Amanda’s articles

By Amanda Vincent

With only one race remaining before the Chase cutoff — Saturday night’s Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway — a lot is on the line for several drivers.

With Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Denny Hamlin (the top four drivers in points) safely in the field for the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup, eight spots are still up for grabs, and 11 drivers still have a legitimate shot of laying claim to one of them. On the flip side, 11 drivers, who head into Richmond with dreams of making the Chase still alive, can find themselves on the outside looking in when the actual Chase begins the following weekend in Loudon, N.H.

Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch, Juan Montoya, Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, and Matt Kenseth currently occupy positions five through 12 and hope to stay there through Saturday night’s event. Brian Vickers, Kyle Busch, and David Reutimann are the three currently on the outside looking in who still have a mathematical shot of climbing into the top-12 and knocking someone else out.

“There are a lot of good cars battling for those last few spots, and we’re one of them,” Martin said. “It’s a tough situation.”

Edwards is, perhaps, in the safest position since he has the largest cushion among the drivers aren’t already locked in with a 105-point advantage over 13th-place Vickers; however, a broken right foot could hinder his efforts.

According to Edwards, he’ll probably be wearing a boot on the foot for about seven more weeks, but he doesn’t seem overly concerned about it’ll affect his driving over the coming weeks. He says he only needs about 10 percent strength in the foot to drive his race car, and that amount of strength should be back fairly soon. That’s good news for Edwards’ Chase efforts, but he has to actually get into the Chase first, and at least a decent showing in Saturday night’s Chevy Rock & Roll 400 is necessary for that, unless some of the other Chase hopefuls stumble this weekend.

With the cushion he has, Edwards will clinch a spot with a 24th-place or better finish.

While Edwards has a slight cushion, one of his Roush Fenway Racing teammate has none whatsoever. Kenseth currently sits atop the bubble in 12th.

“We just want to run good and run back up front where I know we belong,” Kenseth, a former series champion, said. “We have the type of people that make up a championship caliber team on the No. 17. We’ve been steady down the stretch, but we are capable of much better. We are concentrated on getting in that Chase, but more important than that we are searching for ways to get this team back up front and leading laps and contending for wins. When you do that all the other stuff tends to fall in line.”

At the opposite end of the spectrum from Edwards, Reutimann would have to be considered a long shot to get in. He’s 132 points out. He would pretty much have to win the race and hope several drivers ahead of him all get together in a big Richmond short track pile-up.

Among the drivers between Edwards and Reutimann are Martin and Busch, the two drivers who are tied for the most wins on the season with four apiece. Busch is on the outside looking in, but is only 37 points behind 12th-place Kenseth. Martin is currently in, but only by 69 points. Richmond is of utmost importance to these two. If one or both don’t make it in, the best points position they could hope to be in for the remainder of the season in would be 13th; however, if one or both of them were to get in, they would lead or be tied for the points lead when the points are reset to start the Chase — a huge jump for just one week.

“This is definitely a long week for me, personally,” Martin said of this week leading up to the Richmond race. “I wish that we had secured our position weeks ago and Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and the guys could all go into this weekend with a little less stress. But that’s not the way it happened. It’s going to be a long night for sure.”

Here are scenarios for how these 11 drivers may get in or shut themselves out of the running for the 2009 championship:

Carl Edwards
Edwards is currently 105 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver’s finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
– 24th or better
– 25th and leads at least one lap
– 27th and leads most laps

Kasey Kahne
Kahne is currently 96 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver’s finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
– 21st or better
– 23rd and leads at least one lap
– 24th and leads most laps

Kurt Busch
Busch is currently 95 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver’s finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
– 20th or better
– 22nd and leads at least one lap
– 24th and leads most laps

Juan Pablo Montoya
Montoya is currently 88 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver’s finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
– 18th or better
– 20th and leads at least one lap
– 21st and leads the most laps

Ryan Newman
Newman is currently 81 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver’s finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
– 16th or better
– 17th and leads at least one lap
– 19th and leads the most laps

Mark Martin
Martin is currently 69 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver’s finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
– 12th or better
– 14th and leads at least one lap
– 15th and leads the most laps

Greg Biffle
Biffle is currently 68 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver’s finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
– 11th or better
– 13th and leads at least one lap
– 15th and leads the most laps

Matt Kenseth
Kenseth is currently 20 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver’s finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
– Second and leads at least one lap
– Third and leads the most laps

Vickers currently sits 13th, 17 points ahead of Busch. He would need to gain 21 points on Kenseth and stay ahead of Busch to clinch a Chase spot.

Busch, 37 points behind 12th, needs to gain 17 points on Vickers and 37 points on Kenseth to clinch.

Reutimann, 132 points behind Kenseth, has an outside shot at clinching. He would have to gain 133 points on Kenseth. A maximum of 161 points can be made up in a given race.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and not this website.

To read more by this author, visit: Louisville NASCAR Examiner