NASCAR Notebook: Eight Battle For Chase Berth

Win and/or hope.

That’s all that’s left for eight drivers battling for the final Chase Wild Card in Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, the 26th and last event in the Race to the Chase.

Who does and doesn’t make this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup largely will be predicated on the success at Richmond of reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart.

Ranked 10th with three victories and a potential nine Chase bonus points, Stewart’s hold on a seeded position is precarious. He clinched at least a Wild Card berth in Atlanta.

Stewart controls his own destiny and those nine potential bonus points. He stays in the top 10 with a Richmond finish of 14th with no laps led, 15th with at least one lap led and 16th with the most laps led. He’s a three-time Richmond winner and finished third in April.

Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon, trailing Stewart by 18, 23 and 35 points respectively, go to the last race of the regular season with mathematical chances of reaching the top 10. Kahne, a two-time winner, and one-race winner Busch are in line for the two Wild Cards under current points.

Five more drivers – Marcos Ambrose, Ryan Newman, Joey Logano, Carl Edwards and Paul Menard – also go to Richmond with varying degrees of hope of qualifying for the Chase.

If Busch, Gordon, Ambrose, Newman or Logano win, and Kahne or Stewart is in the top 10, that new two-win driver would clinch a spot.

This is how the Race to the Chase finale shapes up for each:

• Kahne: A Richmond victory clinches a Wild Card. If Stewart stays in the top 10, Kahne automatically clinches. If Stewart falls out of the top 10, Kahne will clinch a spot if a one-win driver outside the top 10 does not win. If Busch supplants Stewart in the top 10, and Gordon wins, Kahne clinches a spot by finishing 13th or better, 14th with at least one lap led or 15th with the most laps led. Kahne has one Richmond victory and a Driver Rating of 86.6 (12th best). He was fifth in April’s Richmond race.
• Busch: If Stewart remains in the top 10 or if Kahne supplants Stewart in the top 10, and no other one-win driver outside the top 10 wins, Busch will clinch a Chase spot by losing 12 or fewer points to Gordon AND by losing 40 or fewer points to Ambrose. A win would guarantee Busch a Chase berth. Busch is a four-time Richmond winner (including April) and stands second in five key Loop Data categories including Driver Rating (116.1). His average finish is 4.7.
• Gordon:  If Stewart remains in the top 10 or if Kahne supplants Stewart in the top 10, and no other one-win driver outside the top 10 wins, Gordon will clinch by finishing 13 points ahead of Busch AND by losing 28 or fewer points to Ambrose AND by losing 37 or fewer points to Newman. If Busch supplants Stewart in the top 10, Gordon would clinch a Chase berth with a win AND finishing 18 points ahead of Kahne at Richmond. Gordon has won twice at Richmond but not since 2000. He has a sixth-best Driver Rating of 96.2.
• Ambrose: If Stewart remains in the top 10 or if Kahne supplants Stewart in the top 10, and no other one-win driver outside the top 10 wins, Ambrose will clinch by finishing 41 points ahead of Busch AND 29 points ahead of Gordon. A fifth-place finish in the fall of 2010 is Ambrose’s best Richmond effort. His average finish of 16.1 is nearly six positions higher than his average start.
• Newman: Newman can only clinch a Chase berth with a win. If either Busch or Gordon supplants Stewart in the top 10, Newman will be eliminated. Newman’s one Richmond victory came in the fall of 2003. His 464 Quality Passes rank second.
• Logano: Logano can only clinch a Chase berth with a win. If either Busch or Gordon supplants Stewart in the top 10, Logano will be eliminated. His best Richmond finish, fourth, came in the fall of 2010. He finished 24th in April.
• Edwards: Edwards needs to win (47-point win) AND Busch has to finish 24th or worse (with no laps led) AND Gordon has to finish 12th or worse. If Busch or Gordon supplants Stewart in the top 10, Edwards will be eliminated. Edwards led 206 laps in April before a late-race restart penalty relegated him to a 10th-place finish. He finished second in the 2011 fall race.
• Menard: Menard needs to win (47-point win) AND Busch has to finish 34th or worse (with no laps led) AND Gordon has to finish 22nd or worst (with no laps led). If Busch or Gordon supplants Stewart in the top 10, Menard will be eliminated.

