The Chase for the Sprint Cup championship traveled to Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday night and the standings took a serious shakeup. Matt Kenseth scored his first Chase win, and his third victory of the season, while Jimmie Johnson hit the wall in turn two, demolishing his Lowe's Chevy.
The race began under the lights and polesitter Tony Stewart wasted no time in establishing his dominance. It became evident early on that Matt Kenseth would be a player in the race as well, because he was the only guy who could hang on Stewart's bumper.
Track position was at a premium in this race. The Goodyear tire that the drivers raced on never gave up a whole lot of time coupled with the fact that drivers could not pass anywhere on the racetrack placed huge emphasis on pit strategy. Stewart used two tires to his advantage for the first part of the race, before Greg Biffle grabbed the lead and checked out from the field.
Biffle clearly had the car to beat all night long and the only thing that would stop the 3M team from winning was going to be... well... the 3M team. As it happens, this turned out to be the case. The Biff's pit crew left a lug nut off his right rear tire, forcing the Ford driver to come back in to replace it, losing a lap in the process.
There were several debris cautions in this race and the ensuing pit stops allowed last place starter Kyle Busch to work his way to the front. Busch could lead, but he never got out to the same distance that Stewart and Biffle had earlier. Meanwhile, Kenseth's No. 17 and David Ragan's No. 6 were lurking behind the leaders, waiting to pounce.
As the race wound down, the sparks began to fly. Restarts were wild all night and on a late one, David Ragan drove in too deep under Jeff Gordon, sending the four-time champ spinning into Kasey Kahne. Mark Martin also suffered some trouble when his left front hub wore out, forcing the No. 5 car behind the wall.
Greg Biffle was involved in a wreck as well when Tony Stewart forced the No. 16 car into the wall coming off turn four. Once he came off the wall, Biffle tried to hit Stewart (and wreck him?) and express his displeasure. Later on, Stewart said he did nothing wrong and Biffle said the air off Stewart's car pulled his front end toward the No. 14. So who really knows what happened.
But the biggest moment of the night came when Jimmie Johnson, the five-time defending champion, got loose in turn one, spun down the track, turned back up and stuffed the front end of the Lowe's Impala into the outside wall. Fans will definitely attribute this to the Sports Illustrated cover jinx, as Johnson appeared on the magazine's cover roughly 72 hours before the race. There are still five races left in the year, but this may have been the final blow to Johnson's title hopes, now eighth in points, 35 markers out of first.
The late battle for the lead was an exciting one. Kenseth went high on Busch in turns one and two and low in three and four to get under the No. 18 car and grab the lead for the final time, sending the Fluidmaster Ford to victory lane. This also moved Kenseth up to third in the standings, just seven points behind leader Carl Edwards.
So with Charlotte behind them, the Cup Series boys head to Talladega Superspeedway for what could be the biggest wildcard of the Chase. With no clear cut favorite and the unpredictability of plate racing, who knows what the standings will look like next Sunday. Nascar has also made changes to limit the two car drafting we've seen their recently so nobody really knows what the racing will be like. It's going to be an exciting weekend down in 'Dega so make sure to tune in Sunday to see what happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment