photo credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR

The top-12 drivers in the point standings have been competing in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, a 10-race stretch to determine the championship. Over the course of the Chase, drivers have been mathematically eliminated based on points awarded during each race. With just one race remaining, three drivers have a realistic shot to win this year’s championship. Who will win the 2010 NASCAR championship?

Denny Hamlin? Jimmie Johnson? Kevin Harvick?

Denny Hamlin has been the current points leader after the past two races. Hamlin has won a series-high eight races this year. He turned heads when he had to have emergency surgery to repair a torn ACL during an off-week and then returned the following week to climb back into his car and win the race. This would be his first Sprint Cup title.

Reigning series champion Jimmie Johnson is on his ‘drive for 5′. He has won four consecutive series championships and has been chosen as the favorite to win this year as well. However, this is the first time in the past four years Johnson has found himself second in the point standings at this point in the season.

For Kevin Harvick, he spent much of the ‘regular’ season on top of the point standings. This would be Harvick’s first Sprint Cup championship although he has won two Nationwide Series titles (2001, 2006).

Only 46 points separates first-to-third heading into the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It’s the closest point margin in the Chase for the Sprint Cup since the format debuted in 2004.

Current Chase Standings:

Any one of the three drivers can win making this the closest title race since the Chase began in 2004.

For Hamlin to win the championship regardless of where Johnson or Harvick finishes at Homestead, he must finish second having led the most laps or if he wins.

For Johnson, he must win and lead the most laps regardless of where the other drivers finish.

For Harvick, he must win and lead the most laps with Johnson finishing 4th or worse and Hamlin finishing 7th or worse.

Season Stats (following 35 of 36 races):

Stats at Homestead:

Next:
Sunday, November 21st – Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (season finale)

photo credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR

Even though Edwards has won two consecutive Nationwide races, it was a 70-race winless streak he snapped in the Sprint Cup Series.

“A win is very important to us.  It’s a very big accomplishment for us.  I think it’s something that we needed for our confidence,” Edwards said. “We needed it as a payoff for all the hard work the guys have put in at the shop, the engine department.  It would be nice to get another one at Homestead, but to go into the off-season knowing that we’re getting better, looks like we have a legitimate shot to finish fourth in the points, to be in the All-Star Race next season, to have that energy going forward. All those things are good.”

Edwards led five times for a total of 93 laps Sunday including the final 46. Similar to the other NASCAR events over the weekend at Phoenix, the race ended after a long green flag run rather than multiple late race cautions which has become the norm. Fuel mileage began to come into play as drivers ran 72 laps uninterrupted until the checkered flag. Edwards picked up the lead for the final 46 laps when points leader Denny Hamlin surrendered his lead to pit for gas.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IToW3jOXEU

Edwards didn’t lead the most laps of the afternoon. Denny Hamlin led a race-high 190 of 312 laps until he had to come down pit road for fuel with 14 laps remaining. “Usually we have the best fuel mileage.  That part I just don’t understand,” Hamlin said.  “I can save fuel pretty well, but I was never alerted to save fuel.  So I assumed that everyone was going to have to pit.  I didn’t even think it was a question.”

Coming out of the pits 19th on the track, Hamlin was only able to pedal up to a 12th place finish losing ground in the standings with just one more race left in the season. “Trust me, I’d rather race next week knowing I need to go out there and I need to win the race than knowing I need to finish 15th,” Hamlin said.  “That’s the mentality I’m going to have next week, is to win the race.  Full-court press will be on.  It will be one of those things where you’ll probably see me as aggressive as I’ve been all year.

“It’s just one of those days that happens in racing.  That’s why we run these races.  Strategy is part of it.  Unfortunately we just had the bad end of the strategy today.”

Ryan Newman scored a runner-up finish at Phoenix followed by Joey Logano and Greg Biffle.

Defending series champion Jimmie Johnson finished 5th with Chase contender Kevin Harvick coming in 6th. Neither one of the two drivers chasing Hamlin for the championship led a lap in the race.

Matt Kenseth finished seventh with Mark Martin, Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray rounding out the top-10.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 5 cautions for 25 laps: 3-6 (#71 accident Turn 1); 60-65 (#12 accident Turn 1); 102-105 (Debris on track); 223-228 (#7 spin Turn 3); 235-239 (#38 spin Turn 2)

There were 13 lead changes among 6 drivers: C. Edwards 1-6; Kurt Busch 7-26; C. Edwards 27-60; B. Labonte 61-62; C. Edwards 63-65; D. Hamlin 66-102; C. Edwards 103-105; D. Hamlin 106-170; Kyle Busch 171-172; M. Kenseth 173; D. Hamlin 174-224; Kyle Busch 225-228; D. Hamlin 229-265; C. Edwards 266-312

Kasey Kahne had an unusual incident:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjii03I7UY0

Next:
Sunday, November 21st -- Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (season finale)

photo credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR

It came down to the final restart, a three-lap dash to the finish and holding off Matt Kenseth for Hamlin to score his series-leading eighth win of the season at Texas.

