Two are in, and now there are 14 more to go. Who is the next driver to enter the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup?
NASCAR’s Sprint Cup teams are racing 400.5 miles in 267 laps in the Kobalt 400 on Sunday, March 9th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Television coverage begins at 2:30 pm ET on FOX with a Green Flag at 3 pm ET. Radio coverage is on PRN and Sirius XM, channel 90.
Never in the 65-year history of the series has a win held so much importance. It means more than a trip to victory lane and a trophy. It means a berth in the 16-driver Chase for a championship, it means hope.
Dale Earnhardt Jr knows the feeling, winning the Daytona 500 and admitting he can now take bigger swings in hope of piling up victory after victory.
And now Kevin Harvick knows the spoils of a victory. His dominant – and with a Driver Rating of 149.9, near-perfect – win at Phoenix put the Chase directly in his sight.
Both Earnhardt and Harvick are in the Chase unless there are more than 15 different winners in the first 26 races – something that’s happened only twice in the 65-year history of the series. And knowing that, so early in the season, means they should feel pretty confident.
After this weekend, both might feel even better. Another win would leave only two hurdles left to clear to lock up a Chase spot – finishing in the top-30 and attempting to qualify for every race. A second win mathematically guarantees they – or anyone with more than one win – are among the top 15 winners this season.
He’s come close, but Harvick has yet to win a Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas. In 2010, he scored a runner-up finish, part of an overall Vegas record that includes three top-five and five top-tens and an average finish of 12.7. Last season he finished ninth, driving for Richard Childress Racing.
Playing into Harvick’s favor this weekend is his new crew chief, Rodney Childers. This is Childers first visit to Vegas with Harvick, but he has plenty of experience at this track. In seven starts, Childers has led four different drivers at the top of the pit box in Vegas and his best finish is fourth with David Reutimann in 2009.
Harvick’s boss may run just a bit better. Tony Stewart has a Las Vegas win in 2012, along with three top-tens in the last four races at the 1.5-mile track. In 2011 and 2012, he led more than 100 laps per race and last season he finished 11th.
The spring Las Vegas race is always a highlight for brothers Kyle and Kurt Busch since it is their home town track. This time, there’s a brighter spotlight on Kurt after announcing his attempt to race in both the Coca-Cola 600 and the Indianapolis 500 this year on May 25th.
This effort will make Busch the fourth person to race in both events on the same day. One of those four is his boss at Stewart-Haas Racing – Tony Stewart, who has done the ‘double’ twice. John Andretti and Robby Gordon are the other two drivers.
“I’ve always just tried to challenge myself in motorsports,” Kurt told NASCAR.com, “and to be a student of all kind of cars – dirt tracks, road courses, superspeedways, short tracks, open wheel, and of course, our stock cars… it’s a challenge to myself to do something physically and mentally as a driver, and show how tough NASCAR drivers are.”
Busch has been talking seriously about wanting to race in both classic events – the second of which is NASCAR’s longest and most grueling race – since May of last year when he drove an Andretti Autosport car in a rookie test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There wasn’t enough time for Busch to put together a ride in last year’s Indy 500, but with a year of planning, he’s ready for the action this year.
As for this weekend, Kyle has better results at Las Vegas, with consecutive poles in 2008-09, in ten starts. Kurt has a pole and one top-five over a 13-year span. Kyle is the only driver in the series to win from the pole at Vegas.
It’s still early in the season, but there’s another stat worth noting. For the second time in his career, Dale Earnhardt Jr is leading the series’ points for the first two weeks of the season. After winning the Daytona 500 and his second-place finish at Phoenix, Earnhardt is likely causing odds makers to reset his chances of winning the series championship for the first time.
It was ten years ago, since Earnhardt had this sort of start. 2004 was his first Daytona 500 victory, followed by a fifth-place finish at North Carolina Speedway (Rockingham), giving him two weeks at the top of the standings.
After a strong run at Phoenix last week, Earnhardt said,
“I would have loved to have won the race… but our team is performing so well. Got a lot of great chemistry and good communication going back and forth. Everybody’s confidence is high. Everybody’s mood and morale is really high.”
