Notes: McCumbee looking to continue Kansas trend

Will Chad McCumbee (No. 8 Chevrolet) become the fifth under-25 winner of Saturday's O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway?

If the 23-year-old McCumbee's recent performances on intermediate tracks are any indication, the answer could be yes.

Fast facts

Race	O'Reilly Auto Parts 250
Green	6:23 p.m. ET Saturday
TV	SPEED, 5:30 p.m. ET
Radio	MRN (Sirius Ch. 28), 6 p.m. ET

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He nearly won this past fall in Texas before contact with Jack Sprague (No. 2 Chevrolet) knocked McCumbee from the lead on a green-white-checkered restart.

McCumbee has led two of the three most recent races on 1.5-mile tracks including last month's stop at Atlanta where the Supply, N.C., native finished a career-best fifth. He qualified on the front row at Atlanta and Texas.

"The intermediates always have been a strength of mine," said McCumbee, whose first top-10 finish in the Craftsman Truck Series came in June 2006 at 1.5-mile Texas. "They suit my driving style."

McCumbee has a sense of "feel" greater than his Craftsman Truck experience. He agrees that was key to helping crew chief Randy Dean make the aero adjustments that nearly put the team in Victory Lane at Atlanta.

"We definitely were able to find the right balance that the truck wanted," he said.

McCumbee's best finish at Kansas is 13th, but the driver has run well there in other series.

Series director on Kansas Speedway

Craftsman Truck director Wayne Auton could very well congratulate another first-time series winner at Kansas. He also could congratulate a veteran he has many times before. At Kansas, you just don't know.

"The track consistently produces new winners -- three in seven races -- and sends up-and-coming drivers as well as veterans to Victory Lane. It's anyone's guess who might end up driving a victory lap holding the checkered flag this Saturday," Auton said.

"Kansas Speedway, by virtue of the way the track was built, makes this week's O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 a wide-open affair."

Despite being one of several 1.5-mile tracks the series visits, Kansas Speedway in unique.

"What makes Kansas Speedway so interesting and unpredictable? Unlike some of the intermediate tracks where hitting the exact racing line is critical, Kansas Speedway allows a driver to select multiple grooves in order to find out where the truck works the best. That's one good reason why a newer driver can get up to speed in short order," Auton added.

"Finally, the sweeping nature of the turns, banked less than some tracks on which we compete, allows competitors to enter side-by-side, easily pick up the throttle and keep right on racing.

Althought Auton won't predict a winner, he can predict one thing.

"Based on what we saw in Atlanta, another intermediate track, reducing horsepower increased the level of competition. That has put the outcome more in the hands of the drivers and has created the kind of race, from start to finish, that our NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series fans and competitors have come to enjoy," he said.

Kansas sets table for successful season

Winning at Kansas is often a precursor to a high finish in the final standings.

The Kansas winner has gone on to log a top-10 finish in six of the seven seasons the 1.5-mile track has been a part of the Truck Series schedule.

Mike Bliss also won the 2002 championship; four other Kansas winners -- including 2006 champion Todd Bodine (No. 30 Toyota) -- finished among the final top five.

Bliss, currently a Nationwide Series competitor, is the only driver to win multiple times in Kansas. He captured the final of five races at nearby Heartland Park Topeka, a 2.1-mile road course, in 1999.

Ironically, 2007 broke the Kansas/top-10 streak. It was good news and bad for Erik Darnell (No. 99 Ford). Darnell became the track's third first-time winner, joining Ricky Hendrick and Jon Wood. Unfortunately for Darnell, the season didn't end quite so successfully. He finished 14th overall. (Continued)