2023 Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway
Front Runners highlights the drivers that lead laps, run fast laps, and run inside the top 10, 5, & 3 the most at correlated track types.
Kansas is one of the four 1.5-mile tri or quad ovals left on the schedule. Although this is the most numerous track type on the schedule it has been some time since the Cup Series visited one of these tracks. The last time the Cup Series was at a 1.5-mile oval was Charlotte over the Memorial Day weekend back in May. As with Charlotte, there is no need to get fancy with comparable tracks for Kansas. The tracks I am focused on are the other 1.5-mile tri/quad ovals of Las Vegas, Charlotte, and Texas.
Although as I noted above its been a while since the Cup Series visited a 1.5-mil oval, we have seen three of these races already in 2023. So this week I am looking at three data sets. First, the three races so far in 2023 at Las Vegas, Kansas, and Charlotte. Second, the three races so far in the Gen 7 car at Kanas. Finally, the nine races at 1.5-mile ovals in the Gen 7 car.
A couple of interesting trends or notes that I think folks should be aware of:
- Ross Chastain is third in terms of laps led at at these tracks in the Gen 7 car, but that is because of his strong 2022 performance. In 2023 he has only led four laps across the three races at Las Vegas, Kanas and Charlotte.
- A second Ross Chastain fact! He is the only driver to complete every possible lap at these tracks in 2022 and 2023.
- The only Toyota to not have a Top 10 average running position in 2023 at these tracks is Ty Gibbs.
- Alex Bowman has the biggest “positive” gap of fastest laps to laps led. He has 102 fastest laps at this track type in the Gen 7 car. However, he has just 18 laps led. The next biggest gap is 158 fastest laps to 127 laps led, for Martin Truex Jr.
The charts below are sorted by percentage of laps led by default. There are also a few more columns that you can choose to display but for ease of display those columns are hidden by default. Also included as the final column is the drivers average running position across all laps completed as the tracks in the data set.
Laps run inside the Top 10, 5, 3, and led as percentage laps driver completed in 2023 at Las Vegas, Kansas, and Charlotte
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*Carson Hocevar and Sheldon Creed have not made a Cup Series start at any of these tracks and so they are not on this chart or any of the others below. Cole Custer has not made a Cup start in 2023, so he is omitted from this chart, but is on the charts below.
Laps run inside the Top 10, 5, 3, and led as percentage laps driver completed in at Kanas in the Gen 7 car (2022 x2 and 2023 x1)
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Laps run inside the Top 10, 5, 3, and led as percentage laps driver completed at Las Vegas, Kansas, and Charlotte in 2022 and 2023
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