NASCAR Notebook: Blazing Keselowski Roars Into Atlanta

Six races ago Brad Keselowski was 23rd in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings, 95 points behind 10th-place Denny Hamlin and holding a victory that might have been worthless had he stayed outside of the top 20 in the standings.

Heading to Atlanta Motor Speedway for Sunday’s AdvoCare 500, Keselowski is on the cusp of accomplishing the improbable if not downright impossible.

His third victory of the season last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway gives Keselowski a near lock on one of two wild card spots in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, which begins Sept. 18 at Chicagoland Speedway.

By stringing wins at Pocono and Bristol among four consecutive top-three finishes in the past four races, the 27-year-old Michigan native has erased all but 21 points of his post-New Hampshire deficit. He’s closing on the top 10 – and an automatic Chase berth – at the rate of 19 points per race beginning with a ninth-place performance in the Brickyard 400.

The Top-10 Picture: Locking up a place in the postseason is every athlete’s dream – especially if it’s done early. Five drivers accomplished that goal at Bristol Motor Speedway, locking up one of 10 guaranteed positions in this season’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick comprise the Fortunate Five. Each was part of last year’s Chase. Johnson, bidding for his sixth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup title, is the only driver to qualify for all eight Chases since the championship format was adopted in 2004.

Though unlikely, the rest of the top-10 spots can mathematically be clinched in Atlanta. Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch – winner of the 2004 title in the first season of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup – are the most likely candidates. All three control their own destiny.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart, ninth and 10th, remain on the bubble. Earnhardt is 39 points to the good while Stewart leads 11th place Keselowski and 12th place Clint Bowyer by 21 and 22 points, respectively.

And Then They Reset: Point position is important but the big picture, at least when the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup begins, are bonus points that determine seeding. Each win by a top-10 driver qualifying for the Chase is worth three points and will be added to a base of 2,000 points following next week’s Race to the Chase finale at Richmond International Raceway.

With six more points available – three at Atlanta, three at Richmond – Busch is the provisional No. 1 seed with four wins. Harvick has won three times; Kenseth two. Gordon, should he clinch a top-10 spot, is the only other multiple winner.

The Wild, Wild (Card) East: The bad news for Keselowski should he fall short of the top 10 and qualify for his first Chase as a wild card driver is he’ll forfeit a potential nine points – his three wins – since wild card entrants don’t get bonus points in the re-seeding.

The wild card picture, however, gets wilder if the Penske Racing driver knocks down the top-10 door.

Denny Hamlin, with his victory in June’s race at Michigan, would be the first wild card (and second if Keselowski remains outside the top 10). Hamlin, last year’s runner up to Johnson, ranks 13th.

Should only one winner among the top 20 be eligible, the best-placed non-winner in the standings would gain the final wild card. Right now that would be Bowyer.

Sprint Summer Showdown Throws Down: Four drivers – Marcos Ambrose, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard – have qualified for Sunday’s Sprint Summer Showdown Presented by HTC EVO™ 3D. Now it remains to be seen if one of the four can win the AdvoCare 500 and claim the $3 million bonus to be split equally among driver, driver’s charity and a lucky fan. Keselowski will be racing for two fans, who would receive $500,000 each.

‘Five-Time’, Kyle Busch Getting Ready For Chase Rumble 

Without a doubt, the run-up to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is taking on all the trappings of a heavyweight championship bout.

In one corner, the five-time and defending champion Jimmie Johnson. In the other, Kyle Busch, whose four 2011 victories top all comers. The pair shares the same number of points – 830 – with the tie broken in favor of Busch’s wins.

History suggests the two could go down to next month’s Chase kickoff at Chicagoland Speedway one-two in the standings, although the reset – three bonus points per victory added to a base of 2,000 each top-10 driver – currently favors Busch.

Both competitors have victories at Atlanta Motor Speedway (Johnson three; Busch one), site of Sunday’s AdvoCare 500. Likewise, Johnson and Busch have won at Richmond International Raceway as well.

Where do they stand once the Chase begins? If we’re talking victories, the odds shift to Johnson.

•Johnson’s 53 NASCAR Sprint Cup victories include wins at eight of the 10 tracks comprising this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. He’s missing only Chicagoland – where Busch beat him on an epic restart in 2008 – and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

•Busch, with 23 wins since joining NASCAR’s premier series in 2004, is five-for-10 in wins at Chase tracks. He continues to hunt for the checkered flag at Charlotte, Homestead, Kansas, Martinsville and Texas.

Stewart’s Chase Chances May Hinge On Atlanta Victory Defense

This has not been a Tony Stewart kind of season and the two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion could be skating on the brink of Chase extinction. Stewart is on track to suffer his first winless season since joining the series in 1999.

He’s also finished outside the top 25 in two of his last three starts and hasn’t led a lap over the past five races.

Tenth in the points standings, Stewart has a 21-point cushion with two races remaining before the top 10 and wild card qualifiers for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup are determined. That’s basically half a race, comfortable except for several things:

•The current 11th-place driver, Brad Keselowski, won last weekend at Bristol and has gained 12 positions from 23rd over the past five races.

•Clint Bowyer also remains very much in the mix standing 12th, a single point behind Keselowski.

So where does “Smoke” go from here? Best answer: defend his 2010 AdvoCare 500 victory.

A win helps Stewart two ways. It helps him solidify his top-10 perch and add bonus points to his total when the standings are reset. And, if Keselowski or Bowyer ultimately overtakes him, Stewart would be in a prime position to claim one of two wild card Chase entries.

Jeff Gordon Has Made The Most Of The Race To The Chase

Four time series champion Jeff Gordon has been on a roll during the Race to the Chase. In the last eight races leading up to this weekend, Gordon has scored the most points with 302. The rest of the top-five, highest point-scoring drivers in the Race to the Chase are as follows: Kyle Busch is second with 294; third is Brad Keselowski with 291; fourth is Jimmie Johnson with 290 and fifth is Ryan Newman with 287 points scored during this season’s Race to the Chase.

Gordon is currently sixth in the standings, 48 points behind first, having posted two wins (Phoenix-1, Pocono-1), eight top fives, 12 top 10s and one Coors Light pole (Talladega). He is coming off a dominating performance at Bristol where he led the most laps (206) and finished third.

Look for Gordon to continue his late season success this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The series veteran has made 37 starts at the 1.54-mile speedway posting four wins (1995, ‘98, ‘99, and ‘03), 14 top fives and 23 top 10s. His average starting position at Atlanta is 12.6 and his average finish is 12.4.

Gordon (100.6) is one of only four drivers heading into this weekend at Atlanta with a pre-race Driver Rating of 100.0 or more.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Notes

Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle will race to determine the 2011 “Official Small Business of NASCAR, Courtesy of Office Depot” this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway and possibly deliver a $1 million payday to one of two finalists. Stewart will feature the logo of one finalist on his No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet, while Biffle will carry the logo of a second finalist on his No. 16 3M Ford. The small business featured on the highest-finishing driver’s car will be named the 2011 “Official Small Business of NASCAR, Courtesy of Office Depot,” and if Stewart or Biffle wins the race, the small business on the winning car will walk away with $1 million. Both finalists receive a $10,000 small business makeover from Office Depot and a VIP experience this weekend. … Upcoming milestones: Matt Kenseth will make his 425th series start, David Gilliland will make his 175th series start and Joey Logano will make his 100th series start.

Nationwide Series: Standings Leaderboard Continues To Stay Tight With Nine Races To Go

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Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has led for the last four weeks, but his advantage has slowly trickled away during that span. He was 12 points in front of Peachtree City’s favorite son Reed Sorenson four races ago; Stenhouse now has a precarious, five-point lead over second-place Elliott Sadler. Sorenson is 10 points back in third.

Stenhouse has been racking up bonus points like no other competitor. His 21 bonus points – for leading a lap and leading the most laps in a race – top the series and are the main reason he’s held onto his standings lead. Sadler has nine bonus points while Sorenson checks in with eight.

Stenhouse Jr. is the best out of the three in both pre-race Driver Rating (88.1) and Average Running Position (15.5) at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Sorenson is hoping for a home-track turnaround. In six NASCAR Nationwide Series starts at Atlanta he’s been plagued by four did not finishes (DNF), including an accident that ended his chances last year. A 10th-place result in 2009 is his best finish to date.

Joe Gibbs Racing Setting New Standards Of Success In The Series

When it comes to winning and having success in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, one would be hard pressed to name another team in the past decade that has done more than Joe Gibbs Racing. Off the top, 2009 series champion – and the series new all-time wins leader Kyle Busch – leads the way in the team’s flagship No. 18 Toyota. Busch beat JGR teammate Joey Logano by .019 seconds last Friday night at Bristol, the closest margin of victory (MOV) in series history at Bristol and the seventh-closest MOV in series history. It broke the tie he’d held with Mark Martin and also became the first series driver to 50 wins. Interestingly, Busch has yet to win in NASCAR Nationwide Series competition at Atlanta.

The No. 18 Toyota also leads the owner standings by 50 points over the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Joe Gibbs Racing is going for its fourth consecutive owner championship, which would be a new series record.

Brian Scott, who’s ninth in the driver standings, is coming off his first top-10 finish since May at Charlotte with a 10th-place result at Bristol. Scott, an Idaho native, will run a special paint scheme this weekend on the No. 11 Toyota highlighting Boise State University. The Broncos open their season against Georgia, also on Saturday.

And another young driver will make his team debut with Joe Gibbs Racing as Ryan Truex, the two-time NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion, will be in the No. 20 Toyota that finished second to Busch at Bristol. Truex, 19, who began the season with Pastrana-Waltrip Racing, recently signed with JGR for six, late-season races starting with Atlanta. This will be his series track debut there. He’s also slated to run at Richmond, Chicago, Dover, Kansas, and Phoenix.

Almirola Leading The Way For JR Motorsports This Season

A slow start for Aric Almirola season hasn’t derailed his plans of achieving a successful year and making the most of his opportunity with owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports.

Though Almirola has been ranked in the top 10 in points since the second race of the season he didn’t register his first top-five finish until Chicagoland, where he was fourth after capturing his first series pole since 2007.

Lack of consistency has kept the No. 88 team from challenging the leaders in the standings – until now. Almirola and crew chief Tony Eury Sr. have seemingly found what was missing, which has equaled five top-five finishes in the last seven races and a more manageable 58-point deficit to the standings leader. Also included in that span was an eighth-place at Watkins Glen; his best-ever finish on a road course.

He’s had one previous series start at Atlanta finishing 27th in 2007. He’ll team with Jamie McMurray, the defending Atlanta winner. McMurray will drive the No. 7 Chevrolet. He has two wins at Atlanta, including his first career NASCAR Nationwide Series victory in 2002.

NASCAR Nationwide Series Notes

Upcoming milestones: two-time series champion Kevin Harvick will be making his 275th series start and also goes for his 200th series top-10 finish. Kevin Lepage will attempt to make his 300th series start. Justin Allgaier will make his 100th series start. Aric Almirola will be making his 175th NASCAR national series start. Joe Nemechek will be going for his 75th series top-five finish. … 2010 series champion Brad Keselowski will return to the No. 22 team this week after being out of the car for four weeks due to an injury suffered in a testing accident.

Camping World Trucks: Top Points Contenders Firing On All Eight Cylinders

Bristol Motor Speedway might have been a “wild card” race in some years but not this one. With one exception, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship contenders head for Atlanta Motor Speedway pretty much the same way they entered Thunder Valley.

Three of the four – headed by leader Johnny Sauter, who finished second to Kevin Harvick – finished among the top five.

Sauter gained two points on runner up James Buescher; three points on Timothy Peters. His lead over Buescher is seven points with nine races remaining in the 2011 season.

Odd man out in Bristol was Austin Dillon, who held the standings lead two races ago but trails Sauter by 29 points after consecutive finishes outside the top 20. Dillon ran out of fuel and finished three laps behind in 23rd place.

For now, anyway, it’s a three-driver race.

•Sauter, solid after an up and down mid-season, has scored 14 bonus points overall, most of any competitor.

•Buescher’s amazing, post-Phoenix DNQ streak continues. He leads series points chasers with eight top-five and 12 top-10 finishes.

•Peters, whose Red Horse Racing team owner Tom DeLoach is a native of Statesboro, Ga. and sits on his alma mater Georgia Tech’s Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Advisory Board, has erased 32 points of a 49-point deficit in four races.

Three drivers gained positions at Bristol: Peters fourth to third; Joey Coulter eighth to sixth and Parker Kligerman ninth to eighth. Dillon (fourth) and Matt Crafton (seventh) lost a spot while four-time champion Ron Hornaday Jr. (ninth) dropped two.

Newman, Turner Motorsports Celebrate Life Of Fallen Comrade

Ryan Newman and Turner Motorsports will celebrate the life of outdoors buddy, fellow competitor and employee Beau Slocumb through a special paint scheme arranged by the team and sponsor Realtree.

Newman’s No. 08 Chevrolet will be wrapped in camouflage décor – a tribute to Slocumb, whose passion beyond NASCAR was hunting and fishing. The 26-year-old former Legends and ARCA competitor lost his life to cancer earlier this year.

“He was a good man and it’s just as simple as that,” said Newman, winner of the Atlanta 200 in 2008. “I had asked Ed (Clark, Atlanta Motor Speedway president) for a good place to go fishing in the area and he said ‘why don’t you come down to the Slocumb house?’” The two fished and became good friends.

Slocumb was employed by Turner working on its truck teams. “It was his dream to race a truck,” said Newman noting that his friend’s name will be stenciled above the passenger window.

For more on this story and for a look at the truck, go here.

Bodine, Third Title Likely Gone, Settles Into Spoiler Role

Todd Bodine entered the 2011 season with the high expectation of a third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship. Those dreams were quickly dashed as Bodine’s performance, along with that of Germain Racing, declined significantly from a year ago.

Bodine went through the opening seven races with a single top-five finish and four of 19th or worse. Short on sponsorship, Germain merged its NCWTS operation with that of Randy Moss Motorsports six races ago.

Now driving the No. 5 Toyota, Bodine has rebounded somewhat. He remains winless and an uncharacteristic 10th in the standings. But beginning with a 10th at Iowa Speedway in July, Bodine accumulated a trio of top-10 finishes and nothing worse than 12th.

A championship may be out of reach but Bodine’s performance at Bristol – a season-best matching third – suggests the Bodine-Moss-Germain combination can approach the final third of the campaign as contender for wins. A spoiler’s role isn’t what Bodine might have predicted back in February but it will do for now.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Notes

Four previous Atlanta winners are in this week’s field: Bodine, Newman, Kyle Busch and Ron Hornaday Jr. Busch is the only multiple winner with four, the last in 2009. … Nine of 11 Atlanta races have been decided by 0.971 seconds or less. The closest finish, 0.008 seconds separating Hornaday and Bobby Labonte, came in March 2005. It remains the series’ fifth-closest decision. … Harvick’s Bristol win makes Kevin Harvick Inc. the first NCWTS team to win five or more races in four consecutive seasons.