“It was exciting,” Hamlin said about the closing laps. “I was able to side draft the 17 (Matt Kenseth) enough on the front straightaway to keep beside him so where he couldn’t clear me off of (turn) 2, and that was going to be very important. But when he cleared me in the middle of (turns) 1 and 2, he did it by gassing up really aggressive and early and I knew it was going to be a hard time for him to exit the corner that way, and he obviously ran out of racetrack and it opened up the door for us to cross over. For me it was great to win a race that way. I love racing for a win like that. Any driver will tell you if there’s one guy you’re going to trust underneath you, it’s going to be Matt. Obviously it’s great for him to have a good finish and obviously go for a win. But for me, it was very gratifying to win a race that way.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqOKnOHj_Ys

Kenseth held on for a runner-up finish. “I got a really good restart and he (Denny Hamlin) pulled as close as he could to me to get the wind off of me, which in lap 100 you wouldn’t do that to somebody because they’d be mad, but over last ten laps that’s totally fair. I’d probably be trying to do the same thing as much as I could to get the inside guy loose and get him uncomfortable,” Kenseth said. “I probably shouldn’t have been holding the wheel as much as I did but wanted to get a nice run off the corner, and as soon as he got away from my side for whatever reason and got behind me, my car just took off. It just felt like it raised the car half an inch and went straight, and I had to get out of the gas, so I had to keep from hitting the wall. Part of that is the way I tried to drive the corner and part of it was maybe from not having him outside me anymore, not having the car turning as loose as it was when he was there. I don’t know, it was a heck of a race down to the finish. Like I say, you hate it when you get beat.”

Hamlin wasn’t the most dominate driver Sunday afternoon, but was there at the end when it mattered most. “You know, all I can say is just as soon as the shade went down, or the sun went down, our car really seemed to take off, and just a lot of hard work to put it all together,” Hamlin explained. He led twice for 31 laps including the last 28. Hamlin has posted seven top-10 finishes in the past eight races and has won two of the last three giving him the lead in the standings with just two races remaining.

“I’m going to race Phoenix as if I’m 33 (points) behind to be honest with you,” Hamlin said. “There’s no comfortable margin going into Homestead because anything can happen. So for me Phoenix being an up-and-down racetrack for me, I’ve got to really be focused on practice day to get what I need to give Mike the information that I need and just 100 percent stay focused is all I can do. But like I say, I’ll not going to be conservative having the lead. I’m going to want to stretch that out before we get to Homestead. So that’s pretty much my mindset.”

Reigning series champ Jimmie Johnson went home 9th after fighting for track position all day due to several unusually slow pit stops by his team. Second in the standings, Johnson trails Hamlin by 33 points.

“Well, the last four years we have been in a different position,” Johnson said. “I have lost plenty of championships in the past and this is racing and it doesn’t come easy and you are not going to get what you want every single year and every single weekend. I can promise you this. I am trying as hard as I can; I know my team is, and we are doing everything we can. Thirty-three points back is not where we want to be but we are going to work to get back on top.”

Kevin Harvick continues to stay in the hunt for the championship. Finishing sixth, Harvick is 59 points out of the lead.

“It was actually a pretty mellow day,” Harvick said. “I didn’t think we’d be anywhere in the hunt to tell you the truth after practice and they did a great job getting the car ready. When it got dark, our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet, we just got really loose and we got in the wall, twice actually. They fixed that and everything went as good as it could.”

The afternoon at Texas belonged to Greg Biffle. He lead a total of eleven times for a race-high 224 of 334 laps, but suffered transmission problems as the laps ticked down.

“It is really tough,” Biffle said about his day. “We know we have had this problem and have neglected to fix it. We have had numerous opportunities. We had bad drive train vibration problems and today it bit us. It shook the guts out of the transmission today and they still don’t know what it is. They think they know what it is, but I am not sure if they really know.” Still, Biffle was able to hang in there for a 5th place finish.

It was a wild day at Texas rampant with tempers and a pit crew swap.

Following a spin out on lap 160, Kyle Busch was penalized a lap for speeding on pit road angering him enough to give a one finger salute to his pit box official all caught during the live television broadcast. NASCAR penalized Busch two more laps for his behavior.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPB_x8hRaYY

Kyle Busch: “We’ve had fast race cars this whole weekend — probably had a good enough car like Denny’s (Hamlin) to try to win the race, but it’s just real unfortunate there. I got spun out and just everything else went downhill from there. Through the whole day we had a really fast race car and the guys on this M&M’s team gave me a great race car that was fast, that was capable of winning, but it’s just unfortunate that I tried pulling back and getting down to the bottom lane and I got spun out in doing that. Where I had another guy earlier in the race do that to me and I let him in. You get spun out and wrecked like that and you’re not supposed to lose your cool — I mean, hello. I came down pit road and we got the right sides changed and then tried to get back out there. I wasn’t trying to speed, but apparently I must’ve been a couple lights over or something like that on my tac where it was just a small speeding penalty, but it wasn’t intentional. Obviously, I got the penalty for that and then the ensuing ones later. I apologize to all of my guys for letting them down and for getting so behind today that we could never make it up.” Busch finished 32nd, two laps down.

