NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Chicagoland
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[/media-credit]Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.
1. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski won the Geico 400, taking round 1 of the Chase For The Cup after holding off Jimmie Johnson at Chicagoland. Keselowski leads the point standings, three ahead of Johnson.
“I’m aiming to be Roger Penske’s first Sprint Cup champion,” Keselowski said. “Nothing beats flying the checkered flag, except the ‘Jolly Roger.’
“This could be the making of a great rivalry with Johnson. I took it to him; now I want to take it from him.”
2. Jimmie Johnson: After starting from the pole, Johnson led a race-high 172 laps but couldn’t close the deal at Chicagoland, finishing second to Brad Keselowski’s late rush. Johnson now trails Keselowski by three in the Sprint Cup point standings.
“Keselowski’s win had the makings of a ‘statement’ victory,” Johnson said. “Luckily for me, Keselowski doesn’t make statements, he makes ‘tweets.’ Kes has hundreds of thousands of followers; I’m not one of them. I only follow two people—Richard Petty and dale Earnhardt.”
3. Tony Stewart: Stewart overcame a poor qualifying effort (29th), as well as an extra pit stop to correct a vibration, to finish a solid sixth in the Geico 400, a solid start to his defense of the 2011 Sprint Cup title. He trails Brad Keselowski by eight in the point standings.
“The vibration was a potentially disastrous situation,” Stewart said, “but we handled it like champions. You could say we were ‘shaken, not stirred.”
4. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin ran out of fuel late in the Geico 400, turning a likely top-10 finish into a 16th. The result dropped him from the top spot in the point standings to a tie for fourth, 15 behind Brad Keselowski.
“What’s the bigger miscalculation?” Hamlin asked. “Me running out of gas, or people predicting me to come through when the pressure’s on? I had to make a late stop to ‘top off.’ For that reason, I’m ‘off the top.’”
5. Kasey Kahne: Kahne finished third in the Geico 400, and leaped five spots in the point standings to fourth, where he is 15 points out of the lead.
“I think my competitors are aware that I’ll be around until the end,” Kahne said. “Despite leaving a number of racing teams in my career, I think it’s apparent that I won’t ‘go away easily.’”
6. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer led six laps at Chicagoland on his way to a tenth-place finish. He is now 15 points out of first in the point standings.
“We could have used a dose of 5-Hour Energy,” Bowyer said, “because that was a ‘ho-hum’ finish.”
7. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt qualified fourth, but started at the back of the field after an engine change, and salvaged a solid eighth in the Geico 400. He is 17 points behind Brad Keselowski in the point standings.
“I guess it’s time I show what I’m made of,” Earnhardt said. “You’d think the name alone would be enough, but I guess I have to prove it as much on the track as I do in the merchandise trailers.”
8. Martin Truex, Jr.: Truex posted his 15th top-10 finish of the year with a ninth at Chicagoland, but made up little ground to the Chasers in front of him. He is now ninth in the point standings, 21 out of first.
“I need a win,” Truex said. “In other words, I need to get going. NASCAR just reinstated A.J. Allmendinger, so maybe he can recommend a good ‘stimulant’ to get me going.”
9. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth finished 18th, one lap down to the leaders, after a broken shock ruined his quest for a victory run at Chicagoland. He
“We’re certainly disappointed in our shock failure,” Kenseth said. “Such a finish is tough to swallow, and even harder to absorb.”
10. Greg Biffle: Biffle finished 13th, tops among Roush Fenway’s three car team. After leading the point standings for much of the year, it was a disappointing start to the Chase for the 3M team.
“We certainly weren’t on our game,” Biffle said. “I guess you could say for the start of the Chase we were ‘off and running.’”
A.J. Allmendinger Reinstated by NASCAR following completion of Road to Recovery Program
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[/media-credit]NASCAR announced on September 18th that they have reinstated NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver A.J. Allmendinger upon his completion of the road to recovery program.
“I want to thank everyone for their support through this entire process,” Allmendinger said in a prepared statement. “I appreciate that NASCAR created the Road to Recovery program, and am grateful for the opportunity to return to competition.
“The Road to Recovery program was really helpful to me in getting my priorities reset away from the race track. And, honestly, that helped find my love of racing again and why I began racing in the first place. I’m looking forward to taking this experience and be better for it moving forward.”
Allmendinger was suspended on July 24th for violating NASCAR’s substance abuse policy. The whole process started after he was temporarily suspended just hours before the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona following a random drug test at Kentucky on June 29th. A second sample was then tested, with the results coming back positive, resulting in the full suspension being dropped on July 24th.
As Ron Fleshman wrote on SpeedwayMedia.com on August 8th, Allmendinger says that tested positive for the prescribed drug Adderall after not knowing what it was and taking it from a friend to combat fatigue.
As part of the road to recovery program, Allmendinger had to meet with a substance abuse professional and work with that individual to complete the program. It was said back in July that completion of the program could take up to six months.
Allmendinger did have a contract with Penske Racing till the end of the 2012 season, however Penske did let him go out of that contract due to being suspended. Sam Hornish Jr. then took over driving responsibilities of the No. 22 Dodge, with Joey Logano signed on to drive the car in 2013. Allmendinger was a guest of Roger Penske at this past weekend’s IZOD IndyCar Series finale at Auto Club Speedway.
“This is a speed bump in his career, but he’s certainly an option for people on the NASCAR side and the Indy side,” Penske told The Associated Press at Auto Club Speedway. “He did a great job when you think about what he did in Champ Car.”
Who wins the Chase? Lots of history and recent performance are telling
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[/media-credit]It may seem silly, but there are those who have already decided that the Chase has two favorites, Brad Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson. There is something to be said for that, but the thought needs more investigation. It’s also useful to look at history and recent statistics. Those two categories tend to color things a bit.
First, history tells us a lot. Chevrolet drivers, especially Hendrick Motorsports drivers and those teams he supplies cars for, seem to have the upper hand. The fact is that for the last 20 years, Chevrolet drivers have won 16 championships, with 11 of them coming from Hendrick Motorsports. That’s quite a record. Only Ford drivers Alan Kulwicki, Dale Jarrett, Matt Kenseth, and Kurt Busch have dented that streak. And most of them are ancient history with the last Ford championship coming way back in 2004 when Busch did the trick. In this two decade period, Toyota and Dodge haven’t accomplished a championship.
Part of the reason for this is the tremendous advantage Chevrolet has in top teams competing week after week. On any given Sunday (or Saturday night), Chevrolet fields 11 top teams running Hendrick and Richard Childress motors or chassis. Ford usually fields only five similar teams, which is one of the reasons Penske Racing was added to the mix. That’s a huge advantage. With Hendrick or his satellite operation winning the last six championships, you have to consider them the favorites—and there are four of them.
Another thing to consider is recent performance. Surprisingly, the strongest performers over the last six races are Keselowski, Kyle Busch (who isn’t in the Chase), Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, and Kasey Kahne. If momentum has in factor in this championship, you have to consider that. Notable is that Hendrick drivers Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Johnson, and Jeff Gordon rank down the list. It makes things more confusing.
It would be a tremendous surprise to me if the champion is not one of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers. History is with them. Brad Keselowski. Bowyer, and Biffle have had their consistency problems and Johnson looks like he is ready to dominate. Kahne is surprisingly at the top of the field every race and the rest of the field is, to be honest, chasing (no pun intended).
It’s a little early to tell, but history and recent performance gives us a little insight to how this thing will play out. If I was a betting man, and I’m not, I would put my money on a Chevrolet driver and one from the Hendrick camp. We’ll visit this all during the Chase, but as for now, that’s the way I see it.
Tony Stewart Signs First Flag for “Express Your Thanks” Program to Benefit Wounded Warrior Project at Bank of America 500
