Know Your Track: Kansas

Kansas Speedway

Track Name: Kansas Speedway

           

Nicknames: N/A

Location: Kansas City, Kansas

Capacity: 72,000

Date of First Race: September 30, 2001

Layout: Kansas is a 1.5 mile asphalt "Tri-oval", meaning it has a curve on the front stretch. Kansas' four turns feature progressive banking, with 17 degrees at the bottom of the turns up to 20 degrees at the top. 

Current Sprint Cup Races: 

• May 9, 2015 - SpongeBob SquarePants 400, a 400.5 mile, 267 lap regular season points race. This is a Saturday night event.
• October 18, 2015 - Hollywood Casino 400, a 400.5 mile, 267 lap Chase race. This is the second out of three races in the Contender Round and the fifth out of ten Chase races. This is a Sunday afternoon event.

Most Wins:

           

• All-Time: Jeff Gordon, 3 wins
• Active: Jeff Gordon, 3 wins
• Latest Winner:
• 5 Hour Energy 400: Jeff Gordon
• Hollywood Casino 400: Joey Logano

Description: One of the newer tracks on the schedule, Kansas Speedway boasts fast speeds for a 1.5 mile track thanks to a repave only a few years ago. That repave, however, has made the track very slick and passing is hard to accomplish without a great car. This will likely not change until the track weathers over for a few more years, which shouldn't be too hard considering it's place as one of the few tracks in the middle of the country that features both cold winters and hot summers. The track's repave has added the feature of progressive banking, which allows for multi-groove racing in the turns, and is showing signs of great racing in the near future, as evidenced by last season's 5 Hour Energy 400 finish.

Kansas has become quite the destination for fans with it's rapid development of things to do outside of the track since it's building in 2001. The area around the track now features a casino and a mall complex which made a once barren area into a great destination for a race weekend. These additions more than likely helped Kansas grab a second race date in 2011.

Fun Facts: Kansas Speedway becomes the sixth largest city in Kansas on race weekends.