It was a battle between the two Jeffs in the Chase -- Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon that ended in a fist throwing altercation during the seventh caution period.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmDrOqr6O2Q

Jeff Burton: “Coming off of turn four, he (Jeff Gordon) drove underneath me. I should have let him go and I didn’t. The caution came out and he pulled up next to me to tell me he was upset at me and he went on. Then I went to pull up next to him to acknowledge him, to say he was right and I turned left and he was turning left and we just hung up. When we hung, off we went. I honestly don’t know what happened. It was my fault. 100% it was my fault. It was like once we got together, I couldn’t get off of him. I didn’t mean to hit him. I meant to pull up to him and tell him he was right because he was upset with me for what happened off of turn four. I should have let him go. You can’t see off of there right but you can’t see over there right now. You don’t to be side-by-side. I don’t blame him for being for mad. I’d have been mad too.”

Jeff Gordon: “He (Jeff Burton) was trying to talk to me and explain to me what happened. He felt like I came up on him and that he didn’t mean to wreck me but I’m sorry, I will never believe that. I’ve been driving a race car long enough to know what your intentions are and I know what they were there. I think maybe if a guy wrecks you prior to that but I didn’t do anything to him. I was just showing him I wasn’t happy. I didn’t touch him. And he just flat-out wrecked me. I don’t know. The last few weeks have not exactly gone our way and I feel like what happened in Martinsville, I deserved a little bit of that, not all of it but maybe I did some through the past, but I can’t think of anything me and Jeff Burton have ever had a disagreement with that should have led to that.”

Burton left 36th while Gordon was 37th.

With Gordon out of the race and his team mate Jimmie Johnson struggling after troublesome pit stops, the call was immediately made to replace the #48 pit crew with the #24 team.

“All I can do is give 100 percent on my side,” Johnson said. “I don’t train the crew guys. I don’t work on the car. There’s only so much I can do. I’m going all I can and I know Chad (Knaus, crew chief) is and I know these guys are. Even though today it was an embarrassing moment for my over-the-wall guys, they’re giving all they can. Sometimes you just get beat. That’s the way it is and today it just didn’t work out.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3EEeZAOaZY

“Ultimately it is my decision obviously, but we needed to do something,” Knaus said. “This is a team. The 24/48 shop has always operated as a team and that is the way that we see it. It is sad that we had to do that but in interest of Hendrick Motorsports and what we have to do, you have to do that stuff. It is not uncommon. We’ve seen it happen before and we’ll get home and try to get it fixed up and get our boys back.”

It’s the first time in four years that Johnson hasn’t been the points leader at this point in the season.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 9 cautions for 40 laps: 13-16 (Fluid on track); 43-46 (Debris on track); 60-63 (#77 accident Turn 3); 133-136 (#56 accident Turn 4); 152-156 (#56 accident Turn 2); 160-162 (#18 spin Turn 1); 192-200 (#56 accident Turn 3); 301-304 (Debris on track); 329-331 (#26 spin Turn 2)

There were 33 lead changes among 13 drivers:  0; G. Biffle 1-13; R. Gordon 14; G. Biffle 15-43; D. Gilliland 44; M. Bliss 45; M. Martin 46-48; G. Biffle 49-60; P. Carpentier 61; G. Biffle 62-96; M. Martin 97-103; G. Biffle 104-108; J. Johnson 109; D. Hamlin 110-111; M. Martin 112-133; C. Mears 134; J. Logano 135-137; G. Biffle 138-152; A. Lally 153; J. Logano 154-156; G. Biffle 157; J. Logano 158; G. Biffle 159-176; J. Logano 177-194; A. Lally 195-197; J. Logano 198-200; G. Biffle 201-244; K. Harvick 245; M. Kenseth 246-247; G. Biffle 248-286; J. Logano 287-288; G. Biffle 289-301; M. Martin 302-305; D. Hamlin 306-334

Next:
Sunday, November 14th -- Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix International Raceway

photo credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

After the white flag was displayed, a 5-car accident ended the race under caution causing NASCAR to sort the finishing order from the last scoring loop the leaders passed on the track. The process continued to keep officials busy several hours after the race ended. Racing side-by-side, teammates Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick had to wait upwards 5 minutes after the caution flag to find out which one was the winner.

“I thought we had it for sure,” Bowyer said. “Door to door there and all of a sudden Dillon (Mike, spotter) is yelling at me in my ear that the caution was coming out. I looked over to make sure I was ahead of him. I thought I was, but I didn’t know.”

“Cool that it came down to myself and Clint,” runner-up Harvick said. “We didn’t know who won. I knew that we had beat him to the start/finish line, but I didn’t know when the caution had come out. Great day for RCR (Richard Childress Racing). Great day for our points position.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl1Cczj7iRk

“I felt pretty good,” Bowyer said. “I knew I had Juan behind me. I just wanted to have ECR power pushing me and I knew I had a good shot at it (the win). Certainly we did that with Juan (Pablo Montoya). I didn’t know if his motor was going to last but we were fixin’ to find out. He wasn’t going to let off of me and I appreciate his help today. Kevin (Harvick) coming up on the outside.”