All other drivers have been eliminated from Chase contention.

Hamlin Grabs Chase Momentum As Season’s First Back-To-Back Winner

Denny Hamlin has the momentum and the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup bonus points to prove it.

With his fourth victory of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hamlin grabbed the provisional No. 1 Chase seed. Pending results of Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway – where Hamlin counts a pair of victories – he’ll start the Chase with at least 12 bonus points.
Only five-time champion Jimmie Johnson can overtake Hamlin this weekend, and become the No. 1 seed when the Chase begins Sept. 16 at Chicagoland Speedway. If Johnson wins, and Hamlin finishes third or worse, Johnson nabs the No. 1 seed.

You can say Hamlin is peaking at the right time. He’s the first driver to score back-to-back victories in 2012. The Virginian won at Bristol Motor Speedway on Aug. 25. Hamlin’s early season wins came at Phoenix and Kansas, two tracks he’ll visit again during the Chase.

“This was one I wanted real bad. I wanted to win to be the number one seed,” said Hamlin, while congratulating his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota crew for beating then-race leader Martin Truex Jr. off pit road on the race’s final pit stop. “They were just on it all day long. This is a testament to the team (crew chief) Darian Grubb has assembled. … He has assembled a championship-caliber team.”

Grubb is last year’s championship crew chief with Stewart-Haas Racing and Tony Stewart.

Atlanta, as expected, filled the majority of this year’s post-season berths. Hamlin, Truex, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick clinched top-10 regular-season finishes with Stewart guaranteed at least one of the Wild Cards.

They join Johnson, Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who locked up their post seasons at Bristol.

Johnson is in the Chase for the ninth consecutive season. All of this year’s qualifiers, so far, previously have competed in the Chase. Biffle, Bowyer and Truex failed to make the Chase in 2011.

Biffle retained his NASCAR Sprint Cup standings lead by eight points over Earnhardt. The standings will be reset after Richmond with each Chase qualifier receiving a base of 2,000 points. Drivers finishing among the top 10 receive three additional points per victory.

Johnson (fourth) has three victories, as does Keselowski (sixth) and Stewart (10th). Biffle has won twice. Earnhardt (second), Kenseth (third) and Bowyer (eighth) each have won once. Richmond is the final opportunity for Truex (fifth) and Harvick (ninth) to post a pre-Chase victory.

Going Dancing: Michael Waltrip Racing Makes First Chase

Michael Waltrip Racing’s evolution is almost complete. After joining the NSCS full time in 2007 and nabbing its first win in ’09, MWR has clinched a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the first time. In fact, it has clinched two berths. Next up, a series championship.

Don’t think that goal is too far-fetched. Prior to this season, David Reutimann provided MWR with their best finish when he placed 16th in 2009. Headed into the 2012 Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, the organization is guaranteed two drivers in the top 12.

Martin Truex Jr. (fifth) and Clint Bowyer (eighth) have each taken a different path to secure their places in NASCAR’s playoff.

While Truex hasn’t posted a victory yet this season, he’s having a career year. With 11 races left, he’s already tied his single-season record for top-10 finishes with 14 and is one top-five finish away from tying his single-season record (seven) for top fives. Both records were set in 2007, the only other year he qualified for the Chase.

Truex is also on pace to break his personal single-season record of most laps led in a season (581), also established in 2007. He currently has led 416 laps in 2012. His sole win in the NSCS came in 2007 at Dover, which hosts a Chase event. Last weekend in the AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta, he finished fourth after leading prior to the race’s final caution.

Clint Bowyer enters the 2012 Chase having already experienced success in the playoff format when he finished third overall in 2007. He also qualified for the Chase in 2008 and 2010.

