If you’re someone who follows NASCAR casually—maybe you won’t sit down and watch a whole race or get into a NASCAR Fantasy League—but know the players and are interested in who wins the championship, then here’s nine points to know going into the Chase…
Jimmie Johnson is closing in on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship after his clutch win in Texas last Sunday moved him to a seven-point lead over Matt Kenseth. But there’s still two races left and no one knows better than Johnson how a steady lead can fall apart on Phoenix International Raceway, where the circuit heads for Sunday’s Advocare 500 (3 PM ET, ESPN).
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race for the championship is a dead heat, as Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson are tied at the top with three races to go, as the circuit prepares for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (3 PM ET, ESPN).
There are four races to go in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and four drivers who have a realistic championship. Jimmie Johnson has moved into the lead after last week in Talladega, with Matt Kenseth four points back. And in a spirit of generosity, TheSportsNotebook is including Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick among those with a shot. Both drivers are 26 points out, and I’m willing to give them one more week to see if they can make a significant dent in that number.
The NASCAR Chase For The Cup has been realistically down to two drivers—Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski for a few weeks, even if TheSportsNotebook has been manufacturing ways to give other drivers a chance. But as Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (2 PM ET, ESPN) awaits, there’s no denying that JJ and Keselowski are the only ones standing with three races to go.
Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson each have a record of success at the Martinsville Speedway in Virginia and they both—especially Hamlin—need to marshal all the good things they’ve done in years past as they try and catch leader Brad Keselowski when the NASCAR Chase For The Cup resumes on Sunday afternoon (1 PM ET, ESPN).
If recent history at the Kansas Speedway is any guide, we should see some type of significant movement in the NASCAR Chase For The Cup. The track that hosts Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (1 PM ET, ESPN) has seen recent winners that include all the current leaders and a few of the longshot contenders.
Before last week’s race at Talladega, we talked about how difficult it was going to be for drivers beyond leaders Brad Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson to get back into the mix in the NASCAR Chase For The Cup. The events of last Sunday proved the point—Matt Kenseth, trailing in 12th place, won the race, got a 25-car pileup that further hindered other drivers and still only moved from 72 points out to 62 back.
The NASCAR Chase For The Cup goes to the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, with two drivers in position to pull away from the rest of the field, but Sunday’s 1 PM ET race offering perhaps the last, best chance for the standings to tighten.
The third race of the 10-installment NASCAR Chase For The Cup goes Sunday afternoon in Dover at 1 PM EST. While any of the 12 drivers eligible for NASCAR’s top prize can still win it, only four are in realistic striking distance and after an up-and-down year marked by controversy, Jimmie Johnson has an opportunity to take control of this race.
Johnson is holding a narrow one-point lead over Brad Keselowski in the point standings and Dover is a track that’s been quite good to the leader. Johnson won here in June. While he didn’t get a Dover win in 2011, he grabbed three of the four races here in 2009-10. A win on Sunday gives him a chance to open up some breathing room at the top and effectively eliminate a lot of drivers who are fighting to hang on.
Step Two of the NASCAR Chase For The Cup series goes Sunday afternoon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with the running of the Sylvania 300. Brad Keselowski got a leg up in the 12-driver push for the championship when he won last week. But as NASCAR makes its second trip of the season to Loudon, the driver who deserves our attention is Matt Kenseth.
The NASCAR Chase For The Cup is on. The playoff qualification talk that has dominated this space in recent weeks is all settled. The standings have been re-calibrated with an emphasis on wins, rather than point accumulation and the field is narrowed to twelve drivers who have a chance to win it all over the next ten weeks. The races will have their customary full fields, but only the following dozen are eligible to win the championship in November…