2017 Kansas Speedway, Go Bowling 400

Congratulations to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who picked up his first career win at Talladega last weekend. Once again the ‘Big One’ took sixteen drivers out of contention late in the race, but that’s restrictor plate racing. That is why it is so hard to predict who will finish where in those races and why I recommend saving the higher funded and more consistent drivers to use at other tracks if you are playing the Yahoo game.

GO BOWLING 400

This week the series heads to the Kansas Speedway for the running of the Go Bowling 400. This is another of the mile-and-a-half tri-oval tracks that are so predominant in the series. This is a Saturday night race, weather permitting, as it is Mother’s Day weekend. Then the series will head to Charlotte for the All-Star week.

Jimmie Johnson: Jimmie leads all active drivers with three wins at Kansas and has been on a roll lately. He also won the last race on a similar track at Texas and should have a good car for the whole weekend. It is hard to not have him on your team this week as he has finished in the top ten at Kansas seventeen times in his twenty-one starts there. I will have him on my roster this weekend.

Kevin Harvick: We have seen how fast the Ford’s are this year and Kevin knows how to get around Kansas. Kevin finished second in this race last season and followed that up with a win in the fall race. This team is too good to be kept our of victory lane much longer and with the speed they should have this weekend odds are pretty good that he will give Jimmie a run for his money. Five top two finishes in his last seven starts here bodes well for him.

Joey Logano: With six top five finishes in his last seven starts at this track, Joey will be another driver who will have a great shot at picking up another win here. Another Ford driver, this could be a good week for this team who won the race at Richmond two weeks ago. I think he comes away with another top five finish this weekend and will be a contender for the win late in the race.

Kyle Busch: Kyle won this race last year and has been so close to winning races this season that he is bound to have everything go right for himself and his team one of these weeks. He was leading at Talladega on the last restart only to be passed by Stenhouse and then he fell to third when Jamie McMurray made a bold three wide move to get past Kyle and Jimmie on the last lap. Kyle has four straight top five finishes here which tells us they have a good setup under their car to start with.

Matt Kenseth: Matt has two career wins at this track and has finished in the top ten in every spring race that has ever been run here. This is another team that always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time this season, but once again they are too good to keep them down for long. I think the Gibbs teams are getting a little better every week and the field is starting to even out across all three manufacturers.

Brad Keselowski: Brad has one win and seven top ten finishes in his fourteen career starts here. This team has two wins on the season already and seems to have a fast, good handling car each and every week. This team is going to be one of the top contenders for the championship when the Chase starts this fall and I think Brad will pick up a few more wins before it starts.

Kyle Larson: Kyle has been the cream of the crop the entire season and will be glad to get away from the restrictor plate track this week where he should be able to do what he has been doing all season. That is running up front and contending for wins. Although he has only led three laps at this track in his six starts and only finished in the top ten once, he is running better everywhere he goes this year, so we can throw those stats out the window.

Chase Elliott: I keep saying that Chase is going to get his first Cup win very soon and this week should give him another good shot at doing just that. He has only run at this track twice and finished in the top ten in this race last season. He has been consistently good all year and looks very good on this type of track. I think this is going to be one of the most competitive races so far this season with a lot of drivers who will be in contention at the end.

Martin Truex Jr.: Martin has failed to finish in the top twenty only once in his last ten starts here and we have seen how he can dominate on the intermediate tracks. Look for him to qualify well and run up front most of the race. If he hits his setup right he could make this a long night for all of his competition and they would like nothing better as they head to Charlotte for the next two weeks where he dominated the Coca-Cola 600 last year.

Kasey Kahne: Kasey has been running pretty well most every week this year and he has always run well here even those years that he has struggled a bit. He has finished in the top ten in seven of his last eleven starts at this track and it seems that they are making the right adjustments to their car as races progress this season. He might not be fast at the beginning of races, but he seems to get better as the race goes on and gets himself into the top ten late.

YAHOO! FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR KANSAS SPEEDWAY

Yahoo Driver Group A

• Jimmie Johnson
• Kevin Harvick

Yahoo Driver Group B

• Chase Elliott
• Kasey Kahne
• Kurt Busch
• Ryan Blaney

Yahoo Driver Group C

• Erik Jones
• Ty Dillon

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT KANSAS SPEEDWAY

1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Chase Elliott
4. Joey Logano
5. Kyle Busch

Dark Horse: Ryan Blaney

Stay Away From: Aric Almirola

Big 18: Joey Logano