When the smoke clears at Talladega, and I mean that literally, four of our top eight drivers throughout the course of the season, might no longer be contenders for the championship.
Charlotte in the night and what a web it wove. Essentially, you could sum up the action by first pointing out that Kevin Harvick once again had a dominant car. The difference this time is that he won the darn thing, the Closer closed, and the Happy boy is now locked into the Chase right through to the Arizona 500.
1. Joey Logano: With his spot in the Chase’s next round already locked up, Logano finished fourth at Charlotte, then watched as his Penske teammate went berserk afterwards.
Kevin Harvick took the lead on the final restart of the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway to grab the win and secure his spot in the next round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He led a race high 162 laps on the way to his third victory of the season.
Well, I mean, we've been racing since Atlanta, obviously, but it's not been business as usual by any means, and this is going to be a healing process for me. It makes you think about a lot of things other than driving race cars, but the one thing that's probably helped me more than anything is being back at the racetrack and being around my racing family and remembering that I have a passion for what I do.
According to the Chase, a couple of Penske drivers lead the way in the standings with Sunday’s race at Dover to determine the dozen who advance to the next round. According to our season long standings, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano certainly are worthy of consideration.
The Ontario County Grand Jury met this week and determined that no charges will be brought against Tony Stewart regarding the death of Kevin Ward Jr. Ward lost his life when he was struck by Stewart’s car during a sprint car race at Canadaigua Motorsports Park on August 9.
New Hampshire is the next stop on the Chase tour, and if anyone needs to rewrite expectations it would be Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger. Both have not done well at Loudon in the past, though Almirola was fifth in the race 15 months ago and the Dinger has one Top Ten.
“I automatically advanced to the next round of the Chase,” Keselowski said. “So you can pencil my name on the bracket to the ‘Contender’ round. And speaking of things written in pencil, the Chase format has seen more alterations than Bruton Smith’s pants.”