It’s the second win during the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for Bowyer, having also won the first Chase race held at New Hampshire. Bowyer was penalized 150 driver points after his car failed post-race inspection dropping him from 2nd to 12th in the standings.

“You know, that deal was, I’m still frustrated. Took the wind out of my sails. The two races after that whole mess, it was a disaster. If we had that back, we were along our normal routine, I don’t think we would have had those bad runs that we’ve had. It’s pretty uncharacteristic of our race team to have those two wins here in the Chase and then three really bad races,” Bowyer said. “It has been very frustrating. Haven’t had much to look forward to. Didn’t have much to look forward to, other than the fact I knew my racecar was very, very fast going into this race. I knew there was a lot of preparation put in place. The engine boys were very happy. When those boys are excited about something, you better get excited as a racecar driver because you’ve got something that is probably going to be an advantage.”

Montoya left third. “The best chance I had to win the race was push Bowyer up front, when we got to the line, try to make a move,” Montoya said. “I’ve been twice here, I’ve been running second or third, whatever. Every time you’re there, a caution comes out on the last lap. If you make a move, then it doesn’t come out and you finish 20th. It’s what it is.”

Bowyer and Harvick’s RCR teammate, Jeff Burton tangled with Dale Earnhardt Jr on lap 135.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IERvajn3vVg

“I got into Jeff and didn’t hit him square and turned him down the race track and ended up wrecking him. We just didn’t hit him square, misjudged the push I was going to give him and did it incorrectly,” Earnhardt said. “Cost his crew a great race car and opportunity to win. He had a really fast car, I apologize to Richard (Childress) and all of those guys over there. My boys too, they worked really hard on my car. We had a terrific engine today and a real fast car. We were racing along there, probably more racing than we should have been doing, but it is fun. I just kind of caught up and got a little over zealous there getting ready to push Jeff there.” Earnhardt was out in front for 24 laps, the most in the race.

“It’s just racing,” Burton said. “Junior and I work really well today and pushed each other a lot. We just didn’t get lined up that time and I guess he got me in the right-rear quarter panel and got me turned around. It wasn’t anything on purpose. We just didn’t get lined up. It’s going to happen some more and things are going to start to get busy right now. It all got started going into Turn 3 and it got three-wide and it kind of changed everbody’s line a little bit and I think I moved a little different than he thought I was going to. He didn’t do anything wrong; it’s just plain and simple racing.”

Burton wound up 41st while Earnhardt went home 39th.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

For lap-by-lap coverage, click here (nascar.com)

There were 6 cautions for 19 laps: 70-73 (#12, 43 accident tri-oval); 135-138 (#1, 31, 88 accident turn 4); 142-145 (#26, 29, 33, 34, 42, 47 accident turn 2); 153-155 (Debris); 182-184 (Debris; 188-188 (#14, 37, 43, 82, 83 accident frontstretch).

There were 87 lead changes among 26 drivers, close to the new record at Talladega of 88 lead changes (among 29 drivers) set this past April.

Only three races remain in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Jimmie Johnson continues to lead the point standings with Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick still in the hunt for the 2010 championship.

Johnson spent the entire race riding in the back until the closing laps of the race when he and his Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon made a serious charge to the front. Johnson lead two laps, but lost drafting help when Gordon dropped back fearing he was losing his engine. Johnson finished 7th.

“We’ve known all along that the No. 11 (Hamlin) and the No. 29 (Harvick) would be strong in all the Chase races; and my good tracks are their good tracks as well. These final three tracks I consider all good ones for the No. 48 team and I know they are for the No. 11 and the No. 29. I think the fans are going to have something exciting to watch and it’s a very, very small points margin right now. I’ve just got to go out and lead laps and win races.”

Hamlin finished 9th after having to come back from being a lap down. Hamlin lead nine laps, himself.

“It wasn’t very fun,” Hamlin described his day. “I didn’t get to race as hard as I would like to at times and thought I was in a good position there. I was actually in a great position with two (laps) to go. I had the 5 (Mark Martin) pushing me, but as soon as we passed the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) he stopped pushing and that’s teamwork. That’s what I would expect of a teammate. We were in a bad spot. We weren’t around our teammates when it counted right there at the end.”

Hamlin was 6 points out of the lead heading to Talladega, but now finds himself 14 points back.

With his runner-up finish, Harvick made some ground on the lead from 62 to currently 34 points.

“We came here to obviously lead some laps, run up front and try to win the race. Obviously we came up one short of that, but we beat the guys that we needed to,” Harvick said on pit road after climbing from his #29 ride.

Next:
Sunday, Nov. 7th -- AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

photo credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images

McMurray led three times for sixty-five laps including the last twenty after passing a dominant Kyle Busch for the lead on the final restart.

“After coming so close in the 600 (at Charlotte) earlier in the season, I really felt like anything less than winning this weekend would have been disappointing,” McMurray said. “We had such a great car in the spring, and it just wasn’t good enough on the short run. And tonight it was very similar to that, and as I was catching Kyle towards the end of the race, I thought as long as the caution came out, I could catch him, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to have enough speed to outrun him in 25 or 30 laps. But man, it was just our night. Our car was unbelievable those last like 25 or 30 laps. It was effortless to drive and it had a lot of speed in it. It was just a really good night for us.”

Similar to his run the night before, Kyle Busch had the most dominant car only to end up fading over the closing laps. Busch had to settle for a runner-up finish after leading a race-high and dominating 217 of 334 laps. Busch finished sixth in Friday night’s Nationwide Series race.

“It was a really great race for us,” Busch said. “The car was phenomenal all night, one of our best cars we’ve ever had. And being able to drive through people, get up back towards the front and stuff at a difficult racetrack to pass at and everything, this was a great run, a surprising run; the run that is we are supposed to have and the runs we are supposed to make happen. You know, it was a great feeling there all up until about 20 to go when we got a caution and then got beat on the caution and then in the ensuing laps to the end. Just very, very frustrating.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u88Nku7YC0

McMurray scored his first Sprint Cup Series win at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October 2002. This is McMurray’s sixth career win and his third win of the season along with his Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 victories.

“Yes, it has been an unbelievable year,” McMurray said. “I certainly can’t thank Chip (Ganassi, team owner) and everybody enough. We’ve had a really good season and we’ve been blessed to have some really good runs in some bigger races. Really, really excited about our success this season.”

The points leader Jimmie Johnson scored his fourth consecutive top-3 finish, but it didn’t seem as if he would be a contender early on. Battling an ill handling car, Johnson went for a spin on lap 34 which set him back through the field as far back as 37th.

“The finish was great, but man, the first half of the race was a disaster for us,” Johnson said. “We felt like we were going to be loose, but we really thought we had the car close enough to maintain and kind of run it top-10, top-15, and we probably did that have. There was a stop early where everybody took two and we took four and went back out, late 20s or something. And at that point I was lined up behind Bobby Labonte, and his car was real slow and he was backing up, and probably five or six cars got by.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCdE_5wppBo

“And as soon as I went on outside to get around, I went on the entry into turn one and as soon as I did that, the car started to step out and turned around on me off of turn two.
At that point I had been there before; I hit that inside wall in the spring. Tried a few things with the steering wheel and pushing the clutch in, and on and off the brake, and had the momentum change and swing back from the inside wall and didn’t hit it, fortunately. From there we got some tires on it of a couple stops and got rolling again. We made some adjustments there to tighten the car up, which let me kind of get comfortable again.”

Johnson extended his lead in the standings from 36 to 41 points over second place Chase contender Denny Hamlin.

Hamlin followed Johnson to the finish line for a fourth place finish. “He’s (Jimmie Johnson) a champion and I’m not,” Hamlin said. “He’s figured this stuff out and he’s got a great team as well as we do, but I haven’t hit the ‘go’ button yet and I feel like there’s still more left with our team. I’m minimizing my risk right now and I feel like if I’m going to have a shot to win this thing when we get to Homestead, I’ve got to minimize those risks. I can’t be sticking it three-wide on restarts and things like that. People do and I don’t. I take a little more conservative approach and it cost me five points here and there every couple races, but the main thing is that I’m not racing my way out of this thing these first five races.”

Chase contenders Greg Biffle finished fifth followed by his teammate Matt Kenseth. Joey Logano finished seventh. Chase contender Kevin Harvick was eighth. David Reutimann and David Ragan round out the top-10.

Polesitter Jeff Gordon experienced alternator problems halfway through the race and finished 23rd, one lap down. “We had an alternator and then that drained the battery and then it shut off,” Gordon explained. “Luckily we were running a second battery. That’s the only thing that really saved us.” Gordon extended his winless streak to 60 races, the longest in his career.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

For lap-by-lap details, click here (nascar.com)

There were 9 cautions for 39 laps: 3-7 (#39 accident turn 3); 25-28 (#2 spin turn 4); 35-37 (#48 spin backstretch); 110-114 (Debris); 125-131 (#9, 77 accident frontstretch); 204-207 (#47 spin turn 4); 240-243 (#7 spin front stretch); 248-250 (#31 spin turn 2); 310-313 (Debris).

There were 27 lead changes among 19 drivers: J. Gordon 1-7; C. Edwards 8; Kyle Busch 9-25; D. Gilliland 26; M. McDowell 27-28; Kyle Busch 29-76; M. Martin 77; J. Burton 78; J. Montoya 79-80; M. Kenseth 81; C. Bowyer 82; P. Carpentier 83; Kyle Busch 84-127; M. Martin 128-135; J. McMurray 136-169; Kyle Busch 170-173; D. Hamlin 174; J. Logano 175; K. Harvick 176; G. Biffle 177; C. Edwards 178; J. McMurray 179-188; J. Johnson 189-203; Kyle Busch 204-292; R. Sorenson 293; A. Allmendinger 294-298; Kyle Busch 299-313; J. McMurray 314-334

Next:
Sunday, October 24th -- Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway
TV coverage begins at Noon on ESPN.

photo credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR

“Awesome day, obviously,” Stewart said. “I’ll be honest, when I woke up this morning I thought if we had a top-10 day that was going to be good, and if we ran in the top-5 today that was going to be an outstanding day.”

More importantly, Stewart picked up his first win during the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and second of the season. Stewart moved up to fifth in the standings, 107 points out of the lead.

“It’s a situation where we were at and as many points as we were out and have been out since day one, we have the flexibility to just look forward and not worry about if we take a gamble and it doesn’t work,” said Stewart. “We still have to be mindful of it, obviously.  But the penalty for us isn’t that great when you’re 10th in points.  You can take a chance, and if it doesn’t work out, what are you losing, two spots? I don’t care between 10th and 12th in points, it doesn’t matter to me.  Neither one of them are acceptable.  If that’s what we get, that’s what we’ll take, but it’s worth taking the gamble to make ourselves better.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2KahW6zJo4

Auto Club Speedway was one of only three tracks on the current Sprint Cup Series schedule that Stewart hadn’t won at. Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway are the remaining two for Stewart now.

“It’s just a very difficult place to get a hold of, and if you can get your car balanced, you really can drive away from the majority of the field and get a pretty big gap there.  But it’s hard to do,” Stewart said. “It’s good, and it’s racy, but man, it’s difficult.  The seams are slick.  The racetrack is slick.  I mean, it’s just a — it’s not an old track, but it sure races like an old, worn-out track.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZHV5r9UbXs

Stewart beat Clint Bowyer to the finish line by .466 seconds. Bowyer led 40 laps during the second half of the race, but did ride up front much of the day after starting 13th.

“A good run was crucial for our race team after what had happened with our win, and we got that today, but I was frustrated I didn’t get a win,” runner-up Bowyer said. “I really, really wanted to win just to set the record straight on what had happened with the last win. We’re capable of winning races, and if we keep doing what we did today, we’re going to win another one.”

Bowyer won the first Chase race at Dover, but was docked 150 points when his car failed post-race inspection. He remains 12th in the point standings, 247 out of the lead.

It was a ‘good points day’ for the series leader, Jimmie Johnson, who finished third. Johnson also collected five bonus points for leading a lap, three times for twenty-two laps, to be precise.

“Our race today was kind of up and down,” Johnson said. “Led some, ran fifth and sixth some and just kind of worked on the car and towards the end of the race got things going in the right direction. I think if it stayed green I was really taking a lot. I was taking big chunks off of Tony’s lead right before that caution came out. If it stayed green, I think there would have been a good race for the win.”

Kasey Kahne was fourth followed by Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon and David Reutimann completed the top-10.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 9 cautions for 36 laps: 41-45 (Fluid On Track); 54-57 (Car #47 Spin Turn 2); 59-61 (Car #99 Stall On Track); 115-118 (Debris); 137-141 (Car #47 Spin Turn 2); 145-147 (Debris); 156-159 (Fluid On Track); 184-187 (Debris); 195-198 (Car #2,6 Accident Front stretch)

There were 23 lead changes among 14 drivers: McMurray 1-14, Kenseth 15-36, Johnson 37-38, Kenseth 39-45, J. Gordon 46, Johnson 47-54, Earnhardt Jr 55-57, Ky. Busch 58-61, Johnson 62-73, Martin 74-96, Gilliland 97, Martin 98-115, J. Gordon 116-125, Bowyer 126-137, Kvapil 138, Bowyer 139-148, Stewart 149-155, Bowyer 156, Montoya 157-159, Stewart 160-167, Bowyer 168-184, Menard 185-187, Smith 188, Stewart 189-200

Next:
Saturday, October 16th -- Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway
TV coverage begins at 7 pm on ABC.

photo credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR

“That’s the first fuel mileage race all year long I think. Nobody wants to see those, you know, but I’m glad it worked out,” Bowyer said. “Everything worked out. I think this sport is as good as it’s been. The racing’s good. The fan turnout this weekend was awesome, and more importantly, I think this Chase is going to be as close as it’s ever been. I mean, when the 12 seed wins the first race, all of those guys that have won races and everything else, it just shows you the level of competition in this Chase.”

For any one of the top-12 drivers, winning the first Chase race is exactly how you want to start the 10-race run for the championship -- even if means taking gambles. Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart and Jeff Burton stayed out on the final caution and took a gamble on fuel. Burton ran out of fuel. Stewart ran out of fuel while in the lead with two laps to go. Bowyer ran out of gas after taking the checkered flag and had to be pushed to victory lane.

“I was trying to save as much (fuel) as I could,” Bowyer explained the closing laps of the race. “I was lifting halfway down the straightaway and not hitting the brakes until you’re almost in the corner and letting it roll around there as long as you could before we picked up the gas. I saw the 11 (Denny Hamlin) coming and then you start worrying about, well, I’m not going to let him pass me. I said, I am go to go run out for it before the guy passes me again. But you want to stay close enough that you’re keeping pressure on him, but you also want to take care of business. That’s something that we take pride with.”

Clint Bowyer was fast all weekend at Loudon. After starting second, he took the lead for the first time on lap 29 and eventually went on to lead a race-high 177 of 300 laps. However, Bowyer found himself running second to Tony Stewart with 50 laps remaining.

Stewart was the next strongest contender of the day, leading 100 laps. “I think I ran me out of fuel,” he said during his post-race interview. Stewart finished 24th as the last car on the lead lap. “We have 9 shows to do it in. We’ll give it our best shot,” he said about the Chase.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnXnt92-iLE

This is Bowyer’s third career victory after breaking an 88-race winless drought. He moved up from 12th to 2nd in the point standings, 35 points behind leader Denny Hamlin. A quick stat: only once has the winner of the first Chase race gone on to win the championship that year as Kurt Busch did so in 2004, the inaugural season.

Denny Hamlin had an up and down day which included a spin on lap 215 that brought out the 5th caution of the day, but Hamlin saved it with a runner-up finish.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UMdMGVIOcg

“The 33 (Clint Bowyer) had a really good car today, the 1 (Jamie McMurray), the 14 (Tony Stewart). Those three cars I felt like were the best cars all day,” Hamlin said. “We never really got to show where our car was at. As soon as we got to the top-3, is when we got spun. We clawed and scratched our way to the front all day to get in position with 80 to go to go for a win. Luckily, it’s a double-edged sword, it made us come in, we had to get fuel and get tires and it gave us the fuel for the end. Typically, our Toyota gets really good gas mileage, so I knew we were going to be fine on fuel right there at the end. So, it was top-6 was where I wanted to leave this day, and so first mission accomplished.”

Jamie McMurray, who was up front for 12 laps, went home third.

“When I passed the 14 (Tony Stewart) for the lead, (I) really thought I was going to be able to drive away,” McMurray said. “I ran a couple laps there and opened up about ten cars and I drove into turn one and the splitter started crashing the ground, so just going to assume that a bump stop or something maybe failed and just let the car over-travel, and the whole last run, I couldn’t use — I couldn’t really use any brakes. If I pushed on the brake hard at all, it would make the splitter crash into the ground. So it was a really good day for us, though. I had a solid weekend and I think this is statistically my worst track so it’s really good for us to come in here and have a solid run.”

McMurray started the year off by winning the Daytona 500 and then the Brickyard 400, but failed to make the Chase.

“We just were really inconsistent earlier in the year and the last couple of weekends we became a lot more consistent,” McMurray said. “We did not have a good car at Richmond at all and we still finished 17th, where earlier in the year we would have finished 25th to 30th and that certainly would have put us in the Chase. We have done a good job , for me, of staying out of trouble and we have had good cars all year long.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished fourth followed by Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, David Reutimann, Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch and Sam Hornish Jr completed the top-10.

Four-time champion Jimmie Johnson was involved in several incidents throughout the day and finished 25th.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 8 caution flags for 34 laps and 21 lead changes among 8 drivers: B. Keselowski 1; T. Stewart 2-25; B. Keselowski 26; R. Gordon 27; J. Nemechek 28; C. Bowyer 29; J. McMurray 30; C. Bowyer 31-43; J. McMurray 44; C. Bowyer 45-97; C. Edwards 98-99; J. Gordon 100-101; R. Gordon 102; C. Bowyer 103-147; C. Edwards 148; C. Bowyer 149-207; C. Edwards 208; C. Bowyer 209-212; T. Stewart 213-237; J. McMurray 238-247; T. Stewart 248-298; C. Bowyer 299-300

For lap-by-lap, click here (nascar.com)

Next:
Sunday, Sept. 26th -- AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway
TV coverage starts at Noon on ESPN

photo credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

Ten drivers had already claimed their spots in the 2010 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup heading into the race weekend at Richmond International Raceway while the remaining two eased their way in. Only the top-12 drivers will get to compete for the championship in the final 10-race stretch known as “The Chase”. They will be seeded according to race wins first and then next-best finish.

The 2010 Chase contenders:

Everybody’s chasing after four-time reigning champion Jimmie Johnson. “Looking at the last month, the 99 (Carl Edwards), the 18 (Kyle Busch), the 11 (Denny Hamlin), hopefully us, the 29 (Kevin Harvick), I think you’ve got five or six cars that can really race for the championship,” Johnson said. “And then when you get outside of that, I think there are some guys that are finding speed. We saw the 16 at Pocono; I think Clint and his team, they seem to be collecting a lot of points and running well. I know the 2 has it in him. He’s got some good tracks coming up. I think this year, it’s really tough, because you have some streaky guys and the 29 that’s been pretty consistent and the 24 that’s been really consistent. I don’t know how to handicap it or who to fear the most because everyone has it in them.”

What do you think about this year’s Chase?

Next:
Sunday, Sept. 19th – Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
TV coverage starts at Noon on ESPN

photo credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR

Hamlin will now be the top seed in the standings as the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup begins next Sunday.

