Bubble Bursting: Drivers Vying To Get Into Chase Field
The Race to the Chase has reached the end of its road.
Next stop: The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Richmond International Raceway turns up the volume Saturday night for the Chevy Rock & Roll 400, an event that has become an annual highlight of the season, as the “cut-off” race leading into the Chase, the five-year-old playoff-style format to determine the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion.

Twelve drivers make the Chase, which is contested over the season’s last 10 events. Once again, there are more drivers than 12 with a chance to qualify, coming into RIR.  But first, here’s what we know.

Five drivers have already clinched Chase berths:

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Kyle Busch (No. 18 M&M’s Toyota); Carl Edwards (No. 99 Office Depot Ford); Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No 88 Amp Energy/National Guard Chevrolet); Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet); and Jeff Burton (No. 31 AT&T Mobility Chevrolet).

Six more, who resi1de in points positions 6-11 this week, can be placed in the “highly probable” category coming into Richmond: Greg Biffle (No. 16 3M Ford); Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Shell Pennzoil Chevrolet); Tony Stewart (No. 20 Home Depot Toyota); Matt Kenseth (No. 17 DEWALT Ford); Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont-Nicorette Chevrolet); and Denny Hamlin (No. 11 FedEx Toyota).

And then you have a few other guys, treading tenuously on both sides of the 12th-place Chase bubble.
Clint Bowyer (No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet) has 12th-place honors this week. Of course, that’s akin to starting the final round of the Masters with a one-stroke lead. Bowyer’s position is hardly secure.

Bowyer, who has remarkably strengthened his grip on the NASCAR Nationwide Series points lead in recent weeks despite the pressure of the Chase, holds a slim 17-point advantage (2,989-2,972) over David Ragan (No. 6 AAA Ford).

Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Bud-weiser Dodge) is staring his hot-and-cold season squarely in the face this week. He’s 14th in points, only 48 behind Bowyer.

Kahne has won two events this year — plus the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, which pays no points. Suddenly, despite all of that, he has the look of a long shot.

But then, so did Jeremy Mayfield in 2004, the first year of the Chase.

Mayfield motored into Richmond that September needing a victory to even make the Chase. Win he did, establishing a standard for drama that at once validated and highlighted NASCAR’s then-new championship approach.

Four years later, more highlights are seemingly on deck.

Here’s a closer look at the three drivers in bubble territory this week, from a Richmond perspective:

Bowyer, like Ragan and Kahne, has limited RIR experience, but he looks like a quick study, a short-track speed-reader of sorts. In four starts he has three top 10s at RIR, including a victory this past May.
Ragan has three Richmond starts in NASCAR Sprint Cup, with one top five and a 17th-place finish in this season’s spring race.
Kahne appears to have the edge in this trio, as far as Richmond is concerned. Consider: Nine starts, one victory, five top 10s. Good stats by any measurement.
Stats aside, it all comes down to one night, one race. This is what was envisioned, when the Chase was instituted.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 10:14 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.