(NASCAR)—The three drivers who consider the Kansas Speedway their home track continue to have trouble feeling welcome there.   Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, and Clint Bowyer would love to win at the closest big-time track to their homes,  but in the 53 races they have run there, they have only twenty top tens and no victories. 

kansas (nascar)

Edwards, from Columbia, rallied from two laps down because of early mechanical problems to finish 11th in Saturday night’s 400-mile race.  Jamie McMurray of Joplin came home 26th,  three laps back, and Clint Bowyer of Emporia, Kansas finished 19th, two laps down, his sixth straight finish outside the top ten at Kansas.  

Edwards is especially hungry for a win at Kansas. “There would be no bigger win for me.  This would be as big as the Daytona 500 or the Brickyard 400 for me,” he said before the race.  Edwards finished second to Jimmie Johnson in 2008 and has a dozen top tens in his eighteen starts there.  He did win a pickup truck race there in 2004, a victory he calls “spectacular.”  He says that victory was the only time he heard the crowd while the truck was still running. 

McMurray has cracked the top ten only three times in eighteen races. Bowyer, in sixteen races, has reached the top ten only five times. 

Edwards’ teammate Kyle Busch outran Kevin Harvick for the win Saturday night to become the first driver to win three races this year in Cup competition. 

(Photo credit: NASCAR)

(IndyCar)—Practice begins Thursday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Saturday afternoon’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the Speedway road course.  It’s the second time the event has been held.  Drivers will qualify on Friday.  

Practice for the 100th Indianapolis 500 begins on Monday, the 16th and will continue through “Fast Friday,” when drivers and their crews hope to reach their top speeds as they get ready for qualifying Saturday and Sunday.  Last year, six drivers ran laps faster than 230 mph on Fast Friday, speed they were unable to match in qualifications. 

The one-lap record at the Speedway has stood for twenty years.  Arie Luyendyk set the unofficial record in practice with a lap around the 2.5-mile squared oval in 37.616 seconds, 239.260 mph.  He also holds the official qualifying record, which took 1.279 seconds longer, 237.498. 

The One-hundredth 500 will be run on May 29th.  All reserved seats have been sold, the first reserved seat sellout at the Speedway in several years.  The Speedway does not announce attendance figures or seating capacity although local media estimate there are 235,000 reserved seats. Officials think general admission infield tickets could raise the total attendance to about 350,000.  Attendance at the Indianapolis 500 is considered the largest sporting event attendance in the world.

(Formula 1)—Formula One’s schedule lists the Spanish Grand Prix next weekend.  Mercedes driver Niko Rosberg has won all four races this year and has a seven-race winning streak.  He has won more races in a row than his father, Keke, won in his entire F1 career.  Rosberg is only the fourth driver in Formula One history to run off at least seven straight victories.  Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel hold the record with nine consecutive wins.  He did that in 2013.