There were eight NASCAR Cup races on the 1.5-mile design at Kentucky Speedway and seven of them have been obtained between three drivers, the very same few drivers that have combined to win the most races at 2019.
Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr, and Brad Keselowski have combined to win 11 of the 18 races this season and they have dominated at Kentucky, which is why they’re the big favorites to win Saturday night’s Quaker State 400.
Kyle Busch won the inaugural Kentucky race 2011 in the rod and he also won the 2015 occasion. His finish was 12th at 2016. He leads all drivers with six top-five endings, a fifth-place average finish and 549 rebounds led. He’s also won two Truck Series races and three Xfinity Series races along with an ARCA race there.
Truex Jr. is tied with Busch using a series-leading four wins this season and has just two top-fives in Kentucky, but they have both come from the last two seasons and they were both dominating wins. It might be the most dominating. In 2017, he started second, won the first two phases and led 152 of the 274 laps before winning. Last year he took it up yet another notch by winning from the pole, leading 174 laps and winning the first two phases.
Keselowski was the last driver until Truex took over to win at Kentucky. He is the track leader with three Cup wins (2012, 2014, 2016) and he has also got three Xfinity Series wins. He’s headed laps in six of his eight Cup begins, such as 38 laps directed last season when he started fourth and finished third. He’s three wins this year and two of them arrived on 1.5-mile tracks. He is the only driver with numerous wins between both races run on 1.5s in 2019.
Truex won at Charlotte in May top 116 laps for his just win on a 1.5 this season, but surprisingly, Busch doesn’t have a win on any of these yet. His wins employing this race package with aero ducts and 550 horsepower came on the 2-mile layout at Fontana and the 2.5 catchy triangle in Pocono.
The other winners on 1.5s besides Keselowski and Truex have been Joey Logano in vegas, Denny Hamlin in Texas, and Alex Bowman at Chicagoland and all three of those ought to be considered this week also because their odds ought to be boosted higher than normal because of the low odds posted on the 3 favorites.
Logano ought to be a driver to hunt around to find the best chances. He’s never won a Cup race at Kentucky but has led laps in four of his past five starts there with a best end of jelqing in 2015. In addition, he won three straight seasons in Kentucky at the Xfinity Series (2008-10). He has been better or third in the previous two races on 1.5-mile tracks.
Bowman will be the true interesting chances look this week based on how strong he’s been in the last 3 races on 1.5s — runner-up at Kansas leading 63 laps, seventh at Charlotte, and leading 88 laps and winning at Chicagoland two weeks ago. Hendrick Motorsports has turned the corner and I’m anticipating more wins out of the team in the second half of this season from Bowman, Chase Elliott, and Jimmie Johnson.
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