Five storylines to follow in NASCAR’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway
The storylines to watch in Sunday’s 10th running of the NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 Presented by Wal-Mart at Kentucky Speedway:
Another KH vs. DH duel?
In 2020, the NASCAR Cup Series has been a two-man show starring Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin.
Since NASCAR returned from its coronavirus hiatus on May 17, Harvick (four) and Hamlin (three) have won seven of the 12 Cup races run.
Overall this season, each has four wins. Harvick, 44, leads the traditional points standings. Hamlin, 39, has the most playoff points.
Two weekends ago in the Cup doubleheader at Pocono, they ran 1-2 in both races with Harvick winning on Saturday, Hamlin on Sunday.
In last weekend’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, another Hamlin-Harvick 1-2 finish appeared imminent. With seven laps to go, Hamlin seemed to have the race won with Harvick in second.
However, a blown tire sent Hamlin into the wall, allowing Harvick to win.
The good news for the remainder of the Quaker State 400 field is that neither Harvick nor Hamlin has ever won a Cup race at Kentucky Speedway.
Among active Cup Series tracks, Kentucky and the Charlotte ROVAL are the only ones where Harvick has never won. His best finish in Sparta was fifth in 2018.
Hamlin has been better than Harvick at Kentucky, with four top fives in nine Cup races — but has never finished better than third.
A crew chief comes home
For Denny Hamlin’s crew chief, Chris Gabehart, Kentucky Speedway is his home track. A 1999 graduate of St. Xavier High School, Gabehart grew up “about four minutes” from the old Louisville Motor Speedway.
The Jerry Carroll-fronted ownership group that built Kentucky Speedway owned Louisville Motor Speedway at the time it closed. When he visits Sparta, all his history with both tracks moves front and center in his thoughts, Gabehart says.
“That makes (Kentucky Speedway) a little different racetrack than all the rest for me,” Gabehart said Friday on a Zoom call.
Before Joe Gibbs Racing brought Gabehart on board as crew chief of the No. 11 Toyota prior to the 2019 season, Hamlin was mired in a 47-race winless skid.
Since Gabehart moved atop the No. 11 team pit box, Hamlin has won 10 races — six in 2019, four so far this year. Included are Daytona 500 wins in 2019 and 2020.
A Cup win in his home state would be a unique thrill for Gabehart. “I would definitely love to do so and feel like we will have a good shot on Sunday,” he said.
Kentucky Speedway’s big three
Three drivers have combined to win seven of the previous nine Cup Series races run at Kentucky Speedway.
Brad Keselowski has won three times (2012, 2014 and 2016) in Sparta, while Kyle Busch (2011 and 2015) and Martin Truex Jr. (2017 and 2018) have each won twice.
Those three drivers have led more than 60 percent of the 2,405 Cup Series laps run at Kentucky Speedway — Busch 549, Keselowski 524 and Truex Jr. 373.
Of the three, Keselowski has had the best results in 2020. The Team Penske star has won twice (Charlotte and Bristol).
Last year, Busch narrowly missed his third Cup win at Kentucky Speedway. In a green-white-checkers finish, he was edged at the finish line by his older brother, Kurt.
This year, Kyle Busch and the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota have yet to win.
Truex Jr. earned his two Kentucky Speedway victories with Cole Pearn atop his pit box. After Pearn stepped down last December, Truex Jr. is in his first season with James Small making pit calls.
A win at Martinsville is one of only two top-five finishes for Truex Jr. so far in 2020.
Saying goodbye to a legend
For the retiring Jimmie Johnson, Sunday’s Quaker State 400 will be his final run at Kentucky Speedway. Johnson, 44, has been cleared to race in Sparta after missing the Brickyard 400 due to a positive coronavirus test.
Even though the effort to contain the virus will keep fans from the stands, Kentucky Speedway General Manager Mark Simendinger says the track will honor the seven-time Cup Series champion.
Johnson is one of three drivers to win seven Cup championships. The other two, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, never raced in Sparta. “So Jimmie is the greatest driver who has ever competed here,” Simendinger says. “I feel like we have to honor him and do it in a way that maintains his legacy for a long time.”
In 2013, Johnson dominated the Quaker State 400, leading 182 laps. However, he spun out on a late restart and finished ninth.
Kentucky Speedway is one of four active Cup Series tracks where Johnson has never won, along with the Charlotte ROVAL, Chicago and Watkins Glen.
“Kentucky has been probably one of my top two or three most difficult tracks to compete at,” Johnson said Friday on a Zoom call. “I have mixed feelings for the place because when I first started at Hendrick Motorsports, I feel like I lived at the racetrack doing testing for the team and just getting my laps as a rookie coming into the sport. So I have positive vibes from that.
“But my racing experiences there from the Busch (now Xfinity) Series days and even in the Cup car (have) just been demanding and tough.”
Bubba Wallace at Kentucky
In these socially turbulent times, Richard Petty Motorsports driver Bubba Wallace has become one of the most visible drivers in NASCAR.
The only African-American driver in the Cup Series, Wallace took the lead in getting NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag at its tracks. At Martinsville, Wallace’s No. 43 car featured a Black Lives Matter paint scheme.
Wallace became the focus of even greater attention last month when a pull rope was found that had been fashioned into a noose in his assigned garage at Talladega Superspeedway.
A subsequent FBI investigation revealed that the rope had been configured in the same manner for at least one prior Cup race at Talladega when a different driver was using the garage and was not directed at Wallace.
At Kentucky Speedway, Simendinger said track employees went through “every single garage bay” and removed all rope pull downs and replaced them with straps instead. “Just to make sure we don’t have anything like (happened at Talladega) here,” Simendinger said.
In three prior Cup Series races in Sparta, Wallace has finished 11th (2017), 27th (2018) and 23rd (2019).
