SPARTA, Ky-- For Kyle Busch, 700 miles of racing will ensue on Saturday from Kentucky Speedway.

With the postponement of the NASCAR Xfintiy Series Also 300, Busch, Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Paul Menard, Kevin Harvick, and Ty Dillon are also slated to run in the Alsco 300.

“It’s going to be challenging and especially during the day. We weren’t anticipating a day race so that’s going to make for a crazy event, that’s for sure,” said Busch.

Because teams were unable to get practice sessions in on Thursday, teams practiced at 8:30 p.m. EDT this morning.

“We practiced early this morning and I felt like it was a really good practice session for what we needed to do at night because the track was cool and it wasn’t hot and heated up like it was later on this afternoon,” said Busch. “Qualifying was a handful, it was way different than what we had all this morning in practice so that’s going to make it a handful tomorrow. Who’s going to be the best guy to adjust all that for having a fast car and making sure their car sticks well is going to win.”

For drivers pulling double-duty, preparation for afternoon and evening conditions begin tonight.

“It’s going to be tough for sure. I’m not exactly sure how to handle it yet, but it’s certainly not the circumstances I would have liked to have been in, but we got what we got and I’ll try to prepare as best as I can tonight and get as many fluids as I can tonight and then make sure you keep drinking and keep the fluids going for tomorrow,” said Ky. Busch. “It’s just a matter of making sure you don’t get yourself too dehydrated and start to cramp up and things like that. It’s going to make for a long day for sure if it’s going to be 95 degrees and hot and sunny during the first one and it will make the second one at night a little better. Still going to be a long, long day.”

Temperatures for the Also 300 are slated to be in the mid-70s, while the Quaker State 400 temperature is slated to be in the mid-to-upper 70s.

Green flag for the Alsco 300 is schedule to fly shortly after 12:00 p.m. EDT and the green flag for the Quaker State 400 is slated for 7:45 p.m. EDT.

SPARTA, Ky.— Kyle Busch will start from the pole in tonight’s Alsco 300 from Kentucky Speedway. This is his 61st pole.

The first round of qualifying was slowed three times by spins on the track. Brandon Brown, Morgan Shepard, and Quin Houff are the three drivers who will be sent home. Erik Jones was fastest in the opening round at 180.560 mph. Brennan Pole was second fastest at 179.325 mph. Spencer Gallagher was third fastest at 178.790 mph. Matt Tifft was fourth fastest at 178.749 mph. Elliott Sadler rounded out the top-five in the opening round with his speed of 178.642 mph.

In the second round of qualifying, E. Jones was fastest at 181.494 mph. Ryan Blaney was second fastest in this round at 181.050 mph. Daniel Hemric was third fastest at 180.590 mph. Ky. Busch was fourth fastest at 180.542 mph. Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five at a speed of 180.415 mph.

In the final round. Ky. Busch posted a speed of 181.935 mph. E. Jones will start second with his speed of 181.635 mph. Blaney will start third with his speed of 181.354 mph. Joey Logano will start fourth with his speed of 180.524 mph. William Byron rounded out the top-five with his speed of 180.150 mph.

The Alsco 300 will be broadcasted on NBCSN and Performance Racing Network at 8:00 p.m. EDT.

SPARTA, Ky.— With persistent rains in the area, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series qualifying has been cancelled from Kentucky Speedway.

NASCAR tried their best efforts to dry and the the track ready for Truck qualifying, but rained quickly returned to the track. The field will be set per the rule book.

Johnny Saucer will lead the field to green. Christopher Bell will start second. Chase Briscoe will start third, but will go to the rear due to a backup. Matt Crafton will start fourth. Ben Rhodes will round out the top-five. Joe Nemechek is the lone driver to head home due to not having enough attempts.

NASCAR hopes to get Xfinity practice in later this evening.

SPARTA, Ky.— With nearly two inches of asphalt relaid at Kentucky Speedway, the Kentucky Tire Dragon was called into action to help rubber in the track.

Speedway Motorsports Inc. and Kentucky Speedway officials ran the tire dragon in the middle and lower grooves of the 1.5-mile facility.

However, when NASCAR Camping World Truck Series teams arrived on the property on Wednesday morning for practice, the complaints rolled in that speedway officials should have ran the tire dragon in the upper groove of the facility.

Hey @KySpeedway , why do all this work on running in the bottom groove? I would be running-in the wall on down...Will get 2 bottom naturally pic.twitter.com/guY9aCqvNs

— Parker Kligerman (@pkligerman) July 5, 2017

?that helps nothing need it from the wall down! https://t.co/vcEsOgeO7p

— Ty Dillon (@tydillon) July 5, 2017

Here are what drivers had to say about where the tire dragon ran:

“The thing is I thought they did a really good job at Texas. You saw multi-groove racing at Texas on a repave which is pretty unheard of. They can only do so much man. If we tire drag the whole track, everybody is naturally going to go back to the bottom because it’s a repave and it’s going to be – it’s just gonna be faster down there. It’s just how it’s going to work. I think even if they drag the top in, I don’t think it’s going to be faster up by the wall than it would be right on the white line,” said Erik Jones, who is pulling double duty this weekend. “It’s just a repave and it’s going to be like this for ten years. We’re going to be on the bottom and then we’ll start to work up to the middle. Kentucky really, even on the old surface, was just starting to get up to the wall, so it just takes time.”

