CUP: 10 + 2 Format For Chase In 2011

Sprint Cup

CUP: 10 + 2 Format For Chase In 2011

The two drivers with the most race victories will make it into the Chase...

Tom Jensen | Posted January 26, 2011 Charlotte, NC

Brian France, grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., is NASCAR's chairman and CEO. (Photo: Getty Images)

Twelve NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers will make the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2011 — the top 10 in points and the two drivers not in the top 10 who have the most race victories in NASCAR’s 26-race regular season.

When NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France goes on SPEED live at 7 p.m. ET, he is expected to confirm that arrangement, along with a points system that gives 43 points to race winners and then one-point increments down to just one point for the last-place finisher, sources have told SPEED.com. Each driver who leads a lap will get one bonus point, and regular-season race winners are expected to get two or three Chase bonus points for each victory.

There will be no knockout rounds in the Chase, as NASCAR had hinted at earlier.

FOXSports.com is reporting that the qualifying order for Sprint Cup will be set by practice speeds. The slowest car in the field will be first in time trials until the fastest car on the practice speed chart completes its qualifying run. The Truck Series implemented the same procedure last season. If qualifying is rained out, the lineup will be set by the top practice speeds. In the past, the field has been set by points.

SPEED.com will have much more detail on this story as it develops today and tonight.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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Tom Jensen

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