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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Newman Leads Contenders
The race for the Chase may become clearer after tonight’s Pep Boys Auto 500...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted September 06, 2009   Hampton, GA
Seventh-place Ryan Newman qualified 23rd for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
Matt Kenseth is currently 12th in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

The preliminaries are over at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and it’s nearly time for the drop of the green flag for the Pep Boys Auto 500, the 25th of 26 races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup regular season.

Next Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, the top 12 drivers in points at the completion of the Chevy Rock ‘N’ Roll 400 will advance to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Tonight in Atlanta, eight drivers will try to state their respective cases for one of the final six spots in the Chase field. Separated by a mere 89 points from seventh-place Ryan Newman to 14th-place Brian Vickers, here’s how they will roll off tonight.

7. RYAN NEWMAN, qualified 23rd; Chase margin: 84 points.

His outlook: “I’m confident with our teams and I’m confident with our abilities, but I just don’t know racing-wise if something crazy is going to happen in front of us or whatever. I’m fully capable of running out of talent, I’ve done it before. It’s just a matter of — you get these two good races in, two top-10 finishes answers everything and we can’t lose there.

8. GREG BIFFLE, qualified 26th; Chase margin: 75 points.
His outlook: “Certainly there’s a lot of pressure. We’ve got to run well here and we didn’t run well here in the spring. This is a good race track for us, though, so we know we just have to
execute good and get our car right for this race and do the best we can. We know it’s not gonna be perfect. We know we’ve got a little ways to go, our program is off a little bit company wide. But we’re gonna fight tooth-and-nail and certainly not give up.”

9. JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, qualified 22nd; Chase margin: 64 points
His outlook: “I think we are pretty good. The last two weeks, at Michigan we didn’t run as well as we wanted but at Bristol I was running second when I had a flat tire. I think we are there. We are very close to getting wins and we are very close of being there every week. So, I don’t see any reason why we are going to go out here and run 25th.”

10. MARK MARTIN, qualified 7th; Chase margin: 60 points.
His outlook: “We do our race the same no matter what and the things we can’t control we just can’t control. We try to do everything we can to control the things we can to get the very best result every race.”

11. KASEY KAHNE, qualified 2nd; Chase margin: 52 points.
His outlook: “ I look at (tonight) as going for it, running as hard as we can, bringing the car home in one piece and getting all the points we can. Hopefully, it handles and things go well. No mistakes, I think we should have a great shot at making the Chase. To me, that’s the goal. That’s all we want to do right now, to figure out how to make the Chase. Everybody wants to be in the Chase.


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