Even if Bowyer doesn’t win at Richmond, he will start the Chase with three bonus points after winning at Sonoma in June. In addition to his victory, he has five top-five and 14 top-10 finishes in 25 starts.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Notes

Ken Schrader, who ranks 10th on the all-time NSCS starts list, will make his 750th start on Saturday night in the No. 32 FAS Lane Racing Ford. … Travis Kvapil will make NSCS start No. 200 at Richmond. He has finished in the top 20 in two of the last three races, including a 15th at Bristol, his best finish of the season. … Ryan Newman has one Coors Light pole at Richmond, in September of 2004. With his next pole, he will be the ninth driver to 50 career poles. … Two major driver moves were announced Tuesday: Joe Gibbs Racing announced that Matt Kenseth will join its stable of drivers in 2013; Penske Racing announced that Joey Logano will join its team in 2013.

NASCAR Nationwide Series: Battle For Points Lead Comes Down to Sadler And Stenhouse … Again

It’s déjà vu all over again, only the positions have reversed.
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Last year, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led Elliott Sadler down the homestretch in the hunt for the NASCAR Nationwide Series title. Fueled by two victories at Iowa, Stenhouse went on to capture the 2011 NNS championship by 45 points over Sadler.

In 2011, Stenhouse was able to hang onto the title despite not winning a race in the final 12 events. Although Sadler did not find his way to victory lane in 2011, he consistently had strong finishes that placed him the runner up.

In 2012, as the series heads into its 25th race of the season at Richmond International Raceway for the Virginia 529 College Savings 250, Sadler leads Stenhouse by 12 points. Richmond is Sadler’s home track.

Last weekend, Stenhouse won his fourth race of the season when he beat Brad Keselowski to the checkers by 0.157 seconds in the NRA American Warrior 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Stenhouse’s triumph tied Sadler’s victory count this season.

Stenhouse has also won at Las Vegas, Texas and Iowa, while Sadler has found victory lane at Phoenix, Bristol, Chicagoland and Iowa.

Neither Sadler nor Stenhouse has won a NASCAR national series event at Richmond. In the Sept. 9, 2011, race, Stenhouse finished third and Sadler placed sixth. Neither led a lap. This year’s April 27 affair saw Stenhouse and Sadler come in fourth and sixth, respectively.

Both drivers have separated themselves from third-place Sam Hornish Jr., who sits 32 points outside of first. Austin Dillon (-37) and Justin Allgaier (-94) round out the top five.

Nemechek Looking To Jump Into Top 10

Joe Nemechek is turning a lot of heads this year with his consistency.

Nemechek (569 points) currently sits 11th in the standings, just one point behind Danica Patrick (570); a point away from cracking the top 10. Considering his recent success at Richmond, it is possible that Nemechek could propel himself into the top 10 by the end of the week.

In last year’s September race at Richmond, Nemechek finished 10th, and followed that up with a 13th-place showing this April. Nemechek arrives in Richmond for the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 fresh off back-to-back top-15 finishes at Bristol (11th) and Atlanta (14th).

After 23 races (of a possible 24) this season, he has had 16 finishes in the top 20.

What makes Nemechek’s top-10 bid even more impressive is that his small team has reached this position after not entering June’s race at Road America. The 1992 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion won at Richmond in 1994. In 21 NNS appearances at Richmond, Nemechek has 17 top-20 finishes.

NASCAR Nationwide Series Notes

Travis Pastrana returns to the site of his NNS debut earlier this season at Richmond, where he finished 22nd. However, he will be driving for a different organization this time around. Pastrana will pilot the No. 60 Ford EcoBoost Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. … NSCS regulars Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Hornish and Kurt Busch, who won the NNS race in April will pull double-duty. Harvick has won five times in the series at Richmond. Hamlin has won twice at this home track. … Ryan Blaney (Penske Racing), Ty Dillon (Richard Childress Racing) and Darrell Wallace Jr. (Joe Gibbs Racing) all return to the NNS with powerhouse teams. … This weekend’s NNS race at Richmond will mark Patrick’s 50th start in the series.

