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Nine past Kansas Speedway winners to compete in NASCAR Cup AdventHealth 400 on Sunday

randy covitz
·4 min read

The starting field for the NASCAR Cup AdventHealth 400 will include nine drivers who have won cup races at Kansas Speedway. That group is led by Denny Hamlin, who won last year’s spring event, giving him a track-record four victories in the first 23 years of the 1.5-mile tri-oval.

Here are the nine active drivers with cup wins at Kansas Speedway who will compete on Sunday.

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota

Hamlin, 43, became the first four-time winner at Kansas in last year’s May race when he shoved Kyle Larson into the wall with 12 laps remaining in the AdventHealth 400. He’s also won Cup races at Kansas in 2012, 2019 and 2020 for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Hamlin is already locked into this year’s playoffs with a series-best-tying three wins — Bristol, Richmond and Dover last week. Hamlin has 13 top-5 finishes at Kansas. He was second in 2022 to Bubba Wallace and last fall to Tyler Reddick, both 23XI drivers whose cars Hamlin co-owns with Michael Jordan.

Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford

Logano, the 2018 and 2022 cup champion for Team Penske, is one of five drivers to win at least three times at Kansas Speedway, most recently in the fall of 2020. Logano, 33, has 32 career wins, but he is still looking for his first victory of 2024. His best result of the season was second at Richmond. Logano was sixth at Kansas last May and fifth in the fall.

Kyle Busch, No. 8 Chevrolet

Busch, the series champion in 2015 and 2019, has two cup victories at Kansas Speedway, including the spring of 2020 when he swept the cup and trucks races. That gave him nine career victories (two cup, four Xfinity and three trucks) across NASCAR’s three national series at Kansas, most of any driver. After 15 years with Joe Gibbs Racing, he moved to Richard Childress Racing last year and won three races, giving him a record 19 consecutive years with at least one win and 63 career victories, ninth all-time.

Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Toyota

Truex is the only driver to win twice in one season at Kansas Speedway when he swept both races in 2017 en route to the cup championship. Truex, 43, is still seeking his first win of the season but is second in the points standings on the strength of six top-10 finishes, including a second at Bristol and third last week at Dover for Joe Gibbs Racing. Truex had been in the top 10 in eight straight starts at Kansas until a crash took him out on the third lap of last fall’s race.

Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Ford

Keselowski, the 2012 cup champion, is in his second season as a co-owner/driver for RFK Racing. Keselowski owns 35 career cup wins, ranking 24th all-time, including victories at Kansas in 2011 and 2019. But Keselowski, 40, has yet to win in his last 108 starts, though he came close last month with second-place finishes at Fort Worth and Talladega. Keselowski has seven top-5 and 14 top-10 finishes in 28 career starts at Kansas, including ninth last fall.

Bubba Wallace, No. 23 Toyota

Wallace won the 2022 Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway for his second career victory for 23XI Racing, co-owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan and Hamlin. Wallace, 30, has yet to win since then but was fourth in the spring race at Kansas last year and third last fall at Fort Worth, a similar 1.5-mile track. This year, Wallace has posted four Top 10 finishes, including a season-best fourth at Martinsville and fifth-place finishes at Daytona and Atlanta.

Jimmie Johnson, No. 84 Toyota

Johnson, the seven-time cup champion, retired from full-time racing after the 2020 season but is competing in nine events this year for Legacy Motor Club, the team for which he is a co-owner. Johnson, 48, won at Kansas in 2008, 2011 and 2015. Johnson, who was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January, has 83 career wins, tied for fifth all-time with Cale Yarborough. He finished 27th last week at Dover.

Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet

Elliott, the 2020 cup champion, won the fall race at Kansas in 2018. Elliott has two second-place finishes at Kansas and 10 top-10 finishes in 16 starts for Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott, 28, snapped a 42-race winless streak last month by winning at Texas, a similar layout to Kansas Speedway. Elliott, son of Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, has been selected as the series’ Most Popular Driver six times, a title his father won 16 times. Former Kansas football player TJ Semke from Lee’s Summit, is the jackman for Elliott’s team.

Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Toyota

Reddick is the most recent winner at Kansas Speedway, taking the checkered flag in an overtime finish in last fall’s Hollywood Casino 400 for 23XI Racing. Reddick, 29, clinched a postseason spot by winning last month at Talladega for his sixth career victory. In 10 starts at Kansas, he has four top-10 finishes, including ninth in last May’s event.