Round 2 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begins this week in Kansas (2025)

Bulletin Staff Report

After an eventful NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 16 elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the 16 postseason contenders have been reduced to 12 and now have to turn their attention to the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

Kansas is the first of three tracks in the Round of 12, alongside Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson dominated the race at Bristol last weekend, winning both stages and leading a race-high 462 laps in the event – the most laps led at Bristol since NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough led 495 in 1977. As a result, Larson banked seven more Playoff points and is back atop the point standings following the reseeding for the Round of 12, +15 points up on Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell in second.

Don’t expect Larson’s postseason success to slow this weekend. He returns to Kansas Speedway as the most recent winner at the 1.5-mile track, where he beat RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher in the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history (0.001-second).

At the other end of the Playoff outlook, four drivers find themselves under the Round of 8 cutline heading into Kansas – Team Penske’s Austin Cindric (-4 points), Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez (-6 points), Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman (-7 points) and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe (-7 points). Since the introduction of stage racing in the series (2017-2024), only 36% of the drivers ranked below the Playoffs’ Round of 8 cutline entering the Round of 12 have moved on to the next round.

Here’s what some remaining playoff drivers had to say about this weekend’s race.

Alex Bowman: “It’s been a really good place for me. It’s probably my favorite mile-and-a-half, so I enjoy racing there a lot and have certainly been close to winning there before. I’m looking forward to it. Statistically, it’s been a really good place for us, so hopefully we can put together a really good race this weekend.”

Chase Briscoe: “I don’t think anyone believes us, but I really think we can battle for the championship, and I think these last two weeks show that... And with this format, if you can just be good for 10 weeks, then you can be a champion, and I feel like we’re as strong as any team right now.

“I think this year we’ve come a long way on our mile-and-a-half program. At the beginning of the year, I felt like we were probably one of the stronger Fords. And then over the course of the summer, everybody else kind of caught up. But I still feel good about it. Intermediates are probably our weakest style of track, but it’s still a track where I feel like we can go to and run well. We’ve always been able to qualify really well on them. We have the speed, we just have to put the balance together for the race.”

William Byron: “I’m excited to get to Kansas. That’s a track we’ve had a lot of speed at. I think we have a good notebook heading into this race based on our experiences and our teammates’. We got behind in the spring after hitting the wall in qualifying, but even then we had good speed and strategy to make up ground. Hopefully we get a better starting spot for this race and can execute at a high level like I know our team can.”

Denny Hamlin: “It’s all offense from this point forward. So yeah, we’re going to Kansas, a track we’ve been really good at, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the run.”

Kyle Larson: “This spring, I had a great run off (Turn) 2 and down the backstretch and was able to get to [Chis Buescher’s] outside getting into 3. It was so tight at the line and I guess TV showed us second — and I was fine with that because it was a great battle at the end. But then to hear we won was incredible.”

Daniel Suarez: “I think we’re going to be pretty good. I’m really excited for Kansas. I think we can be competitive there. At a superspeedway, as we all know, anything can happen. And a road course in there, always puts a smile on my face.”