Yeah, that’s been kind of an ongoing thing at race tracks is running the tire dragon in the bottom groove or putting grip in the bottom groove and it’s – to me I honestly think and from especially what I saw yesterday is the tire dragon, the rubber, the groove is going to be on the bottom especially in Turns 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 because that’s the shortest way around the track here and that’s where it’s going to make the most grip. It’s going to be the fastest. I feel like maybe we should’ve put like a small amount of rubber on the bottom just to help us get going, but a majority of the rubber concentrated in the middle groove and then up a little bit higher,” said NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Ben Rhodes. “Wherever you’re going to put the rubber is where the cars are going to be the fastest at. But with the tires that Goodyear is bringing here, if they drug it in the middle groove, then our left-side tires would be adding to that rubber cause we’re – as drivers, the lower you get the happier you are, so we’re going to add that rubber ourselves to the bottom. I think if they allowed us to work it in that might have maybe widened the groove out a little bit more – if they focused maybe in the middle. Either way, they’ve done a good job with getting rid of the bumps we had last year. Putting that two inches of asphalt all the way around and the tighter compact asphalt that’s here I think is gonna be a little bit better for getting rubber down as well.”

The most adamant about running the tire dragon was Brendan Gaughan.

“It’s stupid. They need to drag the lanes we don’t race. The lane we don’t practice in. Now, Kentucky has a lot of rain so that will wash lots of it away anyways. You could’ve done the upper two lanes and worked your way down. Lots of places could do that,” said Gaughan. “For some reason, someone doesn’t think thats a good idea. I don’t know why. I’d love to hear an answer for it. Nobody has ever given me one.”

Track officials stated that they did it because it worked during the Cup race last season. However, Gaughan was still not pleased with that answer noting that Cup races were shorter.

“There are 25 more teams that run harder than in this (Xfinity) series,’’ Gaughan said. “You have more people battling, more race cars, more laps to do it. It works great,” said Gaughan. “I think we’ve all seen in the media and the drivers, the tire dragon works great. … Then why not put it in the places that you want the track to grow to, not where you know that everybody wants to go?’’

Racing action from Kentucky Speedway kicks off with tonight’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Fox Sports 1.

After a weekend at Daytona, the NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Kentucky Speedway for the 17th Annual Alsco 300. The race will consist of stage lengths of 45 laps, 45 laps, and 110 laps.

44 drivers are scheduled to arrive at Kentucky Speedway. Notable names on the entry list include Paul Menard, Ty Dillon, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Kevin Harvick.

There have been 21 races at Kentucky Speedway. Only 16 races have had different pole winners. 13 drivers have found their way into victory lane at Kentucky Speedway. Only seven races have been won from the pole with Ky. Busch doing so in last year’s event. In 2012, Austin Dillon set the race record at 151.643 mph. In last year’s event, Ky. Busch set the pole winning speed at 187.318 mph.

Drivers are excited about returning to Kentucky.

“Kentucky is a track I can get around pretty good. They did add another layer of asphalt to the surface that we haven’t experienced yet. But I expect it to basically drive the same as last year, since no aging has happened yet. I’ll be on track in all three series, so there is plenty of time to check it out and hopefully get our NOS Rowdy Toyota Camry back into victory lane,” said Ky. Busch.

“I’ve always seemed to be able to get around Kentucky Speedway really well, and we’ve gotten some great finishes there. The Pilot Flying J team has been really putting things together and giving me awesome race cars, so I’m excited to get back there. After the good run at Iowa and an awesome run at Daytona before we got caught up in a crash, we’re building some steam for the second half and chasing the Playoffs, so we need another solid run this weekend,” said Michael Annett.

“Any time you have a repave it’s extremely noticeable, especially at a track like Kentucky, which is by far is the roughest race track we went to.  You notice the banking a little bit, but overall you notice how much grip it has.  I think we are pretty good at high grip race tracks.  We were good at Texas this year and we have been good at Michigan and Kansas.  I think Kentucky will be another place that we can have a really strong run.  It’s a playoff track for us, so it will be important to go there and get a baseline with this new aero package,” said Ryan Reed.

Teams will have two practice sessions Thursday at 2:00 p.m. EDT and 6:00 p.m. EDT. The 6:00 p.m. EDT practice will be on NBCSN. Qualifying for the Alsco 300 will be at 4:30 p.m. EDT on NBCSN on Friday. The race will also be on NBCSN beginning at 8:00 p.m. EDT.