Atlanta Crucial Stop For Top 10, Wild Card Hopefuls

Atlanta Crucial Stop For Top 10, Wild Card Hopefuls

Drivers effectively shut out of the top 10 in the standings have two chances remaining to make this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ via the Wild Card route – Sunday night in Atlanta and Sept. 8 at Richmond.

Ironically, what happens among the top 10 drivers may turn out to be the week’s biggest story.

Slumping of late, three-time winner Tony Stewart has fallen to 10th place, 16 points ahead of Kasey Kahne. Should Stewart fall out of the top 10, his three victories become the defining measure of at least one Wild Card spot.

Stewart is a three-time Atlanta winner, most recently in the fall of 2010.

And if Kahne advances and Stewart falls, five single-win rivals ranked 13th through 18th still would be battling each other for the second Wild Card. Kahne, making his first Atlanta start for Hendrick Motorsports, has won twice for two different owners – Ray Evernham in 2006 and Richard Petty in 2009.

Kyle Busch (13th) is the provisional holder of Wild Card No. 2 followed by Jeff Gordon (14th), Ryan Newman (15th), Marcos Ambrose (16th) and Joey Logano (18th).

Crowded? Yes – and it could get even more so if Carl Edwards joins the party.

Edwards continues to hang onto Wild Card, and even top-10 hopes, by his fingernails. Without a victory since early 2011, Edwards is 12th in the standings, 34 points behind Stewart.

Atlanta can be said to be one of the Missouri driver’s strongest tracks. Edwards scored his first NSCS victory at the 1.54-mile track in the spring of 2005 and repeated in the fall. He also won the 2008 AdvoCare 500.

Edwards’ Atlanta Driver Rating of 101.8 is fourth-best. His 339 Fastest Laps Run are a series best.

He finished fifth in last year’s Atlanta race.

Atlanta isn’t Gordon’s last stand but it’s close – especially considering his record there. Making his first start nearly 20 years ago in November 1992 (he finished 31st), Gordon is the defending AdvoCare 500 champion and counts five of Hendrick Motorsports’ 11 Atlanta victories. Another win by any of HMS’ four drivers would match the Wood Brothers’ track record of 12 wins.

Gordon has a second-best Driver Rating of 104.1, boasts a series-high 501 Quality Passes and has run the second-most Laps in the Top 15 (3,439 laps, 80.9%).

Busch is the only other Wild Card hopeful with an Atlanta victory (spring 2008). Newman counts seven Coors Light Poles, an Atlanta record he shares with Buddy Baker. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver continues his hunt to become the ninth driver with 50 NSCS Coors Light Poles.

Hamlin Rebounds From Vulnerability To Share No. 1 Chase Seed

Sometimes you have to eat crow. News and Notes, Aug. 14 edition, suggested in no uncertain terms that Denny Hamlin’s season was on the brink of disaster.

“Hamlin is vulnerable … [and] has finished 25th or worse in five of eight races,” said the article suggesting that Hamlin, 10th in the standings after a poor performance at Pocono Raceway, could drop out of the top 10 and leave Joe Gibbs Racing without a seeded Chase qualifier. Please pass the ketchup.

With a finish of 11th in Michigan and Saturday night’s resounding victory at Bristol Motor Speedway, Hamlin not only is back in business but battling for the top seed when the standings are reset (more on that on page 2). He’s the fourth driver to score a third victory in the regular season, joining Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart with a provisional nine Chase bonus points.

Hamlin is also 44 points to the good over 11th-place Kasey Kahne.

Hamlin and JGR have to look favorably on the final two events of the Race to the Chase.

Atlanta hasn’t been the Virginian’s favorite stop with just one top five – third in 2008 – at the 1.54-mile 

superspeedway. He has the fifth-best Driver Rating (96.2) and third-fastest Green Flag Speed (171.713 mph).

But the Sept. 8 event at Richmond, where he’s won twice and finished fourth in April, could give Hamlin yet another victory – and three bonus points. To do so, he’ll have to out-race JGR teammate Kyle Busch.

Busch, provisional holder of the second Wild Card, won at Richmond on April 28. The victory was his fourth in as many seasons. Busch has a single victory in Atlanta among three top-five finishes. He’s also won four times in NASCAR Camping World competition and will do triple duty this week. 

‘All In’ Strategy Suits Drivers Who Have Clinched Chase Berths

When the game’s in the bag, there’s no harm in swinging for the fences.

Those are the thoughts of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Greg Biffle – and likely the other competitors who locked up top-10 berths in the Chase last weekend in Bristol.

For them, the regular season effectively is complete. What remains is fine-tuning for the Chase and adding some bonus points to the standings reset. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

“We have been decent in the points so we have kind of tried to step out of the box and do some things to try and learn for the Chase and really be more aggressive with the setup and go for the win and say, ‘Hey, if it doesn’t work we won’t cry over spilled milk,’” Biffle said. “That is all you can do. You can’t flip a switch. 

“We are already running as hard as we can. The thing we can do is take some more chances on the setup, whether it might work for the race or not is basically what we have been doing.”

Biffle is the Chase’s provisional No. 5 seed with victories at Michigan and Texas. He trails five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who also clinched a post-season spot at Bristol, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin and reigning champion Tony Stewart. Each has three victories worth three points apiece.

Eight of the provisional top 10 would start the Chase with bonus points, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., a one-time winner who clinched a spot at Bristol. Two non-winners, Martin Truex Jr. (fifth) and Kevin Harvick (ninth), don’t want to give away points to their rivals before the Chase field hits Chicagoland Speedway on Sept. 16.

Although Harvick has an Atlanta victory (his first, in 2001), neither he nor Truex has been statistically strong at the 1.54-mile track over their careers. Truex (88.9) and Harvick (83.5) rank ninth and 10th, respectively, among drivers in the current top 10.

NASCAR Chase Seedings 101

After race No. 26 at Richmond International Raceway, the 12-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field will be set. The top 10 in points will earn Chase berths, as will the Wild Cards – the two drivers outside the top 10 with the most wins. All 12 drivers will have their points reset to 2,000, but only those in the top 10 will have three points added to their total for each win during the first 26 races. So currently, three-race winner Jimmie Johnson would start the Chase with 2,009 points. Those points totals will set the Chase seeds. Ties will be broken per the rule book (number of wins, then seconds, then thirds, etc.). The two Wild Cards will automatically be seeded 11th and 12th.