Statesville, N.C. (October 4, 2011) - Travis Kvapil returns to the No. 38 Long John Silver's Ford at Kansas Speedway this weekend as the team continues its push to climb one more spot in the owner point standings - to the all-important 35th position. The team currently sits in 36th, 39 points out. A return to the top 35 would ensure the car's guaranteed starting position in the first five races of 2012.
Kvapil and the No. 38 team had a strong car entering the season's first race at Kansas in June, but a suspension problem knocked them out of contention early in the race. The team looks to use its experience from that June race, as well as set-up information from races at Michigan and Chicago this year, to help bring the most competitive Ford Fusion as possible to Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400.
Kvapil has five career starts at the mile-and-a-half oval in Kansas City, Kan. His best finish is 19th (2006).
Comments from Long John Silver's team driver Travis Kvapil going to Kansas:
"This will be the second time Jay (crew chief Jay Guy) and I will be going to Kansas together this year. Our first time there, we had good speed in practice and we qualified decent. But at the start of the race, we had a sway bar bolt break or come off, so we never really had a chance to see what our results would be with the car we had.
"A lot of the things that we use at Kansas setup-wise are really similar to Michigan, and we've had good speed at both Michigan races this year. Jay and J.J. (Yeley) had a good car at Chicagoland, which is also a very similar type of racetrack. I feel like we've got a really good idea of what we need to take to Kansas after going over our notes. We'll take a newer car that this team has. It's the same car that J.J. had at Loudon a couple weeks ago, and he had pretty good speed in it. So, I feel like we're taking our best car for the 38 team and we've got good notes to get us off to a good start off the truck.
"Our goal for the remainder of the season is, of course, to get the No. 38 car back in to the top 35. It's probably going to take a couple 15th-place finishes. And obviously we can't miss a race by not qualifying, and we can't have any gears break or sway bars come unbolted coming to the green flag or other silly things like that. We've basically just got to stay out of trouble.
"First and foremost, we've got to get the car qualified on qualifying day. Have a good, solid set-up under it. Have a little bit of racing luck and get some good results. There are a couple big variables, like Martinsville and especially Talladega. Those are races where you can have big point swings. We have to keep plugging along and doing the best job we can. If we can do all those things, then we have a shot at it. And those two races could be big factors."
