On the track, it’s on to Talladega Superspeedway, as the second half of the post-season Chase kicks off with Sunday’s Hellmann’s 400. The twelve remaining title contenders are traveling along a path that will ultimately lead to a championship for one with 1,576.08 “Miles-2-Miami” left before Ford Championship Weekend in November … and elimination for four others after Sunday’s race. Recent wins by Chevrolet drivers Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick have moved them into the next round. Joey Logano and Austin Dillon are presently tied for the final transfer spot into the Round of Eight that opens October 30th at Martinsville Speedway.
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Jimmie Johnson Returned To Victory Lane
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Jimmie Johnson returned to familiar ground on Sunday afternoon – Victory Lane at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He entered the weekend as the track’s all-time leader with seven Cup Series wins. He exits with his eighth career victory on the mile-and-a-half North Carolina oval, punching his ticket into the next round of the post-season Chase. As successful as Johnson has been at C-M-S, his last win there before Sunday came more than two years ago. Johnson got the best of race leader Matt Kenseth on the day’s final restart and drove away to his third win of the season but first since March 20th at Auto Club Speedway, in the fifth race of the year! The six-time champion started eleventh and led a race-high 155 laps in notching his seventy-eighth career victory – beating runner-up Kenseth to the checkered flag by a second-and-a-half. Kasey Kahne finished third, giving Hendrick Motorsports two of the top three spots. Ryan Newman and Kyle Larson completed the top five … Kevin Harvick started from the pole but led just twelve laps before retiring with engine failure late in the first half of the race. Harvick wasn’t the only Chase driver finishing near the bottom of the running order in Charlotte. Denny Hamlin placed thirtieth, also suffering engine failure. Austin Dillon ran thirty-second, rookie Chase Elliott thirty-third and Joey Logano was thirty-sixth in the forty-car field … Kyle Busch, the Number-1 seed in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, started sixth and finished fourth on Sunday. He’s third in the post-season standings, nine points behind leader Johnson.
On The Track, Next Stop is Dover International Speedway
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On The Track, Next Stop is Dover International Speedway for the third race of the post-season Chase, Sunday’s Citizen Soldier 400. The Sixteen Challengers are traveling along a path that will ultimately lead to a championship for one with 2,877.58 “Miles-2-Miami” left before Ford Championship Weekend in November. Four of the sixteen competitors on The Chase Grid will be dropped from title contention before the series heads to Charlotte next week. Drivers currently occupying positions thirteen through sixteen are Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon, three-time champion Tony Stewart and rookie Chris Buescher. Kyle Larson holds the final provisional spot to transfer into the Round of Twelve, five points clear of the cutoff.
Chase Moves To Dover
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The 2016 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup rolls on from New England to the Mid-Atlantic region for Sunday’s Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway. It’s the final race in the opening round. Four of the sixteen competitors on The Chase Grid will be dropped from title contention before the series heads to Charlotte for the October 8th Bank of America 500. Drivers currently occupying positions thirteen through sixteen are Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon, three-time champion Tony Stewart and rookie Chris Buescher. Kyle Larson holds the final provisional spot to transfer into the Round of Twelve, five points clear of the cutoff … Stewart is the only one of those five drivers with a win on “The Monster Mile.” In fact, he has three victories there, winning in 2013 and sweeping both races in 2000. Larson finished second (to Matt Kenseth) in this year’s first stop at Dover back on May 15th. Buescher was eighteenth, McMurray twenty-first and Dillon placed thirty-third … Martin Truex Junior of Furniture Row Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick have locked themselves into the twelve-man field for the next round with victories in the two opening races of this year’s post-season Chase.
Denny Hamlin Grabs The Number 3 Seed With Weekend Victory
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Denny Hamlin took his final lead of the night with seventy-nine laps remaining Saturday at Richmond International Raceway and kept the Number-11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in front through six subsequent restarts, closing the regular season with his third victory of the year and securing the Number-3 seed in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup that opens next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Hamlin’s margin of victory over runner-up Kyle Larson was six-tenths of a second. Martin Truex Junior led a race-high 193 laps and nabbed third place with Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick completing the top five. Hamlin started from the pole and led 189 laps to give J-G-R a season sweep on the three-quarter-mile Fairgrounds oval. Carl Edwards was victorious in April but finished thirty-second in his bid for back-to-back wins there … With The Chase Grid now filled, championship points have been reset. Keselowski and Kyle Busch are tied at the top by virtue of their four victories during the regular season. Busch gets the Number-1 seed by winning the tiebreaker, which is based on second-place finishes. He has three, Keselowski one. With two wins this year, Harvick – the regular-season points leader – holds the Number-4 seed … The four drivers who went into the weekend holding the final four provisional spots in the Chase – Chris Buescher, rookie Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon and Jamie McMurray – came out of the weekend with their post-season tickets punched after finishing among the top twenty-five in the forty-car field.
