It’s win-and-you’re-in … and with his victory at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday night, Carl Edwards more than likely
locked himself into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
But, with a bevy of different winners so far this season, there’s a key phrase in the above sentence: “more than likely.”
If there are more than 15 winners in the first 26 races, all bets are off – a race winner could be left out of the
Chase. But again, it’s unlikely.
Last year, there were five different winners to start the season – and the regular season still ended with “only” 13
different winners in the first 26 races. The record is 10 different winners to start a season, in 2000.
In other words, if you have won a race, rest easy. You’re likely going to make the Chase Grid come lap 400 at Richmond
in September.
So, if there’s another new winner, who’s the best guess this weekend? It all starts with Jimmie Johnson.
Johnson,
an El Cajon, Calif., native, has won a record five races at Auto Club
Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Johnson
also has the most top fives (12), most top 10s (14), most laps led
(851), top driver rating (119.6) and best average start (9.6) and finish
(5.7). He’s good there.
The six-time champion has finished in the top 10 in 10 of the last 11 races; his worst finish during that stretch was
a 12th last season.
And,
seemingly, he’s due. He has finished in the top six in three of the
first four races this season – and probably
would’ve notched another top 10 if not for a tire issue at Bristol.
He’s tallied double-digit laps led figures in three of the four races,
and scored triple-digit driver ratings in three of the four.
And soon, fans may be standing with him in Victory Lane.
After scraping off some rust in the first three races of the season – he finished 35th, 16th and 33rd – Stewart blistered
through the field at the end of Sunday’s race at Bristol to finish fourth.
Now, after missing 15 races last year because of a broken leg, we may see Stewart win a race – maybe as soon as Sunday
at Auto Club Speedway.
Stewart has won two of the last three races at Auto Club Speedway. Over the last six ACS races, he finished in the
top 10 four times.
The three-time series champion’s new found momentum – and positivity – has a lot to do with the growing pains of life
with a new crew chief, in this case, Chad Johnston.
Johnston had called the shots for Martin Truex Jr. for the past three seasons. Now, a chemistry is building with his
new driver.
“It’s
something I needed, for sure,” Stewart said after the Bristol race.
“Obviously for Chad and I to work together
for the first time for four or five races into the season and be able
to get a top-five at Bristol, that is pretty big for us. We had a really
good car, very balanced and very drivable. Chad just kept working on it
all day and making it better for us.”
Something, Bristol provided a speed bump in an otherwise dreamlike season for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But there’s always another race.
In
Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway, Earnhardt will try to
rebound from his first finish outside the top
two (he finished 24th at Bristol). In 21 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races
at the two-mile speedway, his best finish is a pair of second-place
showings. His first runner-up showing came in September 2006 with the
second one coming last March. In 2012, he finished
third.
With
the natural progression of his improvement over his last two trips to
Auto Club, one might want to believe that
Earnhardt’s due for a win. This thinking might not be too far from the
truth, as Earnhardt was in contention to win late in the Phoenix and Las
Vegas races. His Daytona win and the new Chase qualifying format where a
win all but guarantees a driver a spot
in the postseason has allowed him to race all out for the win every
weekend.
Earnhardt did win the 1998 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Auto Club, so he knows what it takes to win at the track.
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