HMS Legend Predicts Chaos for Playoff Drivers Despite Kansas’s ‘Basic’ Nature

On Sunday, we take one more step toward the season finale at Phoenix in November. The challenge for the 16 drivers this time will be conquering the Kansas Speedway. The Toyotas, Camrys, and Fords have blazed their way through the multiple obstacles thrown at them so far. But how much of a defiance will this 22-year-old track show the drivers?

As crews heat up the engines of their cars, Hendrick Motorsports’ ex-crew chief shared his thoughts on the Speedway. The legendary Steve Letarte sat down on the ‘Dale Jr Download’ podcast, where he said that chaos was waiting for the drivers at the Sunflower State, Kansas.

Steve Letarte shares opinion on the ‘unbelievable’ Kansas Speedway

The Kansas Speedway is a 1.5-mile tri-oval track that was built in 2001. Approximately 11 years after Jeff Gordon found the checkered flag on the track’s maiden Cup Series race, the speedway announced an upgrade. The upgrade was achieved through a re-pavement of the existing track and a reconfiguration of the oval. One more new element introduced was the Hollywood Casino, overlooking the track at the turn two.

With drivers at the time appreciating the changes that were made, the track eventually earned the nickname: “The track that will blow you away”. But the Speedway hasn’t come through the last decade without its own moments of treacheries.

Speaking about the track’s evil-behind-beauty nature, Steve Letarte said, “It is a pretty basic mile and a half that doesn’t race basic. I wish I could say it some other way, but professor… We have seen flat tires, big wrecks in the stakes.”

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Continuing to compare the Darlington Raceway with Kansas, he posed the question, “Darlington looks weird. Some stuff goes on at Darlington, you believe it. Kansas looks pretty. I don’t wanna use the word basic but it does. But it doesn’t race basic. Is that fair?”

Is the Hollywood Casino 400 going to end in chaos for the chosen 16?

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A year has gone by since Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick crashed out of this exact playoff race in Kansas. With both the drivers slamming against the wall, their nights ended even before the end of stage 1. Back in 2017, the Kansas Speedway looked more like Talladega after a horrific crash that involved 14 cars. The likes of Matt Kenseth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were eliminated from the playoffs on that night. The list of wreckages that shook up the playoffs at this seemingly “good-natured” track keeps on extending despite its relatively young age.

Answering the crew chief’s questions, podcast participant “The Professor” spoke of the terrible accidents. He said, “That’s totally fair and the crazy thing about Kansas is that we’ve always seen a lot of playoff problems at Kansas. It is just the playoff drivers always seem to have problems at Kansas.”

Finding the start line on Sunday, all the drivers will hope to follow in the footsteps of Darlington winner Kyle Larson and book their places in the next round. But winning at this track might just not be as easy as it seems. Even if the younger drivers manage to navigate through the Speedway expertly, the experienced Denny Hamlin (4 Wins) and Kevin Harvick (3 Wins) would stand opposite them with the most wins at Kansas and a lot to lose. A mere number of hours left for engines to roar to life, it won’t be long before we see what the track has to offer.

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