The Intensity
is Picking Up
July 18, 2006
Jack Lewis - SCR
Two years ago NASCAR's new playoff-style
format debuted, and it met the expectations that critics had made for the "Chase for the Championship". After last year's
not-as-exciting-but-still-nail-biting Race to the Chase, this year's now seven-race shootout should be something to see.
154 points, that's all that separates
third place Jeff Burton from twelfth, place Denny Hamlin in the championship standings. The biggest swing that can occur in
a Nextel Cup race is 156 points, which is if the driver who wins leads the most laps, while the driver in last place leads
no laps.
What that means
is that any one of the nine drivers in positions 3 through 12 in points can switch this weekend at Pocono, as the Cup Series
makes its second trip to Pennsylvania in the last six weeks.
|
|
|
|
Last time the series stopped once
the teams made it to the track, as Denny Hamlin dominated the Pocono 500. Hamlin came back from a lap 51 spin and restarting
40th to go on to win his first career Nextel Cup race. After that win Hamlin entered the coveted top 10 in points, but since
then, he and other drivers such as Greg Biffle (who contended heavily for the title last year) and Jeff Gordon, the 4-time
series champion, have been swapping the 9th through the 12th spots in points. As of now, Gordon and Biffle are tied for 9th,
447 points behind point’s leader Jimmie Johnson. Hamlin is in 12th, 465 makers out.
Currently in 11th is Tony Stewart,
who has had finishes of 25th, 28th, 32nd, 37th, 41st, and 42nd in six of the last eight races, dating back to the Memorial
Day Weekend Coca-Cola 600 where Smoke injured his shoulder. Sunday's race at New Hampshire saw many Chase contenders have trouble, including Stewart, who
was involved in a wreck with Ryan Newman. Stewart finished 37th, dropping him from 7th to 11th in points.
Another contender who had troubles
Sunday was Dale Earnhardt Jr. While running solidly in the top 15 a third of the way through Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools
300, Junior's engine expired in the No. 8 Chevrolet. With no other cars out of the race, Earnhardt finished dead last, and
dropped from 3rd to 7th in points, just 97 points ahead of 11th place Stewart.
While Sunday's race saw many
contenders face problems, it also saw a couple gain a lot of ground, and produce precious points that will be hard to
come by as race number 26 at Richmond approaches.
| For all the lastest short track racing news |
|
|
|
Kyle Busch won the race. He led 107
of the 308 laps, and scored his first win of 2006. Going into Sunday's race, he was 93 points away from then-11th place Greg
Biffle in points. While he didn't solidify a position in the Chase for the Championship, he moved all the way up to 4th in
points, 124 ahead of 11th place.
All the other drivers in 3rd through
12th in points have a story. There are the feel-good stories of comeback driver Jeff Burton, and final-year driver Mark Martin.
There are the fan favorites of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon. There are the young guns of Busch, Kasey Kahne, and Hamlin
the young upstart. There's the defending champion Stewart. There's the driver with the worst luck this year, Greg Biffle.
And then there's a driver who had to take over for a legend, Kevin Harvick. Harvick is trying to make his first Chase in its
three year history. Of these nine drivers, only seven can make it in, unless one of them can be in 11th but within 400 points.
Just think of this, in the past two
years, Jimmie Johnson has scored the second-least amount of points in the races pre-ceding the Chase. If he falters again,
it'll bring those in 11th through about 13th closer to the 400-point mark and maybe just maybe a shot at the championship.
Questions, Comments
Email Jack
The views and opinions in this article are that of the writer and not necessarily that of SCR
|
2006 StockCar Review.