Through the years, Las Vegas has been an iffy proposition for Earnhardt, with seven top-tens, but only two top-fives in 14 starts. An average finish of 15.6 and a Driver Rating of 88.2, is ninth-best in the series, showing consistency in lieu of trips to victory lane. Consistency, takes a back seat under the new Chase format. It’s all about winning; by capturing the Daytona 500, Earnhardt has assured himself a spot in NASCAR’s ‘playoffs’ – the Chase.
Somewhat overlooked is that Earnhardt’s resurgence actually cranked up late last season with eight top-tens in the ten race Chase, including three second-place finishes. That clearly set the bar for this year’s impressive start.
“I was wondering if we would carry on the momentum from last year, running so good in the Chase,” Earnhardt said. “The performance is there for us. Hopefully, we can maintain it. We go to completely different track (this week) at Vegas, but we have a whole day Thursday (during testing) to figure it out.”
Earnhardt and his team continue dialing in his No. 88 for Sunday’s race. In Thursday’s test and in Friday’s practice session, Earnhardt was 19th on both speed charts and he has a starting spot of 14th from the qualifying sessions on Friday. There two more practice sessions on the schedule Saturday, giving the team two more chances for improvement.
Oh, and remember that other guy – Jimmie Johnson? He’s been in the shadows over the last two weeks with Austin Dillon driving the iconic No. 3 and winning the Pole for the Daytona 500. Then Dale Earnhardt Jr won the Daytona 500, capturing everyone’s hearts and minds – and covers with Sports Illustrated. Then Kevin Harvick went to Phoenix and blew the doors off the place. Lots of great stories have swirled around the early weeks of the 2014 season – almost none of which has revolved around the greatest driver of the last decade.
Well, Jimmie Johnson’s break from the spotlight just may come to an end around lap 267 in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 – an intriguing name for a brand that is sometimes on Johnson’s hood.
Johnson has not struggled in the first two-races of the season. He has top-tens at both Daytona and Phoenix, with two Driver Ratings over 100 points. At Las Vegas, Johnson, is one of only two drivers to average top-ten finishes and he has a series-high four victories at the track. He has finished in the top-ten in two of the last three races – leading double-digit laps in both. Johnson has led laps in ten of his 12 starts, which matches Matt Kenseth for most of any driver.
Speaking of Matt Kenseth, he won last year’s Las Vegas event and has three wins at the track – second in the series behind Jimmie Johnson’s four. It’s safe to say another win would be encouraging for Kenseth. Two of his Vegas wins have come in his two best seasons – his 2003 championship-winning year and last year’s championship runner-up finish. His third Vegas victory was in 2004.
Kenseth is all about winning races and the new Chase qualifying format is made-to-order for this sometimes under-estimated driver. During his 2003 championship season, he simply got a bad rap, as he had only one victory and won the title on the strength of 22 top-tens. With the Chase implemented the next season, critics cited Kenseth as the catalyst for the new format even though, in 2002, he had a series-high five victories.
Since, 2004, Kenseth has won 24 times in the Sprint Cup series – including last year’s series-leading seven wins – and another 14 times in the Nationwide Series. Along the way, he has won the Daytona 500 twice. That’s hard-charging by any measurement!
The Kobalt 400 is the first race with the new rules package on a 1.5-mile track this season. 1.5-mile tracks are prevalent on the Sprint Cup Series schedule, so everyone is anxious to see the impact of the new rules package on racing this weekend.
Martin Truex Jr is starting 12th and making his 300th Sprint Cup start on Sunday. Ryan Newman in the No. 31 and starting the race in tenth-place, is also making a milestone start with his 1,000th series start at Las Vegas. Two drivers have won at Las Vegas in the No. 31 – Jeff Burton with four wins and Robby Gordon with three wins. Jeff Burton has the most starts in the No. 31 with 324 and 98 different drivers have started at least one race in the No. 31 car.
This weekend, Burton is making his first start of the season in the No. 66 for Michael Waltrip Racing and is starting in 19-place when the green flag waves.