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Sprint Cup
HEMBREE: A Gathering Of Eagles
Chase dozen includes 10 NASCAR champions…
Matt Kenseth,(Left) and Clint Bowyer, (Right) celebrate after qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway. (Photo: Getty Images)
Kyle Busch, considered the best pure driver in NASCAR by many observers, won’t be in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Neither will Carl Edwards, one of the sport’s most visible drivers. Ditto Ryan Newman, the Rocketman whose sizzle fizzled this year.
But the dozen drivers who will gather in the nation’s Second City Wednesday to begin the search for stock car racing’s top prize make up an impressive collection of talent and have the potential to produce one of the Chase era’s best runs toward the Sprint Cup championship.
Of the 12 drivers who clawed their way into the playoffs, 10 have won at least one championship in a NASCAR national series. Only Denny Hamlin (oddly, this year’s top seed) and wild-card entry Kasey Kahne lack the bragging rights of a title in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide or Camping World Truck series.
Second seed Jimmie Johnson has the best portfolio, having won the Sprint Cup title from 2006 through 2010, a five-season run that was finally ended last year by Tony Stewart, no title slouch himself with three Cup championships.
Jeff Gordon owns four Cup titles, although it seems like forever since he stood atop the sport. His last title came in 2001.
Matt Kenseth, Sprint Cup champion in 2003 (the last year before the introduction of the Chase format), is the other Cup king in the field.
Brad Keselowski, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. have won Nationwide titles, and Biffle also owns a Truck championship. In fact, Biffle is the only driver in the field who could put together a significant trifecta – championships in Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck. That would be a first.
Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, of course, but it stands to reason that drivers who have been through the difficult grind of winning a seasonal title have a better understanding of the accompanying positives and negatives than those who haven’t.
The favorites entering the Chase would seem to be Johnson, who, after all, has done this five times, and Hamlin, who, although owning no championships, has been on fire in recent weeks and seems to carry the bulk of the momentum into the final 10 races.
Hard to ignore the fire of Keselowski, however, and the tenacity of Biffle, who has come close to this championship previously and once more has placed himself in excellent position to claim it.
And, if a driver could be willed to the title by the forces who support him, Dale Earnhardt Jr., still never a Sprint Cup champion at one month shy of his 38th birthday, would breeze to the title. He, too, has had a consistently fine season – albeit one polished by only one victory.
Last year’s Chase was hijacked by Stewart, a driver who entered the 10-week run saying, basically, that he had as much chance of winning the championship as a teen-age girl has of giving away her cellphone.
Then he did something absolutely astonishing. He won the first Chase race at Chicago. He won the second race at New Hampshire. Over the closing four-week run, he won three times – at Martinsville, Texas and Homestead. Ten races, five wins.
Can anybody do that again?
Very unlikely. If it does happen, however, it might be Stewart again. He is the sort of driver who can accomplish the incredible, particularly when he gets on a roll and has something to prove. In those situations, he can be downright scary.
Michael Waltrip Racing drivers Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. won’t be considered Chase favorites, but the team put two drivers into Chase versus only one for Joe Gibbs Racing, the marquee Toyota team in the garage. MWR has been transformed over the past two years and could make noise over the next 10 weeks.
Forced to pick a champion, I’d go with Johnson. But it’s a long drive to Homestead.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
But the dozen drivers who will gather in the nation’s Second City Wednesday to begin the search for stock car racing’s top prize make up an impressive collection of talent and have the potential to produce one of the Chase era’s best runs toward the Sprint Cup championship.
Of the 12 drivers who clawed their way into the playoffs, 10 have won at least one championship in a NASCAR national series. Only Denny Hamlin (oddly, this year’s top seed) and wild-card entry Kasey Kahne lack the bragging rights of a title in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide or Camping World Truck series.
Second seed Jimmie Johnson has the best portfolio, having won the Sprint Cup title from 2006 through 2010, a five-season run that was finally ended last year by Tony Stewart, no title slouch himself with three Cup championships.
Jeff Gordon owns four Cup titles, although it seems like forever since he stood atop the sport. His last title came in 2001.
Matt Kenseth, Sprint Cup champion in 2003 (the last year before the introduction of the Chase format), is the other Cup king in the field.
Brad Keselowski, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. have won Nationwide titles, and Biffle also owns a Truck championship. In fact, Biffle is the only driver in the field who could put together a significant trifecta – championships in Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck. That would be a first.
Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, of course, but it stands to reason that drivers who have been through the difficult grind of winning a seasonal title have a better understanding of the accompanying positives and negatives than those who haven’t.
The favorites entering the Chase would seem to be Johnson, who, after all, has done this five times, and Hamlin, who, although owning no championships, has been on fire in recent weeks and seems to carry the bulk of the momentum into the final 10 races.
Hard to ignore the fire of Keselowski, however, and the tenacity of Biffle, who has come close to this championship previously and once more has placed himself in excellent position to claim it.
And, if a driver could be willed to the title by the forces who support him, Dale Earnhardt Jr., still never a Sprint Cup champion at one month shy of his 38th birthday, would breeze to the title. He, too, has had a consistently fine season – albeit one polished by only one victory.
Last year’s Chase was hijacked by Stewart, a driver who entered the 10-week run saying, basically, that he had as much chance of winning the championship as a teen-age girl has of giving away her cellphone.
Then he did something absolutely astonishing. He won the first Chase race at Chicago. He won the second race at New Hampshire. Over the closing four-week run, he won three times – at Martinsville, Texas and Homestead. Ten races, five wins.
Can anybody do that again?
Very unlikely. If it does happen, however, it might be Stewart again. He is the sort of driver who can accomplish the incredible, particularly when he gets on a roll and has something to prove. In those situations, he can be downright scary.
Michael Waltrip Racing drivers Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. won’t be considered Chase favorites, but the team put two drivers into Chase versus only one for Joe Gibbs Racing, the marquee Toyota team in the garage. MWR has been transformed over the past two years and could make noise over the next 10 weeks.
Forced to pick a champion, I’d go with Johnson. But it’s a long drive to Homestead.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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