The first official week of summer is here and the “Race to the Chase” heats up heading into Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series LENOX Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
This weekend’s race at the 1.058-mile track marks the first of a 10-race summer stretch that will help decide the 12 drivers who will battle for the championship starting in September.
Tony Stewart leads the Sprint Cup Series standings going into Loudon. Stewart, who was 11th in the standings at this juncture last year, leads Jeff Gordon by 84 markers and holds a 447-point lead over 12th-place Juan Pablo Montoya. In 2008, during this time, the gap from first to 12th was 516 points, with leader Kyle Busch holding a 103-point advantage over second-place Jeff Burton.
This year, Busch is ninth in the standings (402 points behind), and, along with Mark Martin, leads the series with three victories. Each victory in the first 26 events means a 10-point bonus for that driver if they make the Chase.
“Our goal is to make it into the Chase,” said Gordon, who has one victory (Texas Motor Speedway) in 2009. “But, you can’t help but keep an eye on the bonus points. Right now, I know we’re 20 points behind those with three wins, so I’d like to cut — or possibly eliminate — that gap before the Chase begins. Over the next 10 races, we’re looking to build momentum. You want to enter the ‘Chase’ with the competition believing you are the team to beat. And, a win this weekend can do a lot for a team and a driver. The 10 bonus points, as I mentioned, are important.
“But, the first race of the ‘Chase’ is here, and that’s a confidence boost when you return as the track’s previous race winner.”
Like last season, a great battle is shaping up, especially toward the back for the cutoff with a margin of 157 points between seventh-place Denny Hamlin and 16th-place Clint Bowyer.
Last weekend at Infineon Raceway, both Juan Pablo Montoya and Kasey Kahne jumped two spots in the standings with respective finishes of sixth and first. Montoya is 12th and Kahne is 13th, only three points back.
The victory for Kahne couldn’t have come at a better time.
“The timing is perfect because with 10 races to the Chase, we’re right there in the mix,” Kahne said. “We’ve been strong for the last month and really haven’t had the results that we’re looking for. We have our newest, latest cars...our newest, latest engines. To me, it feels like February and we’re about to start the season with all the new stuff that we have.”
Montoya is one of four drivers who were sitting at least 105 points out of 12th in 2008 coming into New Hampshire. Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Mark Martin, who have all competed multiple times in the Chase, are the other drivers that are in the top 12 in 2009.
Martin’s start in Sunday’s LENOX Industrial Tools 301 will be his first at NHMS since 2006.
“When I was looking at scaling back (in 2007 and 2008), that was one of the places that was not up there to keep on my schedule,” Martin said. “I’ve had some good runs at New Hampshire. It’s just a big short track. Definitely, with the way our cars have been at Phoenix and Martinsville and Richmond, we should be good. I wish I was already up there.”
Absent from the top 12, compared to last season, are Jeff Burton (15th) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (20th).
Kahne was the only driver in 2008 that went into New Hampshire in the top 12 and fell out when the cutoff came at Richmond in September. He was ninth at the time and ultimately lost the spot to Kevin Harvick.
