The Cool Down Lap: Earnhardt, Bowyer and Stewart are in danger after Kentucky

The Cool Down Lap: Earnhardt, Bowyer and Stewart are in danger after Kentucky

(July 10, 2011)

If Saturday night’s inaugural traffic jamboree at Kentucky Speedway wasn’t a wakeup call for Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer and Tony Stewart, it ought to be.

Those three drivers—all of whom recently appeared to be shoo-ins for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup—are in serious danger of missing out on NASCAR’s postseason, and their performances at Kentucky helped put them in that position.

Stewart, at least, had some speed. Even on old tires and off-sequence on pit stops, the driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet was able to run with the other contenders. Unfortunately for Smoke, his pit strategy didn’t play out the way he hoped it would, and he finished a mundane-though-respectable 12th.

Though he was lapped by race winner Kyle Busch during a long green-flag run in the first half of the race, Earnhardt, too, appeared headed for a mundane-but-respectable finish before blowing a tire and bringing out the next-to-last caution on Lap 253 of 267.

Instead, Earnhardt was scored a disappointing 30th. In the past four races, Earnhardt has finished 21st, 41st, 19th and 30th.

Bowyer fought a barely drivable, loose-handling car from the drop of the green flag. On Lap 262, he spun in Turn 2 and slammed hard into the outside wall. The bad news was that the wreck shortened Bowyer’s car considerably. The good news was that it shortened the amount of time he had to drive it.

Bowyer finished 35th and dropped to 12th in the Cup standings. Under NASCAR’s new wild-card system, 12th is no longer good enough to qualify for the Chase, in and of itself.

Stewart, Earnhardt and Bowyer share one thing in common beyond driving Chevrolets. None has a victory this year, the first in which the number of wins by drivers in positions 11 through 20 in the standings after 26 races will govern who makes the Chase and who doesn’t.

Stewart is 11th in points after Saturday night’s race. Currently, David Ragan (15th) is the only driver in positions 11-20 with a win, but that could change in a heartbeat. Brad Keselowski (21st) is three points outside the top 20, and he has a victory to his credit.

If Keselowski gains one spot in the standings, he could dislodge the 11th-place driver from the Chase.

Stewart has maintained a tenuous flirtation with a Chase-eligible position all season long. Earnhardt, on the other has fallen precipitously over the past month. After the June 12 race at Pocono, Earnhardt was third in the standings, 10 points out of the lead. After Kentucky, he’s eighth, 76 points behind leader Kyle Busch, and fear is threatening to replace euphoria in Junior Nation.

With nothing in the win column, Earnhardt, Stewart and Bowyer are particularly vulnerable, especially as other drivers begin to flex their muscles. David Reutimann ran second at Kentucky in a new-concept car from Michael Waltrip Racing. Reutimann is one win from becoming a player.

So are Juan Pablo Montoya and Marcos Ambrose, either of whom could get into the mix for the Chase by winning the Aug. 14 road-course race at Watkins Glen. So is Kasey Kahne, if his occasional flashes of speed can overcome the inconsistency of his equipment.

Stewart simply needs to find a higher gear to ensure his spot in NASCAR’s postseason. For Earnhardt and Bowyer, a complete change of direction is required—and the elimination of mistakes.

Earnhardt was the instrument of his own destruction Saturday, causing the blowout that cost him a decent finish.

“I slid the left front tire real bad coming onto pit road,” he said. “It was all my fault.”

Over the next eight races, mistakes like that won’t cut it. It’s time for the No. 88 team to regain its focus, before the era of good feeling that has accompanied Earnhardt’s alliance with new crew chief Steve Letarte reverts to the Dark Ages of 2009 and 2010.

All three drivers and their teams must boost their performances over the coming weeks. Like the bumper-to-bumper traffic at the inaugural Cup race at Kentucky Speedway, the race for the Chase is getting extremely congested.

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service