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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Chase Points Race Still Tight
Just 100 points separate seventh-place Ryan Newman from 13th-place Greg Biffle.
Tom Jensen  |  Posted July 12, 2009   Joliet Ill
Mark Martin’s dominating victory in the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway has put him back into the top 12 (Getty)
Mark Martin’s dominating victory in the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway has put him back into the top 12 in NASCAR Sprint Cup points — for now, anyway.

But with just seven races left until the field is set for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the margin between getting into NASCAR’s playoff round and getting out is razor thin.

An even 100 points are all that separates seventh-place Ryan Newman from 13th-place Greg Biffle. And certainly anyone between Newman and Biffle — a group that includes Kasey Kahne, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kyle Busch, Martin and Matt Kenseth — could easily make the Chase.

And just as easily, anyone of them could just as easily fall out. It all depends on what happens in the next seven races.

But one thing is for certain: Change is imminent and no one from Newman on back is safely in the Chase already.

“I'm not gonna let myself get sucked into all that,” said race-winner Mark Martin. “We were 13th coming here. What we needed to do was lead the most laps and win.”

Which is exactly what he did. Other contenders weren’t nearly as fortunate.

Biffle finished 31st at Chicagoland after two pit-road penalties contributed to a lousy night. That was two positions better than Kyle Busch, who lost an engine in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after being pretty much of a non-factor all night.

Worst of all among the Chase hopefuls was Jeff Burton, 37th after crashing on a restart. Burton came into the race 15th in points, but dropped two spots to 17th, 182 points out of 12th place. That’s not an impossible margin to make up, but it’s a daunting one.

“Double-file restarts four weeks in a row and I have been in wrecks four weeks in a row,” said Burton. “I know it is exciting to watch and I am sure it is exciting to talk about but my perspective right now isn't really good. It has been four weeks that wrecks happened in front of us and we have been in four of them. I am about done with them.”

And so now, the racers will take their fourth and final off-weekend of the season and then head to Indianapolis for the July 25th running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, as the race for the Chase gets ready to head to its conclusion. And who makes the Chase and who doesn’t is still a wide-open question.




Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of ?Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,? and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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