Camping World Trucks: Young-Gun Winners Backed By Veteran Crew Chiefs

The 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season has proven to be the most competitive season to date with 11 different winners in 14 races and six first-time winners, eight under the age of 30.

But what about the number of winning crew chiefs in the garage?

There are 20 crew chiefs this season who have collected at least one career NCWTS win. Ten different crew chiefs with five different teams have visited victory lane in 2012 – three for the first time in the series.

Michael Shelton has won three times with James Buescher. Butch Hylton is a double winner with points leader Timothy Peters. Marcus Richmond also has won twice but with two different drivers, Kevin Harvick at Martinsville and Ty Dillon last week in Atlanta.

The three “newcomers” are Mike Shiplett, Kasey Kahne at Rockingham; Daniel Bormann, Justin Lofton at Charlotte; and Harold Holly, Joey Coulter at Pocono.
Holly is the veteran of that group having shared NASCAR Nationwide Series championship laurels with Jeff Green in 2000.

“I’m just thrilled to death for Joey Coulter. He is such a great kid and has worked so hard to get here. This is as big as any of them, win-wise. We have such a strong support group and this team is just great,” Holly said after Coulter’s Pocono win. “I was telling Richard (Childress) that it had been a long time since I last had a win. Joey and I won some ARCA races together but … the last NASCAR win was with Bobby (Hamilton) Jr. in 2004. It’s a great feeling to be back in victory lane.”

Eric Phillips is the leading active crew chief winner in the series and came close to a record-matching 27th victory at Atlanta when Kyle Busch led 75 laps before finishing second. Kyle Busch Motorsports’ general manager Rick Ren is the all-time crew chief leader.

Sunoco Rookie Dillon Makes It 11 Different Winners

Winners, they just keep on coming.

Ty Dillon, who out-dueled Kyle Busch over the final laps of last week’s Jeff Foxworthy’s Grit Chips 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, is the sixth different first-time winner of the 2012 season and the first Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender to break through.

The last freshman to win in series competition was last year’s champion and Dillon’s older brother, Austin, who captured two victories in 2010. Austin Dillon won in his 12th start, Ty in his 17th. There have been rookie winners in only eight NCWTS seasons.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment all of my life. I always dreamed about winning a NASCAR race and maybe one day becoming a champion and today, I accomplished one of those goals,” Ty Dillon said.

Dillon also is the 11th different winner in 14 races making this season the most competitive in NASCAR Camping World Truck history.

With a number of top drivers yet to visit victory lane – four-time champion Ron Hornaday Jr. and veteran Matt Crafton among them – the series record of 14 winners definitely is in play. The record was set in 1998 and matched in 2005.

Points Tighten Significantly With Eight Races Left

A year ago, the first under the current point system, James Buescher’s lead over Johnny Sauter was 12 points with eight races remaining.

Put three drivers under an even smaller umbrella following leader Peters’ 13th-place finish in Atlanta. Peters holds a slim, six-point lead over Buescher, who finished third. Dillon was the biggest beneficiary and has drawn to within nine points in his bid to become the series’ youngest champion at age 20.

Parker Kligerman, the only non-winner among the top seven in the standings, is fourth, trailed by Lofton and Coulter.

This is an open week on the schedule with competition set to resume Sept. 15 at Iowa Speedway. Peters was the winner at the 0.875-mile track in July. The remaining schedule is a mixed bag of tracks: a true superspeedway (Talladega), four intermediates, two short tracks and the Phoenix International Raceway mile. Among current championship contenders, only Peters (Iowa) and Buescher (Kentucky) are winners on those tracks.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Notes

Ryan Blaney, Buescher and Dillon will utilize the open week to compete in Friday’s NNS race at Richmond. Blaney and Buescher finished 8th and 12th, respectively, in April’s event there. … A much-anticipated Busch brothers duel in Atlanta didn’t quite materialize with Kurt Busch finishing 10th. Owner Billy Ballew logged his 10th top-10 finish. … Aric Almirola’s fifth-place Atlanta finish marked the first top five for Wauters Motorsports.