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Sprint Cup
CUP: All On The Line In Richmond
Tonight’s race is the finale of NASCAR’s regular season...
Tony Stewart (Left) and Denny Hamlin (Right) are among the drivers who have a lot at stake tonight at Richmond. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
All week long, the racers already in the field for the Chase for the Sprint Cup have talked about how relaxed they are heading into tonight’s Air Guard 400 at Richmond International Raceway, the final race in NASCAR’s regular season.
Don’t believe them.
From the top of the 12-driver Chase field to the bottom, there’s a lot on the line under the lights at RIR.
Consider some of the scenarios:
• Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick has dominated the NASCAR season, leading the points after 20 of the 25 races run so far. But Harvick has finished outside the top 10 in three of the last four races and hasn’t led a single lap in four of the last five.
He wants to get headed back in the right direction tonight. And that starts with his mindset.
“You don’t go thinking about things that you don’t need to think about,” said Harvick. “It is so easy to beat yourself in this sport and there are so many things you can’t control. ... So there is no reason to worry about those things and you just go out and go as fast as you can.”
• Carl Edwards is on the pole for tonight’s race, but he hasn’t won a race since the 2008 season finale. Four other drivers in the top 12 — Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer — are also winless. And now that he’s running well again, Edwards is ready to win.
“I think when you run poorly for so long, and now that we are running well I see things that I maybe didn’t see before when things were a little easier,” he said. “I can see the spring in the guys’ steps and communication between team members being better. I think all of those things combine to really make you run better. That is the part of momentum maybe I didn’t understand before.”
• Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin have won five races each. But for the most part, the two have been in something of a funk lately. They’d sure like to get back into the victory column and take the points lead headed to New Hampshire next week. Like Harvick, they’re trying to put distractions out of their minds.
“I just want to focus on my job and not over-think things,” said Johnson, winner of four straight titles. “If you get caught up in what everybody else is doing, you are not spending the time on your program that you need to.”
“We’re going to go out there and try to win (tonight) as if it was any other week and hopefully improve our spot by 10 points,” said Hamlin. “We felt like we missed out on an opportunity to do that last week.”
• Tony Stewart, last week’s winner at Atlanta, has earned more points than anyone over the last 10 weeks and wants to keep the momentum going.
“I feel like we’re in a scenario where we’ve got the opportunity to have the most competitive Chase we’ve ever had with the new format,” said Stewart. “There (are) guys that started off the year strong that kind of have flatten off a little bit and there (are) guys that had a weak start to the year that are gaining a lot of momentum. I think it’s hard. I think it’s hard to honestly pick one or two guys that anyone can say are truly the clear-cut favorites.”
• And with tonight’s battle being all about the final 10 Chase bonus points, whether a top-12 driver finishes second or 42nd won’t affect where he ranks heading into New Hampshire, but it will mean an awful lot about how he feels about his chances.
“I think that we’ve got to go into this race with championship-mode in mind,” said Jeff Burton of Richard Childress Racing. “We’ll try to win the race and get into that mindset. I don’t believe that it is in your best interest to turn it off this weekend because in theory it doesn’t count. I believe it is in our best interest to turn it up and be on kill when this race starts ... so we can try to continue that into the next 10 weeks. So that’s our mindset.”
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.
Don’t believe them.
From the top of the 12-driver Chase field to the bottom, there’s a lot on the line under the lights at RIR.
Consider some of the scenarios:
• Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick has dominated the NASCAR season, leading the points after 20 of the 25 races run so far. But Harvick has finished outside the top 10 in three of the last four races and hasn’t led a single lap in four of the last five.
He wants to get headed back in the right direction tonight. And that starts with his mindset.
“You don’t go thinking about things that you don’t need to think about,” said Harvick. “It is so easy to beat yourself in this sport and there are so many things you can’t control. ... So there is no reason to worry about those things and you just go out and go as fast as you can.”
• Carl Edwards is on the pole for tonight’s race, but he hasn’t won a race since the 2008 season finale. Four other drivers in the top 12 — Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer — are also winless. And now that he’s running well again, Edwards is ready to win.
“I think when you run poorly for so long, and now that we are running well I see things that I maybe didn’t see before when things were a little easier,” he said. “I can see the spring in the guys’ steps and communication between team members being better. I think all of those things combine to really make you run better. That is the part of momentum maybe I didn’t understand before.”
• Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin have won five races each. But for the most part, the two have been in something of a funk lately. They’d sure like to get back into the victory column and take the points lead headed to New Hampshire next week. Like Harvick, they’re trying to put distractions out of their minds.
“I just want to focus on my job and not over-think things,” said Johnson, winner of four straight titles. “If you get caught up in what everybody else is doing, you are not spending the time on your program that you need to.”
“We’re going to go out there and try to win (tonight) as if it was any other week and hopefully improve our spot by 10 points,” said Hamlin. “We felt like we missed out on an opportunity to do that last week.”
• Tony Stewart, last week’s winner at Atlanta, has earned more points than anyone over the last 10 weeks and wants to keep the momentum going.
“I feel like we’re in a scenario where we’ve got the opportunity to have the most competitive Chase we’ve ever had with the new format,” said Stewart. “There (are) guys that started off the year strong that kind of have flatten off a little bit and there (are) guys that had a weak start to the year that are gaining a lot of momentum. I think it’s hard. I think it’s hard to honestly pick one or two guys that anyone can say are truly the clear-cut favorites.”
• And with tonight’s battle being all about the final 10 Chase bonus points, whether a top-12 driver finishes second or 42nd won’t affect where he ranks heading into New Hampshire, but it will mean an awful lot about how he feels about his chances.
“I think that we’ve got to go into this race with championship-mode in mind,” said Jeff Burton of Richard Childress Racing. “We’ll try to win the race and get into that mindset. I don’t believe that it is in your best interest to turn it off this weekend because in theory it doesn’t count. I believe it is in our best interest to turn it up and be on kill when this race starts ... so we can try to continue that into the next 10 weeks. So that’s our mindset.”
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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