Brad Keselowski will have a lot of ground to make up over the repaved surface of Kansas Speedway after a lousy qualifying lap left him starting deep in the field today.
The leader in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship thinks he has a couple of things going for him.
He has performed well at Kansas in the past - he won over the 1.5-mile track last year, and his average finish in his last three races is fifth. And he has performed well over tracks that have had a facelift this year, winning at Chicago and finishing fourth at Pocono.
"The track has been very good to me in the past, but obviously it's much different now with the repave," said Keselowski, who has a seven-point lead over Jimmie Johnson. Keselowski will start 25th after struggling to find speed in Friday's qualifying.
"It's a different track [Saturday]," Keselowski said after practice, "and I suspect it will be a different track [today]."
The freezing and thawing of the U.S. Midwest put the original surface at Kansas through a beating, and big chunks of asphalt were breaking loose.
When the decision was made to resurface it, owner International Speedway Corp. decided to re-grade the entire track. The original, uniform 15-degree banking was changed to 17-20 degrees of progressive banking, which officials hope will promote passing during long green-flag runs.
"It feels totally different than any other track that we race," said Denny Hamlin, third in the Chase. "This is really a beast in its own."
Every driver who qualified broke the track record of 180.856 set by Matt Kenseth in 2005. Kasey Kahne, who is fifth in the Chase, will start on the pole with a lap of 191.360 m.p.h.
"I've always liked Kansas," Kahne said. "I've liked how you have been able to move around and run a lot of different lines."
Johnson said today's race will be "a big guessing game," and that tire wear and fuel mileage are going to be important. So will starting position, given the difficulty that drivers expect in passing, which is why Keselowski understands he put himself in a tight spot.
"We just have more work than we wanted," he said. "If you don't qualify well, you just have to make sure that your car is fast in race trim."
