Brad Keselowski, John Hunter Nemechek on Kansas poles

For this weekend’s NASCAR Cup and Camping World Truck Series races at Kansas Speedway, Brad Keselowski and John Hunter Nemechek will start on the poles.

Cup: Keselowski on pole after Dega win

Keselowski is the ninth different Cup driver to win a race in 2021 after beating William Byron and Michael McDowell to the finish last Sunday at Talladega. It was Keselowski’s sixth win at the superspeedway and ties him with Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the second most in track history. As such, he will start Sunday’s Buschy McBusch Race 400 (yes, that is the race name) from the pole. He is a two-time winner at Kansas with his last victory coming in the 2019 spring event.

Byron and McDowell will start behind him. The former has top tens in each of his last three races at Kansas while the latter’s best finish is sixteenth in the 2020 spring date.

Driver changes from Talladega include Joey Gase being in Rick Ware Racing‘s #15 driven by J.J. Yeley last week. RWR’s #28, which Gase ran at Talladega in a one-off tribute, is renumbered to its normal #53 and will be piloted by Garrett Smithley. Austin Cindric and Team Penske‘s #33 return to the track, while Matt Mills makes his Cup début in the #55 for B.J. McLeod Motorsports.

Truck: Toyotas occupy top five

Toyota has dominated the 2021 Truck season with wins in all six races so far. The most recent event at Richmond two weeks ago only solidified the manufacturer’s power when Tundras took up all but one spot in the top five with Kyle Busch Motorsports placing all three of their trucks in said range. Nemechek, the current points leader, beat his boss Kyle Busch to the win at Richmond and the two will lead the field to green in Saturday’s WISE Power 200.

Behind them will be ThorSport Racing drivers and fellow Toyotas Ben Rhodes and Johnny Sauter. After the third KBM driver Chandler Smith, the Ford of Todd Gilliland breaks up the Toyota party.

Christian Eckes returns to ThorSport’s #98 that Grant Enfinger drove at Richmond while Enfinger heads to CR7 Motorsports‘ #9 usually piloted by Codie Rohrbaugh; Enfinger first drive the #9 at Las Vegas. Cup rookie Chase Briscoe is in Roper Racing‘s #04 for his first non-dirt Truck race since his lone season in the series in 2017. Owner/driver Bret Holmes will drive the #32 for his team that Sam Mayer took to a ninth-place finish at Richmond. Ross Chastain is in Niece Motorsports‘ #44 that Jett Noland drove, while Jordan Anderson returns to his Jordan Anderson Racing #3 that Howie DiSavino III ran. Jesse Iwuji is in the #33 for Reaume Brothers Racing, replacing Keith McGee.