“We had that off-week which was important for us to get our fleet of cars ready for the Chase,” Hamlin said. “At that point, we said, all right, we need to win more races starting right now. We need to pretend it’s the Chase right now and do all we can to finish the best we can these next two weeks to get the team morale going and everything, because we had driveshaft issues and we had wrecks before that in the last ten weeks. Until we go out and perform like we know we can, as far as I’m concerned, we were going to finish 12th in points. I think the last two weeks have just shown where we stack up versus the competition hopefully.”

Hamlin dominated at his “home track”. He was out in front for 251 of 400 laps including the final 69 to score his second win at Richmond.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZOOufvjPX0

Without leading a lap, Kyle Busch finished directly behind his Joe Gibbs Racing team mate. “I felt like the 11 (Denny Hamlin) was just a step ahead of us tonight and they deserved to win,” Busch said. “They gave us our air pressure that we started running about mid race, and we really started clicking off and going forward. It was good. We can’t be disappointed in a second tonight. We wanted to win, and we fought hard with Denny, but racing teammates clean like that, and you know, not laying a bumper at all, just making sure that the Gibbs cars had a good, solid night, so that we have everything on our side heading into the Chase here next weekend.” It’s the ninth time Joe Gibbs Racing notched a 1-2 finish.

Four-time series champion Jimmie Johnson finished third. “We had a solid race, ran in a safe spot behind the track behind the lead battle,” Johnson said. “Just a solid night. On pit road, on the track, through practice, qualifying, I mean, everything throughout the weekend was nice for us. Could have used a little bit more speed at the end, but if we are running in the Top-3, week-in and week-out, opportunities will come. That was really the first goal we had for the 48 team after some of the tough luck and poor races that we had through the summer months was first of all, start finishing in the Top-5 and when you finish in the Top-5, opportunities will come to win. We are doing the right thing.”

Joey Logano finished 4th followed by Marcos Ambrose, Clint Bowyer, Juan Pablo Montoya, AJ Allmendinger, Kevin Harvick and polesitter Carl Edwards rounded out the top-10.

For the race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 3 caution flags for 28 laps including a lengthy one for rain and 14 lead changes among 6 drivers: Edwards 1 -- 53, Johnson 54 -- 58, Edwards 59 -- 100, Bowyer 101 -- 110, Hamlin 111 -- 154, Johnson 155 -- 156, Hamlin 157 -173, Bowyer 174 -- 178, Hamlin 179 -- 181, Bowyer 182 -- 199, Hamlin 200 -- 228, Burton 229 -- 239, Hamlin 240 -- 328, Montoya 329 -- 331, Hamlin 332 -- 400

After winning his first pole at Richmond, Carl Edwards led for 95 laps. “We ran really well. We were just no good on the long runs,” Edwards said. “I think we ended up 10th, which is really great for a bad night. It is still a top-10 and we are in the Chase. Now we need to go to Loudon and go for all the points we can get.”

Heading to Richmond, ten drivers had already clinched their spot in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup while two drivers had to race their way in.

11th in the point standings, Greg Biffle needed to finish 42nd or better regardless of where any other driver finished at Richmond. Biffle finished 32nd after suffering from handling issues throughout the night.

“We knew we were going to qualify for the Chase, but we felt we would run a little better than that,” a frustrated Biffle said. “That was pretty poor. Our cars keep breaking and we seem to have stuff wrong with them. I don’t know. I thought a few weeks ago we had a shot at the Chase, but I don’t know anymore.”

12th in the standings, Clint Bowyer needed to finish 28th or better regardless of where any other drivers finished at Richmond. He led three times for 33 laps en route to a 6th place finish.

“I’m very excited for our race team for making the Chase, very excited for RCR (Richard Childress Racing),” Bowyer said. “After last year, to get all three cars in the Chase after none of us being in the Chase last year feels good. Very excited for RCR’s chances and I feel like this is the best shot we’ve ever had since I’ve been there to win a championship. You know from here, it’s ten races and it’s all in. That’s the way you have to approach these races and have fun with it, and hopefully the cards will fall in our favor.”

The field is now set for The Chase to begin next weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The top-12 drivers have now be seeded according to race wins first and then next-best finishes.

The 2010 Chase contenders:

Everybody’s chasing after four-time reigning champion Jimmie Johnson. “Looking at the last month, the 99 (Carl Edwards), the 18 (Kyle Busch), the 11 (Denny Hamlin), hopefully us, the 29 (Kevin Harvick), I think you’ve got five or six cars that can really race for the championship,” Johnson said. “And then when you get outside of that, I think there are some guys that are finding speed. We saw the 16 at Pocono; I think Clint and his team, they seem to be collecting a lot of points and running well. I know the 2 has it in him. He’s got some good tracks coming up. I think this year, it’s really tough, because you have some streaky guys and the 29 that’s been pretty consistent and the 24 that’s been really consistent. I don’t know how to handicap it or who to fear the most because everyone has it in them.”

Next:
Sunday, Sept. 19th -- Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
TV coverage begins at Noon on ESPN