What to watch for in today’s NASCAR Cup playoff race at Kansas Speedway

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The midpoint of the Cup playoffs has the potential to dramatically alter who has control of NASCAR’s postseason.

Joe Gibbs Racing won all three first-round races with three different drivers. Then Team Penske showed its strength last weekend at New Hampshire with Ryan Blaney winning.

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But today’s race (3 p.m. ET on USA Network) could see another team take control.

That’s among the things to watch for today:

Is it Hendrick Motorsports’ turn?

The first round was dismal for Hendrick and last weekend the team showed signs of being a factor in this round.

The last time the Cup Series raced at Kansas was in May when Kyle Larson led 221 of 267 laps to win. Could he repeat his dominating performance?

Then again, that is Larson’s last win of the season. Could today revive the No. 5 team?

“We’ve been working extremely hard the last few months to get back to the point of where we were leading a bunch of laps and winning stages,” Larson said. “And I feel like we’ve learned a lot along the way. So, yeah, I hope we can kind of put that all in motion and have a good day.”

How to watch Sunday’s Cup race at Kansas: Start time, TV info and weather

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The 1.5-mile track will hold the second race in the Round of 12.

If not Larson, could today be Chase Elliott’s day?

He’ll start fourth — his best qualifying effort in the last six races. Elliott’s struggles in qualifying have caused him to start in the deep in the field and he’s lost the chance to score stage points. Elliott’s eight stage points tie him with Austin Cindric for the fewest in the playoffs among the remaining 12 drivers racing for a title.

“We’ve just got to get some stage points,” Elliott said Saturday. “I look at that as being an area we can improve upon for sure.”

William Byron starts 11th. While he’s qualified well at Kansas, he hasn’t always turned those into good finishes.

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“We’ve had some chaotic races here and really don’t know if this is one of our stronger execution tracks,” Byron said. “It seems like it’s hit or miss for us. So, hopefully, we can just put together an entire weekend start to finish and make it look smooth from the outside and be able to build on each run we put on tires.”

What about Team Penske?

Saturday was awful for the organization. Ryan Blaney had a tire go down in the opening minutes of practice and hit the wall. The team will go to a backup car and Blaney will start at the rear. At least his win last weekend at New Hampshire keeps him from worrying if he will advance to the next round.

Ryan Blaney going to a backup car at Kansas after crash

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Ryan Blaney had a tire go down before hitting the wall.

Reigning Cup champion Joey Logano had a tire go down in practice and pulled off track. Qualifying was worse. He was more than 1.5 seconds slower than Chase Briscoe’s pole lap. Logano will start 35th. Austin Cindric made contact with the wall on his qualifying lap and will start 26th.

Logano enters today 24 points above the cutline. With next weekend’s race at the Charlotte Roval a cutoff event, Logano will look to try to pad his cushion. Thing is, he’ll likely lose the chance to gain points in the first stage because of how far back he’s starting.

What about the Toyotas?

Joe Gibbs Racing secured the front row with Chase Briscoe on the pole and Denny Hamlin second.

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Toyotas took seven of the top 12 spots. Those others were Christopher Bell (starting fifth), Bubba Wallace (seventh), Ty Gibbs (eighth), Erik Jones (10th) and Tyler Reddick (12th).

JGR drivers look to move on after New Hampshire incident between Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs

Denny Hamlin said the team had “productive meetings” about how the drivers should race each other moving forward.

Both Reddick and Wallace are below the cutline. Reddick is 23 points below the cutline and Wallace is 27 points below the cutline after last weekend’s New Hampshire race.

If they can’t win today, the 23XI Racing drivers need a strong points day to close the gap and avoid elimination next weekend at the Charlotte Roval

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“It was a tough week,” Reddick said of the performance of the 23XI Racing cars last weekend at New Hampshire. “Think we all know we got our asses kicked pretty good at Loudon, and I feel like it’s motivated everyone properly.”