This week’s Geico 400 at Chicgaoland Speedway signifies the homestretch of the Sprint Cup season in more ways than one for Travis Kvapil. In addition to kicking off the last 10 races of 2012, Chicagoland Speedway is the closest venue to Kvapil’s hometown of Janesville, Wis. The driver of the No. 93 Burger King/Dr Pepper Toyota looks forward to having friends and family from his nearby state on hand to watch him compete against NASCAR’s best.
The odds look good for Kvapil to have a strong showing in front of his hometown crowd. The No. 93 team has raised the bar on its performances at intermediate track venues. In its first five races at intermediate tracks in 2012, they averaged a 32nd-place finish. In the last four events, they averaged a 26th-place finish. Two of those finishes were inside the top 20, including Kvapil’s best finish of the season, a15th-place run at Michigan.
Kvapil has four Cup Series starts at Chicago. His best performance was in 2010, finishing 31st.
Comments from BK Racing Driver Travis Kvapil heading into Chicago:
“I’m feeling pretty good about our trip to Chicago. If you look at our more recent finishes at intermediate tracks, like Kentucky and Michigan, we’ve done pretty well there. We’ve had good runs at those places. I’m excited about taking what we learned at those places and applying it to Chicago. We really struggled at Atlanta, but Atlanta’s a pretty unique race track and its surface is quite a bit different than Chicago’s. I feel pretty confident that we’ll have a good run with the things that we’ve learned in the past. We’ll be fine.
“It’s close to home for me. It will be nice to have a few friends and family there. It will be great to return to the Midwest for a few days. It’s always nice when you have the people there who have supported you from the beginning. Some of them have cheered me on since I was racing the tracks in Wisconsin. We’ll do our best to give them a good show this weekend.
“The mile-and-half tracks are all similar, but each one has some unique characteristics. Chicago’s backstretch has an arc to it. Most of the other tracks we go to, the backstretch is straight. It makes your approach into Turn 3 a little better. The car is already pointed in the right direction and turned. You fight some things at other tracks because they aren’t like that. Chicago’s a great track. It’s kind of worn out. It’s a little bumpy. It makes for some great racing, so I’m excited to get there.”
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