NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: What’s The Point? One
The battle for a spot in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup is heating up...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted June 08, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Tony Stewart lacks one point of being in position to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
If the Chase for the Sprint Cup started today, Tony Stewart would be one very unhappy man.

As matters stand entering Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway, Stewart is as close to being in the Chase as a driver can be and not actually be in it.

As in one point.

Stewart is 13th in the point standings, a single marker behind 12th-place Clint Bowyer.

How close is that? This close – if Stewart had led a lap at one of the several tracks where he has failed to do so this year, he would have five additional points and be in front of Bowyer.

That’s the value of those “valuable Sprint Cup points” those guys on the radio are always talking about.

Of course, the Chase will not begin this week. A dozen races remain until the Chase cutoff, and several drivers are likely to move into and several other drivers are likely to move out of the Chase group over that period.

Entering Michigan, only 153 points separate ninth-place Carl Edwards from 18th-place Jamie McMurray. And Stewart, in 13th, is only 44 behind Edwards.

So, much can change over the long, hot summer.

Stay tuned.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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