On the Move: Others Closing In On The Top 12 – And Possible Chase Berth

Here’s the beauty of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup: Drivers may be out of the top 12 right now but by no means are they out of championship contention.

The top 12 drivers in points after Race No. 26 at Richmond will qualify for NASCAR’s “playoffs,” meaning the Chase, which consists of the season’s last 10 races.
A number of drivers are on the move in the standings, such as:

• Juan Pablo Montoya, whose seventh-place finish at Texas boosted him to 13th in the points this week. Montoya is bidding to make the Chase for the first time.

• Greg Biffle, an expected championship contender, finished third at Texas and is up to 15th in points.

• The disastrous start experienced by Dale Earnhardt Jr. is finally being balanced by some consistency. Earnhardt is up to a solid 16th in the standings.

• Ryan Newman, the other half of the new Stewart-Haas team, is likewise coming around after a very slow start. He’s up to 17th.

• And then there’s Mark Martin, the series veteran who returned from semi-retirement to full-time driving this year for Hendrick Motorsports. Martin had a top-10 run at Texas and he’s now 18th in points.