Friday Richmond Notebook

Friday Richmond Notebook

Notebook items include:

·         Jimmie Johnson's prognostication is a good omen for Greg Biffle

·         No pressure?

·         Taking no prisoners

·         Short strokes

Sept. 5, 2014

Jimmie Johnson's prognostication is a good omen for Greg Biffle

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

RICHMOND, Va.—Jimmie Johnson has good news for Greg Biffle—if the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion happens to be right, that is.

Biffle currently is the last driver inside the Chase grid on points, and he'd love for Johnson's handicapping of Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Federated Auto Parts 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on ABC) at Richmond International Raceway to be right on the mark.

"I feel like the winner of tomorrow night's race will either be the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) or the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) or the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski)," Johnson proclaimed before Friday morning's opening practice at the .75-mile short track. 

“So I think points will set the field here at the end, and we’ll get to Chicago and get started.”

That would be just fine with Biffle, who has a clear path to NASCAR's postseason if any one of 15 drivers—including Harvick, Gordon and Keselowski—happens to win Saturday night’s race.

If any of the 13 drivers who have already won a regular-season race should triumph at Richmond, or if Matt Kenseth (already in the Chase on points) or Ryan Newman (the winless driver immediately ahead of Biffle in the standings) should take the checkered flag, Biffle simply has to finish 22nd or better to lock up one of the two remaining Chase spots.

If he leads a lap, Biffle can finish 23rd or better. If he leads the most laps, Biffle can claim a Chase spot by running 24th.

No doubt Biffle won’t mind too much if Johnson’s prediction comes true.

On the other hand, the ideal scenario for the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing team would be for Johnson to be wrong—provided Biffle wins the race.

The 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup kicks off Sept. 14 at Chicagoland Speedway (2 p.m. ET on ESPN).

No Pressure?

With Jimmie Johnson and his team in a relative slump of late, talk of a possible record-tying seventh champion for the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has subsided.

Given Johnson’s prowess on the 10 NASCAR postseason tracks, however, his chances of equaling the number of titles accumulated by Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt can’t be discounted.

To Johnson, though, the record won’t be on his mind—until the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the four remaining drivers in the Chase will race for the championship, with the top finisher among the four claiming the title.

“I don’t think I’ll feel the pressure to try to tie our two greats in our sport until it’s right there in front of me,” Johnson said. “Right now, it’s just the championship.

“If I get to Homestead and have a chance and I’m one of the four, as much as I want to push that out of my mind that I’m racing for history, it will be there and I won’t be able to hide from it at that point.”

Taking no prisoners

With everything that will be on the line in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race at Richmond, don’t be surprised if drivers amp up the level of aggression in the closing laps, says Carl Edwards, a two-time winner in the Sprint Cup Series this year.

“I expect some pretty ruthless racing if a guy has an opportunity,” Edwards said Friday after final Cup practice. “I think you are going to see that not just (Saturday night) but at the third race of the Chase, sixth race and ninth race—and definitely in Homestead.

“NASCAR has done a good job of putting us in a position where a lot can depend on one pass, one lap, one restart. Everything can depend on that, and I think, for us as drivers, sometimes that’s frustrating, but it will definitely create some excitement.”

And just because Edwards is already qualified for the Chase, he doesn’t plan to take it easy in the final regular-season Cup race. After all, the three-point bonus for a victory entering the  Challenger (first) round of the Chase could prove important.

If anyone knows how valuable a point can be, it’s Edwards, who lost the 2011 Sprint Cup championship to Tony Stewart on a tiebreaker.

“If we have a shot to win, we have to go win the race,” Edwards said. “I know how tough Chicago, Loudon and Dover (the first three Chase races) will be, and if we miss the cut by two points and had an opportunity to win this race, it would be hard to sleep on that.

“I think we’ve got a car that could potentially win. I love this place and if we have a shot at it I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t race as hard as humanly possible to get it.”

Short strokes

Brian Vickers cut a tire in the final Sprint Cup practice session and tagged the wall with his No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota. The accident forced Vickers to a backup car…

Hendrick Motorsports announced an expanded sponsorship role for Nationwide Insurance, which will be the primary on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 Chevrolet for 21 races next year, up from the 12 previously announced…

In the wake of an announced date changed to Labor Day weekend next year—the traditional position on the schedule for the Bojangles’ Southern 500—Darlington Raceway announced that Bojangles’ has extended its entitlement agreement for the race through 2019. Track officials told the NASCAR Wire Service on Friday that ticket sales have been brisk since the announcement of the race’s return to the Labor Day date.