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

Intense restarts and tight racing are expected today, as the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Kansas Speedway.

Last fall’s race had 30 lead changes and this event a year ago had 28 lead changes, ending when Kyle Larson beat Chris Buescher in the closest finish in NASCAR history at .001 seconds.

Larson starts on the pole for today’s race, while Buescher will start next to him on the front row.

The duel between those two will be among the things to watch today.

The 1.5-mile oval recently has featured a diverse roster of winners and close finishes.

A new winner today?

There have been seven different winners in the first 11 races of this season.

Kansas Speedway has been a good track recently for drivers scoring their first win of the year. It’s happened in four of the last six races at this 1.5-mile track.

Among those without a victory this season are: Chris Buescher (starting second), Tyler Reddick (fourth), Ty Gibbs (sixth), Daniel Suarez (eighth), Chase Elliott (ninth), Ryan Blaney (10th), Michael McDowell (11th) and Justin Haley (12th).

Ross Chastain won last fall’s playoff race at Kansas Speedway and has scored five top 10s in the last seven races this season.

3 in a row?

Team Penske is going for its third consecutive victory of the season after Austin Cindric won two weeks ago at Talladega and Joey Logano won at Texas.

Ryan Blaney is the only Team Penske driver yet to win this season.

“It’s been nice to have really fast cars this year,” Blaney said. “Hopefully, we can get in Victory Lane soon. I’ve been really happy with how we’ve been performing. It just hasn’t really worked out for us.”

Team Penske will have two cars start in the top 10 Sunday. Logano qualified fifth and Blaney 10th. Cindric starts 13th.

4 the right number?

23XI Racing will have four cars in Sunday’s race. The team fields full-time cars for Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick and Riley Herbst. The organization also will have Corey Heim in a fourth car Sunday.

23XI Racing has won three of the last six Cup races at Kansas Speedway and this track comes a good point for the team, which has yet to win this season.

Reddick starts fourth, Wallace 15th, Herbst 25th and Heim 28th.

23XI Racing’s last victory came at Homestead during last year’s playoffs.