The 2015 SpongeBob SquarePants 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on May 9, 2015, ending shortly after midnight on May 10, 2015, at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. Contested over 267 laps on the 1.5 mile (2.4 km) asphalt speedway, it was the 11th race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Jimmie Johnson won the race, his third of the season. Kevin Harvick finished second. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third. Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano rounded out the top five.
Joey Logano won the pole for the race. He led 29 laps on his way to a fifth-place finish. Martin Truex Jr. led 95 laps in the first of four straight races in which he led the most laps on his way to a ninth-place finish. The race had 16 lead changes among ten different drivers, as well as nine caution flag periods for 49 laps. There was one red flag period for two hours, 16 minutes and 30 seconds for heavy rain.
This was the 73rd career victory for Jimmie Johnson, third at Kansas Speedway and sixth at the track for Hendrick Motorsports. This win moved Johnson up to third in the points standings. Chevrolet left Kansas with a 44-point lead over Ford in the manufacturer standings.
The SpongeBob SquarePants 400 was carried by Fox Sports on the cable/satellite Fox Sports 1 network for the American television audience. The radio broadcast for the race was carried by the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
Report Background
Kansas Speedway is a tri-oval race track in Kansas City, Kansas. It was built in 2001 and it currently hosts two annual NASCAR race weekends. The Verizon IndyCar Series also raced at here until 2011. The speedway is owned and operated by the International Speedway Corporation.
Kevin Harvick entered Kansas with a 40-point lead over Martin Truex Jr. after a fourth-place finish at Talladega. Jimmie Johnson entered 52 back following a runner-up finish the week before at Talladega. Joey Logano entered 59 back. Dale Earnhardt Jr. entered 75 back after winning the previous week at Talladega.
Entry list The entry list for the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 was released on Monday, May 4 at 2:52 p.m. Eastern time. Forty-four cars were entered for the race. Erik Jones, who drove in relief of Denny Hamlin at the 2015 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, made his official Sprint Cup Series debut in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Joey Gase returned to the No. 32 Go FAS Racing Ford after Bobby Labonte drove it the previous race at Talladega Superspeedway. Ty Dillon made his first Cup start since the 2015 Daytona 500 in the No. 33 Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet. Brett Moffitt returned to the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford that he drove in Las Vegas and Phoenix. David Ragan moved to the No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota after driving the No. 18 Toyota the last nine races.
Driver Team ManufacturerSponsor 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing ChevroletMcDonald's 2 Brad Keselowski (PC3) Team Penske FordAvaya 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing ChevroletDOW Chemical 4 Kevin Harvick (PC1) Stewart–Haas Racing ChevroletJimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletGreat Clips 6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing FordAdvoCare 7 Alex Bowman Tommy Baldwin Racing ChevroletAccell Construction 9 Sam Hornish Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports FordMedallion Bank 10 Danica Patrick Stewart–Haas Racing ChevroletGoDaddy 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing ToyotaFedEx Freight 13 Casey Mears Germain Racing ChevroletSquidward Tentacles 14 Tony Stewart (PC4) Stewart–Haas Racing ChevroletBass Pro Shops, Mobil 1 15 Clint Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota5-Hour Energy 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing FordCheez-It, Patrick Star 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing FordZest 18 Erik Jones (i) Joe Gibbs Racing ToyotaM&M's Red Nose Day 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing ToyotaStanley Tools 20 Matt Kenseth (PC6) Joe Gibbs Racing ToyotaDollar General 22 Joey Logano Team Penske FordAAA Insurance 23 J. J. Yeley (i) BK Racing ToyotaDr. Pepper "I'm a Pepper" 24 Jeff Gordon (PC7) Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletAmerican Red Cross 26 Jeb Burton (R) BK Racing ToyotaMAXIM Fantasy Sports App 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing ChevroletMenards, Pittsburgh Paints 31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing ChevroletQuicken Loans 32 Joey Gase (i) Go FAS Racing FordTri State Tower Inc., reallycheapfloors.com 33 Ty Dillon (i) Hillman-Circle Sport LLC ChevroletPlankton 34 Brett Moffitt (R) Front Row Motorsports FordDockside Logistics 35 Cole Whitt Front Row Motorsports FordFront Row Motorsports 38 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports FordMDS Transport 40 Landon Cassill (i) Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevroletcarsforsale.com 41 Kurt Busch (PC5) Stewart–Haas Racing ChevroletHaas Automation 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing ChevroletTarget 43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports FordFarmland 46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports ChevroletAllstate Peterbilt Group 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing ChevroletKroger, Scott Products, Dillon's Food Stores 48 Jimmie Johnson (PC2) Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletLowe's 51 Justin Allgaier HScott Motorsports ChevroletFraternal Order of Eagles 55 David Ragan Michael Waltrip Racing ToyotaAaron's Dream Machine "Own it.", SpongeBob SquarePants 62 Brendan Gaughan (i) Premium Motorsports ChevroletPremium Motorsports 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing ChevroletFurniture Row, Visser Precision 83 Matt DiBenedetto (R) BK Racing ToyotaDustless Blasting 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletNationwide Insurance 95 Michael McDowell Leavine Family Racing FordWRL General Contractors, Thrivent Financial, Larry the Lobster 98 Josh Wise Phil Parsons Racing FordPhil Parsons RacingOfficial initial entry listOfficial final entry list Key Meaning (R) Rookie (i) Ineligible for points (PC#) Past champions provisional
Practice First practice Kevin Harvick was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 28.306 and a speed of .
Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 4 Chevrolet 28.306 190.772 2 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 28.365 190.375 3 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.381 190.268Official first practice results
Final practice Erik Jones, making his official Sprint Cup Series debut, was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.227 and a speed of . "There's been a lot of people that have been involved over the past few weeks to get me ready for this," Jones told Fox Sports 1. "I think a lot of it was preparing mentally, watching videos, watching tape, talking to Kyle (Busch) and my teammates and just trying to get the best information I could out of everybody. It's pretty cool to be fastest in practice. I know it's only practice, but it's still pretty cool. ... There's a lot of great race car drivers. It's just really an honor to be fastest this practice."
Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 18 Erik Jones (i) Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.227 191.306 2 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.245 191.184 3 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 28.312 190.732Official final practice results
Qualifying
Joey Logano won the pole with a time of 28.067 and a speed of . "We just kind of swung for the fence in the last round and the car drove awesome," said Logano, who won his twelfth career pole. "It's not very often you get a car that's just perfect. I came off Turn 4 and I didn't know how to go faster than that. ... It was a great run, our fourth pole of the season. We just need to rack up some more wins." "We had our best speed in our last run so that was what we were looking for," said Kasey Kahne, who turned a lap of . "We've been getting better every week I think and that improvement will hopefully carry here to Kansas tomorrow night. We have a fast car and I'm excited." "I just couldn't quite find the speed in the last round," Martin Truex Jr. said. "So, the guys did a good job and we have a good starting spot for tomorrow night. This track has been good to me and hopefully we can do better than we've been doing. It's been good." "We just got a little better speed in our car and this racetrack has been pretty good for us," said Greg Biffle, who became the first Roush Fenway Racing driver to make a final round of qualifying this season. "We barely made the first round and barely made the second and then I just drove it – over drove it. I just said I was going to go for it." "It would make our life so much easier starting up front and having a good pit stall pick," Jimmie Johnson said. "Middle of the pack......we will fire our way through there and grind it out like we always do and try and I am sure get a great finish out of it. But we know we need to get better on Fridays." Brendan Gaughan failed to qualify for the race.
Qualifying results Pos Driver Team Manufacturer 1 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 28.139 28.251 28.067 2 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.294 28.262 28.138 3 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 28.240 28.198 28.146 4 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 28.197 28.127 28.157 5 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.075 28.146 28.187 6 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.201 28.234 28.228 7 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.356 28.291 28.270 8 41 Kurt Busch Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.262 28.296 28.294 9 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.149 28.218 28.387 10 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.346 28.264 28.398 11 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.304 28.229 28.436 12 18 Erik Jones (i) Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.218 28.248 28.490 13 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.269 28.315 — 14 43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 28.281 28.318 — 15 31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.359 28.338 — 16 14 Tony Stewart Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.268 28.345 — 17 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.176 28.347 — 18 20 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.328 28.350 — 19 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.296 28.379 — 20 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.340 28.387 — 21 15 Clint Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 28.345 28.393 — 22 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.439 28.414 — 23 55 David Ragan Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 28.445 28.457 — 24 13 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 28.449 28.545 — 25 51 Justin Allgaier HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 28.480 — — 26 9 Sam Hornish Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 28.506 — — 27 10 Danica Patrick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.519 — — 28 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.547 — — 29 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 28.584 — — 30 6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.586 — — 31 95 Michael McDowell Leavine Family Racing Ford 28.586 — — 32 33 Ty Dillon (i) Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet 28.599 — — 33 26 Jeb Burton (R) BK Racing Toyota 28.630 — — 34 35 Cole Whitt Front Row Motorsports Ford 28.762 — — 35 83 Matt DiBenedetto (R) BK Racing Toyota 28.774 — — 36 7 Alex Bowman Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 28.791 — — 37 23 J. J. Yeley (i) BK Racing Toyota 28.962 — — 38 38 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 28.971 — — 39 34 Brett Moffitt (R) Front Row Motorsports Ford 28.976 — — 40 98 Josh Wise Phil Parsons Racing Ford 28.994 — — 41 40 Landon Cassill (i) Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet 29.167 — — 42 32 Joey Gase (i) Go FAS Racing Ford 29.181 — — 43 46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 29.384 — —Failed to qualify 44 62 Brendan Gaughan (i) Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 29.358 — —Official qualifying results
Race First half Start