NASCAR Sprint Cup: Racing for the Chase

With only five races left until the Chase, NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series is getting tense. The usual drivers are almost guaranteed a spot; the question is, who will be in the bottom half of the 12 Chase drivers?

The Chase for the Sprint Cup is NASCAR’s attempt to create some kind of end-of-the-season excitement, like the playoffs in other sports. For the final 10 races, the top 12 drivers race for the championship. Each is given 5,000 points plus 10 for each win in the first 26 races, which essentially starts everyone level. The points from the final 10 races mainly decide the championship winner.

Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick has had an amazing year; with only two wins but 10 top-five finishes. He leads second-place Jeff Gordon by 189 points. Harvick is in for sure.

Harvick displaced Jimmie Johnson as the points leader after the Heath Calhoun 400 at Richmond and Harvick has stayed on top. Johnson climbed as high as second with wins at Loudon and Sonoma, to be replaced by Jeff Gordon after Gordon’s third-place finish at Daytona on July 3.

Jeff Gordon, one of Jimmie Johnson’s teammates at Hendrick Motorsport, is also having an exceptional year but he has yet to win a race. Gordon has been stricken with every kind of bad luck and bad decision to keep him off Victory Lane, but he keeps finishing close.

Third-place Denny Hamlin, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, has won five races, tying with Jimmie Johnson for most wins this season. Hamlin had a handful of great races, which should be enough to ensure him a spot in the Chase.

Four-time champ Jimmie Johnson is mired in fourth; he came out strong, stumbled a bit, broke through with two wins in a row at Loudon and Sonoma, and then had three terrible weekends.

Johnson dropped to fourth after a miserable outing at Indianapolis; his crew never gave him a good car. He crashed out at Daytona, and finished 25th at Chicago. Johnson is almost guaranteed to make the Chase; he would pretty much need to DNF all the remaining races to drop nine places in the standings. And based on previous years, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus will get everything working when they really need it.

Jeff Burton and the Busch brothers are probably locks, and Tony Stewart, if he performs well at Watkins Glen, is probably too.

The real action will be for the bottom four spots.

Hovering just outside the top 12 is Dale Earnhardt, the most popular driver in NASCAR. Despite no wins and only two top-five finished, Earnhardt remains within striking distance of the Chase. If he makes it (despite having no real chance of winning the championship), interest in the end of the season will surely increase.

Hendrick’s driver Mark Martin, another crowd favorite, is currently 13th, 550 points out of the lead but only 34 points behind 12th place Clint Bowyer.

Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, and Jamie McMurray (who won the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400, the two biggest races on the schedule) are right there and ready, should any of the top 12 (looking at you, Carl Edwards) make some move which takes out a large number of competitors.