NASCAR Week of July 15, 2013
NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series drivers will scatter to the four winds this week and
enjoy their last break until the 2013 season concludes Nov. 17 at
Homestead-Miami Speedway.
There
will be no vacation, however, for their teams as they prepare for one
of the summer’s signature races, the Crown Royal Presents the Samuel
Deeds 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Bigmachinerecords.com. The
400-mile event marks the 20th season the NASCAR Sprint Cup has competed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
It
likewise signals the beginning of ESPN/ABC television coverage of the
season’s remaining 17 races including the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint
Cup™. IMS Radio and SiriusXM Radio also will air the Indianapolis event
with live broadcasts beginning at 1 p.m. EDT.
Five-time
NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and current points leader Jimmie Johnson is
the defending Brickyard 400 winner. Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports
teammate Jeff Gordon are the co-record holders at Indianapolis with four
victories apiece.
With
the battle for Chase eligibility at a boil, the Indianapolis race can
be seen as pivotal. Five champions – Johnson, Gordon, Tony Stewart,
Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett – have won at the Brickyard in at least
one of their championship seasons. NASCAR Sprint Cup champions,
including NASCAR Hall of Fame member Dale Earnhardt and 2014 inductee
Jarrett, have won 15 of 19 races at Indy.
Eight
among the current top 10 vying for a post-season berth have yet to win
at Indianapolis – Johnson and Kevin Harvick being the exceptions. New
Hampshire continued the parade of top 10 “comers and goers” as reigning
NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski and Kasey Kahne replaced Kurt
Busch and Tony Stewart.
The
current difference between making the Chase on points or as a Wild Card
– or missing the postseason altogether – remains minimal. Tenth-place
Kasey Kahne, holder of a provisional Wild Card and 20th-place Paul Menard – the final Wild Card eligible driver – is a slim, 36 points.
A year ago, the gap between 10th and 11th was 46 points after 19 races.
The
NASCAR Nationwide Series receives no off week as teams travel to
Chicagoland Speedway for the first of two 2013 visits to the 1.5-mile
track in Joliet, Ill. Elliott Sadler, currently fifth to points leader
Regan Smith, is the defending race winner.
Chicagoland’s
STP 300 (3 p.m. EDT, ESPN, MRN Radio, SIRIUSXM Radio) is the third leg
of the Nationwide Dash 4 Cash which rewards the highest of four series
points-eligible qualifiers with a $100,000 bonus. This week’s eligible
drivers are New Hampshire bonus winner Austin Dillon, Brian Vickers, Brian Scott and Michael Annett.
The
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is just a week a week away from its
debut at Eldora Speedway, a .5-mile clay oval in New Weston, Ohio. The 1-800CARCASH
presented by CNBC Prime the Profit Mudsummer Classic marks NASCAR’s
first national series race on a dirt surface since 1970.
Some
of the nation’s top dirt track specialists – i.e., “ringers” – are
expected to challenge series points-eligible drivers for victory in the
150-lap event.
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