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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Teams Gear Up For Chase
After the LifeLock.com 400, there will be just seven races left until the field is set for the Chase for the Sprint Cup
Tom Jensen  |  Posted July 11, 2009   Joliet Ill
Seventh-place Ryan Newman qualified 23rd for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
The clock is ticking for a whole group of racers hoping to get in — or stay in — the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Saturday night’s LifeLock.com 400 will be the third event in what NASCAR likes to call the “race for the Chase,” the final 10 races in the 26-race Sprint Cup regular season.

For drivers at the teams at the top of the standings, it’s time to solidify their position and maybe earn 10 Chase bonus by winning a race. For the guys a little further back, it’s time to improve their performance if they want to be serious title contenders once the Chase begins in September.

And as the Chase nears, the pressure will only intensify.

“We do what we've done, only we try to do it better,” said Ryan Newman of Stewart-Haas Racing. “We've got ourselves in a position to be in the top 12, but we need to do it better because we're sitting seventh. The last three weeks have been not stellar performances They've been stellar efforts, but not stellar performances. We need to get those performances back, that string of top fives and top 1o's and that'll solidify those eight races. But it's just a matter of doing that. Like we always say, it's easier to sit up here and talk about it and things look great on paper, but everybody has to work together as a team to get those results.”

Greg Biffle, who has had a good but not great season so far, said his Roush Fenway Racing squad is turning up the wick in search of performance. “We know that we have eight more races to make the Chase and it’s important that we have the best possible equipment that we can bring right now,” said Biffle, who is ninth in points. “We’re doing lots of (computer) simulation stuff. We’re doing a little bit of testing at tracks where we can go and simulate some short track scenarios that we feel we’re lacking a little bit on, and we’re wide open. We’re racing as hard as we can. We’re not taking big risks, but, at the same time, we’re racing for the win.”

Biffle’s teammate, Matt Kenseth, is 10th in points, with just a 100-point margin over 13th-place Mark Martin. According to Kenseth, who became a father for the second time this week, it’s business as usual at his Roush Fenway Racing squad.

“We’re really doing everything the same,” he said. “To be honest with you, I’m surprised we’re even in the top 12. We ran not the greatest and finished even worse. For the last few months we just really haven’t had any good finishes. … We’re very, very fortunate to be where we are in the points right now and we all know that we need to start finishing better and need to start finishing at least as good as we’re running or better. We still haven’t been able to do that, so once we start doing that, I’ll think about it more. But, to be honest, I’m just happy and surprised that we’re in it right now.”

Kasey Kahne has moved into 12th place in points, in large part due to his victory a couple of weeks ago at Sonoma, Calif. He wants to see the improvements continue at Richard Petty Motorsports. “I’d say keep building on what we’ve been working on for the last couple of months,” said Kahne. “We’ve had a good couple of months with cars and engines. Everything has been getting better on that side of things.”

As for points leader Stewart, his plan understandably is to stay the course.

“I think every week we’re going out there and trying to win races,” said Stewart, one of the favorites for tonight’s LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. “I think that preparation, if it’s different for the ‘Chase’ then we should have been doing it before anyway. I’m sure the guys will spend, if they have the time available, they’ll spend the extra little time to just make sure for that last 10-week stretch that they take a couple extra minutes on every little detail and make sure that nothing gets overlooked. They’re really good about doing that anyway so I really don’t see there being a whole lot of difference.”




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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