Wins, Not Points, Crucial For Top-10 Competitors

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

Wins, Not Points, Crucial For Top-10 Competitors

After digging himself out of an early-season hole, Kentucky Speedway winner Brad Keselowski has emphatically established himself as a favorite to capture this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. Yes, he’s 10^th in the points standings. But at this stage of the Race to the Chase, points only serve as a qualifier. Were the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ to begin today, Keselowski would be the No. 1 seed thanks to his three victories – each worth three bonus points. That’s a far cry from 2011 when the same number of wins earned the Michigan driver a "wild card" spot in the Chase but by rule no bonus points addition. Drivers ranked one through 10 following the Sept. 8 race at Richmond International Raceway begin the Chase with a base of 2,000 points to which three-point bonuses for victories during the season’s first 26 races are added. Two "wild card" qualifiers also receive 2,000 points but no bonuses for wins.

Three drivers among the current top 10 – Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson – have two wins apiece through the season’s first 17 races.

How important are wins? Consider that one more regular season victory would have made Carl Edwards rather than Tony Stewart the 2011 champion.

Tie-Breaker Adds Wild To ‘Wild Card’ Battle

Kyle Busch, 12^th in NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, holds the No. 1 "wild card" position but after that it couldn’t be closer among three contenders for the final entry into the post season. Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman and Joey Logano each have a victory and have scored an equal number of points – 463. Were the second "card" to be awarded today it would go to Kahne. Why? Because the NASCAR Rule Book breaks ties by comparing drivers’ best finishes: If wins are equal, then seconds, thirds etc. come into play. That’s how Tony Stewart edged Carl Edwards for last year’s title. Kahne’s second-place finish at Kentucky Speedway serves as the current tie-breaker to Newman’s (third) and Logano’s (eighth) next best performances.

Edwards, who won the Daytona 500 Coors Light Pole in February, could render the deadlock moot by winning Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola. Edwards currently is 11^th in the standings working on a victory drought of 50 races.

Kenseth Bids For Sweep That Hasn’t Happened In 30 Years

This week’s Coke Zero 400 will be two-time and defending Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth’s last as a driver for Roush Fenway Racing. It has been 30 years since the same driver won both Daytona races in the same season – further proof that conditions make February and July events completely different propositions. Bobby Allison was the last of four drivers to accomplish the sweep in 1982 at the wheel of a DiGard Racing Buick.

Tony Stewart, whose 32^nd-place finish at Kentucky (ignition issues) dropped the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion to ninth in current points standings, is the most successful recent winner of the Coke Zero 400. Stewart won the race in 2005, 2006 and 2009.

David Ragan won last year’s race in a Roush Fenway Racing Ford but will compete Saturday night for Front Row Motorsports.

Daytona Always Special For NASCAR Hall Of Famer Petty

Richard Petty celebrated his 75^th birthday on July 2 – his age one year greater than his 74 starts at Daytona International Speedway. Petty, who leads all Daytona winners with 10 – three in July’s race, most recently in 1984 – made his first start at the track in 1959. His fabled No. 43 car has won 11 times second only to the 14 Daytona victories of Glen Wood’s No. 21. Both NASCAR Hall of Famers’ cars will compete in the Coke Zero 400 – Trevor Bayne for Wood and Aric Almirola for Petty.

Third Daytona Victory Could Vault Junior Into Points Lead

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s fortunes continue to rise – along with his ranking in NASCAR Sprint Cup points. A fourth-place Kentucky finish, his seventh top five of the season, elevated Junior to second in the standings 11 points behind leader Matt Kenseth. He matched his combined top-five output for the 2010-11 seasons and with 13 top 10s eclipsed last year’s total (12).

This could be the week Earnhardt goes to the top of the points, a position he in which he last appeared on Oct. 3, 2004. The accomplished restrictor-plate racer has won twice at Daytona including the 2001 Coke Zero 400.He’s a five-time Talladega Superspeedway winner including four straight victories between 2001 and 2003.

Many Historic NASCAR Figures Were World War II Veterans

NASCAR and Daytona International Speedway will celebrate An American Salute this week honoring the country’s military heroes. NASCAR founder Bill France, who built sub chasers in Daytona’s boatyard during World War II, established a tradition of bringing Congressional Medal of Honor recipients to the July race in 1969 that continues today with four Vietnam War recipients attending Saturday’s race. Among historic NASCAR figures who served in World War II were NASCAR Hall of Famer Bud Moore, 2013 Hall of Fame inductee Cotton Owens and NASCAR Hall of Fame nominees Red Byron, Raymond Parks, Fireball Roberts and Joe Weatherly.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Etc.

Turner Motorsports, which has won NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races this season, makes its NASCAR Sprint Cup debut this week with former champion and four-time Daytona winner Bill Elliott in its Chevrolet. … Jeff Gordon has won the Coke Zero 400 three times among his six Daytona victories, most by an active driver. A victory would move the four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion  into "wild card" territory. He trails the Kahne-Newman-Logano logjam by 10 points. … Daytona’s July race has been run just three times on July 7 or 7/7. Previous winners were Dale Earnhardt (1990), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2001) and Jamie McMurray (2007). Each win represented the drivers’ first Daytona NASCAR Sprint Cup points victories.