NASCAR Fantasy Fusion: AdventHealth 400 at Kansas

 

I do love a first-time Cup Series winner, so Ty Gibbs' win at Bristol Motor Speedway had me smiling all week. With the win, Gibbs became the sixth driver to get his first win at Bristol.

This Week's Pick Strategy: 
This week I am going to weigh heavily on practice and qualifying and add in two or three drivers who have Kansas figured out. It's going to be a little warmer on race day, but those drivers will love to ride the wall and can find another lane when they need to prevail. Good luck with your team!

 

Active Drivers with Most Top 10s (Last 4 Races):

By Race
Kyle Larson - 4

All with 3 - Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, and Alex Bowman

Active Drivers with Most Top 5s (Last 4 Races):

By Race

Kyle Larson - 4
Denny Hamlin - 3
Christopher Bell - 2

 

Active Drivers with Most Top 10s  (8 races)

By Track (2022-2025)
All with 7 - Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, and Christopher Bell
Alex Bowman - 6 

Chase Elliott - 5
All with 4 - Ross Chastain, William Byron, and Bubba Wallace

 

Last Year's Race Winner: Kyle Larson

The Likely Suspects: My Kansas go-tos are Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Alex Bowman, and Ryan Blaney.

My 2 Cents: My no-brainer pick this week is Kyle Larson. My next picks are Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece, and Brad Keselowski. I will complete my roster with Todd Gilliland and John Hunter  Nemechek.

My Final Four: Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick, and Todd Gilliland.

Second-Look Driver: This week's second-look driver is Carson Hocevar. Kansas is a high commitment track which suits Hocevar's driving style at pretty much every track. He has a respectable record here in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, tallying one win (last May), two Top 5s and three Top 10s. His 135 laps led at Kansas Speedway are a career mark across all tracks. But his success in the Truck Series hasn't translated yet to the Cup Series. Last year, Hocevar finished 26th and in 2024, not much better with the 24th finish. He starts sixth on the grid for the AdventHealth 400. Can he put all the pieces together tomorrow and bring his No. 77 Chili’s Ride The ‘Dente Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to Victory Lane? Stay tuned.

Points to Ponder:

• Denny Hamlin (2012, 2019, 2020, 2023) leads the NASCAR Cup Series in wins at Kansas Speedway with four victories. Denny also leads active drivers in runner-up finishes with four, in Top 5s with 15, and in Top 10s with 17.
•  The first starting position is the most proficient starting spot in the field producing more winners (eight) than any other starting position on the grid (a winning percentage of 20%). 
• Hendrick Motorsports leads the NASCAR Cup Series in wins at Kansas Speedway with 11 victories, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing with eight.
• Four manufacturers have won at Kansas Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series, led by Chevrolet with 17 victories, followed by Toyota with 12, and Ford with nine.
  
• Nine of the 20 NASCAR Cup Series Kansas Speedway winners are active this weekend: Denny Hamlin with four wins; Joey Logano and Kyle Larson with three each; Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, and Brad Keselowski with two each; and Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, and Bubba Wallace each have one win at Kansas. 
• Chase Elliott leads all active drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series at Kansas Speedway with an average finishing position with a 9.9 in 20 starts.
• Kyle Larson leads all active NASCAR Cup Series drivers in laps led at Kansas with 925 in 22 starts.

If you are playing Driver Group Game, remember to make your final picks by 2 p.m. ET on race day, Sunday, April 19th.

Enjoy the race!

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Carol D'Agostino has been playing Fantasy NASCAR for 19 years. She launched NASCAR Fantasy Fusion for Skirts & Scuffs in October 2011. Each week, Carol pores through statistics and combs through her personal notebooks to arm fans with analysis and picking strategies that will leave their friends wondering how they got so smart. Carol also does race coverage for Skirts & Scuffs at Richmond Raceway and occasionally at her home track, Dover International Speedway. She is also part of the distinguished NASCAR Expert Picks panel at frcs.pro. formerly called Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. When she isn’t wielding her fantasy-racing superpowers, you’ll find Carol hammering out a news release or creating a marketing strategy at a small niche public relations firm she founded called Purple Cat or executing downtown revitalization projects for a small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.