It hasn't taken long for drivers in the Chase for the Championship to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. In just two races into the Chase, four drivers have already fallen more than 100 points back from the leader, Jeff Burton. Look for the gaps to increase as the NASCAR Nextel Cup teams head to Kansas Speedway next week.
Of the ten drivers currently in the Chase for the Championship, only one, Jeff Gordon, has an average finish in the top 10 at Kansas. The next closest Chase driver is Jimmie Johnson with a 13th place average finish.
Also expect the following drivers to do well next week:
Tony Stewart - Average Finish 7th
Jamie McMurray - Average Finish 11th
Ryan Newman - Average Finish 12th
Carl Edwards - Average Finish 12th
Next Week's Schedule:
Nextel Cup: @ Kansas Speedway
9/29/06 - 03:40pm NASCAR Nextel Cup Banquet 400 presented by ConAgra Foods Qualifying
9/30/06 - 10:05pm NASCAR Nextel Cup Banquet 400 presented by ConAgra Foods Practice
10/01/06 - 05:05pm NASCAR Nextel Cup Banquet 400 presented by ConAgra Foods
Busch Series: @ Kansas Speedway
9/29/06 - 05:15pm NASCAR Busch Yellow 300 Practice
9/30/06 - 11:05am NASCAR Busch Yellow 300 Qualifying
9/30/06 - 02:05pm NASCAR Busch Series Yellow 300
Craftsman Truck Series off until October 7th at Talladega Superspeedway Mixed Emotions for Richard Childress Racing!Richard Childress must be feeling a bit manic these days. It seems whenever good news comes, it's quickly followed with bad. Coming off of Kevin Harvick's win in the Slyvania 300 last weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway, reports surfaced that RCR manipulated the wheels used on both Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton's cars to gain a competitive advantage. Both drivers vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Next, rewind to yesterday's Dover 400 at Dover International Speedway where points leader Kevin Harvick suffered mechanical problems late in the race that knocked him down to a 32nd place finish. Any disappointment the #29 team felt from a poor finish was quickly erased when their teammate, Jeff Burton, pulled out the win.
While Kevin Harvick fell from the points leader to 5th place (-55 points), Jeff Burton assumed the points lead by 6 points over Jeff Gordon. And so it goes this year, whenever one RCR driver suffers from misfortune, another driver pulls through for not only his team but the entire organization. Maybe this explains why RCR has two drivers in top 5 in points when no other team does. Shop for Kevin Harvick Merchandise NASCAR's Odd Couple | There is a new relationship brewing amongst two drivers currently in the Chase for the Championship. It's a Beauty and the Beast sort of affair between two of the youngest NASCAR talents, Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne.
While most people would fail to understand why these two drivers are running in the same circles (no pun intended), it's clear that they are becoming very close. Take yesterday's Dover 400 for example. Both Kasey and Kyle spent a lot of time together in the garage while all the other Chase drivers were busy on the track. That definitely was eyebrow raising!
Now, if you look at the Chase standings, you'll see that both are snuggled up to each other in 9th and 10th place. Again, very suspicious!
It's puzzling to me why these guys are now getting so attached to each other. However, if things keep moving on the same track (again no pun intended), be sure to tune in to the NASCAR awards banquet in December. There you will definitely see both drivers sitting together at the end of the championship table wiping each other's tears. Dover 400 at Dover International Speedway Recap | Jeff Burton has been one of the unluckiest drivers in the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup season. He has led more laps than most this year, 637 to be exact, to never have finished in first place. Jeff's bad luck must have rubbed off on Matt Kenseth as the two were beating and banging on each other in the closing laps of the Dover 400, however.
Matt Kenseth dominated most of the Dover 400 and led the most laps only to have it taken in the end by Jeff Burton. Both Burton and Kenseth raced each other hard over the final 40 laps of the race. Burton passed Kenseth with 6 laps to go. It was all for nothing though as Kenseth ran out of gas with 2 laps remaining.
Other championship contenders fared as follows:
2. (-6 points) Jeff Gordon started on the pole but failed to lead a lap. Let's hope for Jeff's sake that the missed 5 points for leading a lap do not come into play for the championship
3. (-18 points) A bad fuel decision could have cost Matt Kenseth big time. However, the mistake came at the right time with only 2 laps remaining, and dropped Matt to a 10th place finish.
3. (-18 points) NASCAR's 'Silent Assassin', Denny Hamlin, had a strong yet quiet day. He finished in 9th place and tied for 3rd in the championship standings.
5. (-54 points) Thank goodness you have a 1st place finish from last week's Sylvania 300 to go along with yesterday's 32nd place, Kevin Harvick. Another finish like this one and you'll be sitting at the end of the champion's table in December.
6. (-75 points) A mediocre 14th place finish keeps Mark Martin marred in the middle of the standings. However, 75 points out of 1st with 8 races to go is not a huge deficit.
7. (-102 points) NASCAR's golden boy, Dale Earnhardt Jr, is done for this season. Jr's 21st place finish was not an improvement over his 13th place finish last week.
8. (-136 points) NASCAR's 2006 Mr. Consistency award goes to.....someone other than Jimmie Johnson. Jimmie needed something more than a 13th place finish to help rebound from last week's 39th place finish. What happened to the consistent top 10 finishes were use to?
9. (-182 points) A 38th place finish and you're hopes of winning the 2006 championship are done, Kasey Kahne. Go hang out with Kyle Busch in the garage.
10. (-224 points) A 40th place finish and you're done, Kyle Busch. See #9 above.
|
|
|
