Here’s how the points reset works when the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ begins Sept. 16 at Chicagoland Speedway. Each of the 12 qualifiers begins the 10-race competition with 2,000 points.

The top-10 qualifiers then are awarded three bonus points for each victory. Example, based on current standings (locked in drivers):

Jimmie Johnson (three wins) would start the Chase with 2,009 points, Greg Biffle (two wins) 2,006 points and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (one win) 2,003 points.

The two Wild Card qualifiers receive no bonus points regardless of how many times they have won during the regular season.

Kasey Kahne continues to hold the aces in the Chase Wild Card game. His two victories, along with an 11th-place ranking, lead six eligible winners standing 11th through 20th in current points.

There’s a very large asterisk, however, as Kahne has closed to within 11 points of the top 10 and the possibility the first-year Hendrick Motorsports driver can advance to the post season as a seeded Chase qualifier.

Continue reading “Kahne Leads Wild Cards But Could Advance To Top 10”

Three competitors have clinched seeded spots in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ and another – 2003 champion Matt Kenseth – moves to the post season with at least a “wild card” entry. Current points leader Greg Biffle, five-time champion Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. locked up Chase berths at Bristol Motor Speedway over the weekend.

For Biffle, it’s redemption after failing to qualify a year ago. Johnson continues to be the only driver to qualify in each of the nine seasons since the Chase format was adopted in 2004. Earnhardt is in for the second straight year and fifth time overall. Kenseth, a Chase qualifier for the eighth time, and other members of the current top 10 can lock up top-10 positions by holding leads of at least 49 points over 11th place following Sunday’s AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (depending on which driver is in 11th and who wins Sunday’s race, some drivers can leave with a 48-point lead and still clinch a top-10 spot).

Continue reading “Driver Chase Clinch Scenarios: Eight Spots Remain”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Valvoline NextGen Ford Fusion –

WHAT HAPPENED WITH STEWART? “I’m a little confused. I was running the top leading and he got a run and he went into turn one like I wasn’t there and just went straight to the fence. If I wouldn’t have lifted, like he chose not to do the next corner, we would have wrecked, so I let him have it and I got a run back, drove all the way alongside of him and we just kept going. I mean, I lifted down there or else we would have wrecked and he chose not to lift and wrecked us both, so I don’t know. He’s already had two in this series he’s pretty much taken us out of and I told him after Indy I was gonna race him the way he raced me and I did the exact same thing down there that he did down there – the exact same thing, except he didn’t give it to me. I guess he just wanted to do all the taking, so that’s where we ended up.”

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READ TONY’S COMMENTS

Continue reading “Matt Kenseth’s Post Race Comments From Bristol”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/OFFICE DEPOT CHEVROLET – Sidelined in accident with Matt Kenseth on lap 333

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READ MATT’S COMMENTS

WHAT HAPPENED? YOU HAD A GREAT RACE CAR
“We weren’t that great of a race car. But we were definitely faster than that after that restart. I checked-up twice to not run over him (Kenseth) and I learned my lesson there; I’m going to run over him every him every chance I’ve got from now ‘til the end of the year, every chance I’ve got.”

YOU’LL GET THAT HELMET BACK. YOUR AIM WAS PRECISE
“I don’t give a crap. The hell with the helmet.”