination line, with Larson 41 points to the good.

Blaney is the only driver locked into the Round of 8, a serendipitous circumstance given that a Ford driver hasn’t won at Kansas since three-time champion Joey Logano triumphed there in 2020.

Logano comes to Kansas sixth in the standings, riding a streak of three straight top-five finishes—his longest such streak since 2019.

Fourth-place Christopher Bell has led laps in seven straight races at Kansas, tied for the longest streak ever at the track.

It’s worth noting that 10 of the last 11 Kansas winners have started within the top-10 on the grid, six of those within the top-five.

“It seems like when an organization has horsepower and downforce, it works for one lap, and it works for 20, 30 laps in a run,” said Hamlin, a four-time winner at the track. “If you’ve got speed, you’ll have it the whole time.”

Having widened out since a repave in 2012, Kansas now offers drivers several workable racing lanes, including the high-speed, high-risk line near the outside wall.

“There are certainly guys that are better at it than others, and we’re going to see that,” Hamlin said of the top groove. “There are just guys like Larson who know how to run the top lane there as good as anyone, and they can carry a car better than most drivers.”

Race for NASCAR Xfinity Round of 8 spots is wide open

JR Motorsports teammates Connor Zilisch and Justin Allgaier have clear paths to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.

For the other 10 drivers in the postseason field, it’s a free-for-all entering Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway (4 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

On the strength of his rookie-record nine victories this season, Zilisch can clinch a Round of 8 berth by scoring 27 points on Saturday, no matter who wins the race. Allgaier, the reigning series champion, needs 56 points under the same circumstances to clinch a spot in the next round.

At 35 points above the current elimination line entering the second race in the Round of 12, Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer has a workable cushion, but only 16 points separate the next eight drivers in the standings, starting with fourth-place Carson Kvapil.

“This No. 1 team has brought fast cars to the mile-and-a-half tracks this year,” said Kvapil, who is making his Xfinity Series debut at the 1.5-mile speedway. “We just don’t have the finishes to show for it.

“We took the ‘off’ weekend to recharge, prepare and plan to continue on with our momentum from Bristol to get one step closer to moving on into the Round of 8. We need to stay consistent and will keep chasing that win.”

The race is even tighter on either side of the bubble. Eighth-place Taylor Gray is three points above the current cut line, with Nick Sanchez and Jesse Love both three points below.

Love started seventh and finished ninth at Kansas last season. He also has an ARCA victory from the pole at the track.

“We’re looking forward to Kansas,” said the driver of the No.2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. “I feel like it’s a track I’ve had some good success at in the past. I’ve won a race or two there before. It wasn’t great for us last year, but I think we have made some good changes going into this year.

“So, I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully, the track is similar to last year, and we can get up and move up on the top side, we can run the fence. We’re on the outside looking in (for the Round of 8), and I’m not too worried about it, but we still need to have a good run.”

NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Hollywood Casino 400 Presented ESPN BET
The Place: Kansas Speedway
Track Length: 1.5 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Sunday, September 28
The Time: 3 p.m. ET
The Purse: $9,797,935
TV: USA, 2:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 400.5 miles (267 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 80),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 165), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 267)

NASCAR Xfinity Series
Next Race: Kansas Lottery 300
The Place: Kansas Speedway
Track Length: 1.5 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Saturday, September 27
The Time: 4 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,651,939
TV: CW, 3:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 300 miles (200 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 45),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 200)