New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Tony Stewart wants to be like Kurt Busch in 2004. Denny Hamlin wants to mimic the Jimmie Johnson of 2006 and 2010.
Everything can happen over the next nine races. There’s no need for any rushes to judgment, on the positive or negative side of Monday’s race at Chicagoland Speedway.
Only one driver in the seven-plus year history of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has won the first Chase race and went on to win the championship – Busch in 2004. On the other end of the spectrum, a bad start doesn’t always mean a championship deathblow. Johnson finished 25th in last year’s Chase-opener, only to eventually win his fifth consecutive title. In 2006, he opened up the Chase with a 39th-place finish. Hamlin finished 31st at Chicagoland, the worst of the Chase contenders.
Race No. 2 in the Chase might be more indicative of things to come. In four of the seven Chase’s, the eventual championship finished in the top five – and Johnson won each of the last two.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the previous Chase opener, now hosts pivotal race No. 2, this Sunday afternoon, the Sylvania 300.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series action kicks off the weekend, with Saturday afternoon’s running of the F.W. Webb 175. James Buescher successfully defended his first ever points lead, but Chicagoland winner Austin Dillon deflated the cushion to a mere three points.
The NASCAR Nationwide Series heads into an open week this weekend, before heading to Dover International Speedway for its Oct. 1 event.
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