Race For The Chase Wraps Up At Richmond International Raceway
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With the final weekend of the regular season now looming at Richmond International Raceway, there are three spots still open on The Chase Grid for non-race winners to fill heading into Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 Sprint Cup Series race. Thirteen drivers have been victorious in 2016: Kyle Larson, Matt Kenseth, Kyle and Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Junior, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher. All are within the requisite top thirty of the standings, which currently leaves a maximum of three post-season spots available based on the point standings. Four drivers are in the mix for those final three spots: rookie Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman – who trails McMurray by seven points in the fight for the final “playoff” spot … Any driver who hasn’t yet won but reaches Victory Lane at Richmond would qualify for the post-season, provided that driver is among the top thirty in points, and would reduce the number of spots available based on the regular-season standings … With the post-season now right around the corner, the race for the Number-1 seed on The Chase Grid is coming down to a two-man battle between Kyle Busch (Joe Gibbs Racing) and Brad Keselowski (Team Penske). Each has four victories in 2016. Busch is a four-time winner in the Sprint Cup Series at R-I-R while Keselowski has one victory there. They finished second and eleventh, respectively, in this year’s first race at Richmond on April 24th.
Race For The Chase Rols On To Michigan International Speedway
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Just three Sprint Cup Series races remain in the regular season and four spots are still open on The Chase Grid for non-race winners to fill heading into Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400. Twelve drivers have been victorious thus far in 2016: Matt Kenseth, Kyle and Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Junior, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher. All are within the requisite top thirty of the standings, which currently leaves a maximum of four post-season spots available based on the point standings. Ryan Newman holds a thirty-five-point lead over Trevor Bayne in the fight for what would be the final “playoff” spot. In this year’s first race at Michigan on June 12th, Newman finished eleventh and Bayne placed fifteenth … If the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup began today, Austin Dillon, rookie Chase Elliott and Jamie McMurray would hold the three other spots. Any driver who hasn’t yet won but reaches Victory Lane in one of the next three races would qualify for the post-season, provided that driver was among the top thirty in points, and would reduce the number of spots available based on the regular-season standings.
Kevin Harvick Was “The Closer” Sunday At Bristol
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Kevin Harvick lived up to an old nickname of “The Closer” on Sunday at Bristol, taking command in the second half of the race and leading the final seventy-one laps to notch his second victory of the season. The race ended some twenty-three hours after it originally started on Saturday night, when just forty-eight laps were run before rain moved in and pushed the event to a late-afternoon green flag on Sunday. Kyle Busch started third and was dominant throughout the first half of the race, leading 184 of the first 250 laps. But what appeared to be a broken part on the suspension of his Number-18 Toyota sent the car spinning across the track. Contact from Justin Allgaier ended Busch’s day with a thirty-ninth-place finish. Harvick entered the fray soon after, charging from his Number-24 starting spot to grab his first lead at Lap-286 of five hundred. Harvick ran consistently among the top five the rest of the way, passing Denny Hamlin seventy-one laps from the finish and never looking back to record his thirty-third career win – loosening Joe Gibbs Racing’s tight hold on short-track competition in 2016. Before Sunday, J-G-R had won all three races run on ovals less than one mile in length … Harvick’s margin of victory over runner-up Ricky Stenhouse Junior was two seconds with Hamlin finishing third, Austin Dillon fourth and rookie Chris Buescher fifth – which lifted him into thirtieth place in the point standings as he now becomes eligible for a post-season Chase berth with his win at Pocono earlier this month.
Race To The Chase Resumes At Bristol Motor Speedway
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Four Sprint Cup Series races remain in the regular season and five spots on The Chase Grid are still open heading into Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops
N-R-A Night Race in Bristol, Tennessee. Twelve drivers have been victorious thus far in 2016: Matt Kenseth, Kyle and Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Junior, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher. All are within the requisite top thirty of the standings with the exception of Buescher, currently just three points below the cutoff … Assuming he will climb into the top thirty over the next four weeks, that leaves a maximum of four post-season spots available based on the point standings. Jamie McMurray holds a thirty-point lead over Kyle Larson, his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, in the fight for what would be the final “playoff” spot. In this year’s first race at Bristol on April 17th, neither McMurray nor Larson cracked the top ten, but McMurray had the better of it – finishing thirteenth, twenty-two spots ahead of his teammate … If the Chase began today, Ryan Newman, Austin Dillon and rookie Chase Elliott would hold the three other spots. Any driver who hasn’t yet won but reaches Victory Lane in one of the next four races would qualify for the post-season, provided that driver was among the top thirty in points, and would reduce the number of spots available based on the regular-season standings.
Next Stop Is Watkins Glen International For The Cheez-It 355 At The Glen
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Next Stop Is Watkins Glen International for Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at The Glen. With just five races remaining in the regular season, it appears that twelve of the sixteen spots on The Chase Grid will be filled by race-winning drivers: Matt Kenseth, Kyle and Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Junior, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher. That would leave four post-season spots available based on the point standings. Jamie McMurray currently holds a nine-point lead over Kyle Larson, his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, in the fight for what would be the final “playoff” spot … Six drivers are presently in the mix for those final four spots: Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman, rookie Chase Elliott, McMurray, Larson and Kasey Kahne … Jeff Gordon will make the eight hundredth start of his career at the Glen and his third in the Number-88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, still subbing for Dale Earnhardt Junior who remains sidelined while recovering from a concussion.
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