The Race to the Chase for the Sprint Cup countdown begins at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night, as the first of ten races left in the series’ regular season.
Six seats are still available and a win is a virtual lock into the Sweet 16 Chase Grid. With ten winning drivers already on the grid and five of them with multiple victories, there is speculation about whether any new winners will emerge over the next ten races, making points critical for those drivers without a win.
Eleventh Heaven – Who’s Next?
Ten is a ubiquitous number this week. There are ten races left, and ten different tracks. Up to this point, there have been ten different winners – and ten drivers who are thus virtually locked into the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
But there are way more than ten drivers who want to make ‘11’ the number on everyone’s mind – as in ‘11th different driver to win in 2014.’
There are plenty of candidates. Last year during this upcoming ten-race stretch, there were five winners who have so far gone without wins in 2014 – Matt Kenseth won twice, at Kentucky and Bristol, Brian Vickers at New Hampshire, Ryan Newman at Indianapolis and Kasey Kahne at Pocono.
Any one of those talents could conceivably grab the win this Saturday night at Kentucky. The storyline about Kenseth and Newman are in an earlier post; Vickers is below. And now here is Kahne…
Though overshadowed thus far by fellow Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr, who together have six wins, Kahne’s season hasn’t really been all that bad – especially lately.
Kahne finished fifth at Michigan and sixth at Sonoma to move up to 16th in points – and a spot outside of the Chase bubble as Kurt Busch, now 26th in points, would bump Kahne out thanks to his win at Martinsville.
Kahne is strong at Kentucky, finishing second there in 2012.
Hometown Hero Waltrip Hopes For Kentucky Breakthrough
Thought omnipresent at a race track – in either a television studio or walking pit road – Owensboro, Kentucky native Michael Waltrip doesn’t get behind the wheel of a race car all that often anymore.
He has people to do that for him, these days.
And they’ll represent him at his home track of Kentucky Speedway. So, yes, in a way, this is a home race for Kansas native Clint Bowyer and North Carolina native Brian Vickers – the two cornerstones of Michael Waltrip Racing.
This is a big one for more than local pride, of course. Both drivers are without wins this season, and especially in the case of Vickers, in danger of missing the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Bowyer, coming off two consecutive top-ten finishes, has climbed to 14th in points – good enough as one of the Chase Grid drivers were NASCAR’s playoffs beginning today. They’re not. So a win at Kentucky would go a long way and it’s more than possible; Bowyer finished third last year.
Vickers has yet to crack the top-25 at Kentucky, finishing 31st with a DNF last season and 27th in 2011. He’s hit a rough patch of late, a stretch defined by bad luck. His engine gave out at Dover, leading to a 43rd-place finish, and at Michigan, an early accident caused him to limp home in 42nd.
Smartin’ Truex Jr. – The Hits Keep On Coming
It took one lap for Martin Truex Jr.’s hopes of a Sonoma repeat to end. He found himself caught up in a lap one incident, battled a tire problem, and dropped to last place.
All that made Michigan look like a marathon in comparison. There, he made it eight laps before getting caught up in a wreck.
Those two races are a microcosm of Truex’s season. After a strong 2013 campaign – he won his second race and matched a career-high with seven top-fives – Truex moved to Furniture Row Racing, coming off their best season.
So far, it’s been a parade of oddball mishaps. His season opened up with an engine issue that ended his Daytona 500 after 30 laps. And since, not much has gone right – a large chunk of which could be attributed to bad luck.
All that can change this weekend at Kentucky Speedway, a place that has generally been kind to Truex. In three Sprint Cup Series starts there, Truex has two top-tens. Going a bit deeper, he nabbed a runner-up finish in the Nationwide Series in 2005.
A win would cure any ills he and his team may feel. Currently 25th in points, it might be their only path to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Also Noteworthy in the Sprint Cup Series
Joey Logano is making his 200th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start on Saturday night. Over the first 199, Logano has five wins, 33 top-fives and 68 top-tens.
Carl Edwards is attempting to complete the Kentucky NASCAR national series sweep. He already has a Nationwide Series win in 2005 and Camping World Truck Series win in 2003 at the 1.5 mile track. Only Kyle Busch has won in all three series at Kentucky.
Both Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.are nominees for ESPY Awards this year. Both are up for Best Driver, and Johnson is up for Best Championship Performance. Click here to vote: http://espn.go.com/espys/2014/.