Kansas Speedway awaits.
As if this weekend wasn’t chaotic enough with the NTT IndyCar Series finale at Laguna Seca, Formula 1 is also in action on Sunday (Sept. 11) and all three NASCAR divisions will take to the 1.5-mile Kansas oval over three days.
Each field headed to Kansas is in a different situation: the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is in the cutoff race of its first playoff round; the NASCAR Xfinity Series is in its penultimate race of the regular season with plenty of playoff spots up for grabs; and the NASCAR Cup Series is at the midpoint of its first round, coming off a surprise Erik Jones win at Darlington Raceway and with the mayhem of Bristol Motor Speedway looming next week.
It’s worth saying that this is the only normal race of the first round of Cup’s postseason, but all three sets of drivers have things to prove. Let’s break all of this down.
Trucks (Friday, Sept. 9, 7:30 p.m. ET)
After dates at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and Richmond Raceway, two Truck drivers are locked into the next round, two are below the cutline and six remain in the midst of the playoff fight.
My colleague Beth Lunkenheimer outlined all the clinching scenarios in Truckin’ Thursdays, so this will be brief, but elimination still stands on the horizon for two drivers. She also said that it feels like the series has had “6,000 years off,” which I can’t disagree with after nearly a month of zero Truck action.
Grant Enfinger and Chandler Smith are already locked in via wins at IRP and Richmond, respectively; the former has finished in the top five in both playoff races thus far and is getting hot at the right time, while Smith led 176 of 250 laps at Richmond en route to a dominant third win of the season.
Clinching situations outside of straight-up winning exist for several of those not locked in, but there’s an interesting amalgam of drivers in playoff purgatory. John Hunter Nemechek has cooled off after a five-win campaign in 2021, with just one win to his name this year, while Zane Smith scored three wins in the first eight races of 2022 but has yet to win since … well, Kansas. That was nearly four full months ago, but the No. 38 has finished in the top 10 in 15 of the 18 races so far this season.
None of the ThorSport Racing playoff quartet are safe as of yet. Semi-journeyman Ty Majeski has yet to win a race at one of NASCAR’s top three touring levels but has put together a solid 2022, recording 12 top 10s and currently…
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