Sprint Cup 2012: Race 25 -- Atlanta and One More for the Chase

Hot ‘Lanta – Two to Go for the Chase

The battle for “The Chase” focuses on two scenarios. First, who will be secured in the top 10 on the basis of points and who will make the top 12, securing 11^th or 12^th position on the basis of wins.

All eyes are on Tony Stewart who has two victories but also languishes in 10^th place only 16 points ahead of Kasey Kahne in 11^th who also has three wins. The driver who remains in the top 10 will be seeded ahead of all drivers with one win or none with 20 bonus points Wild card drivers get no bonus points and are seeded at the bottom of the field.

Kevin Harvick has no wins and sits in 9^th place. He holds on to a 37 points advantage, almost a full race worth of points over 11^th place so a catastrophic mess could knock him completely out of “The Chase” having neither the points nor the wins to get in.

Carl Edwards currently stands in 12^th place with no wins. Any driver with a victory would bump him from the chase. He either needs a win an maintain a points advantage over the other one win drivers or would have to leap frog into the top 10 on points needing to make up at least 35 points in the next two races.

Kyle Busch holds the second wild card position. The remaining one win drivers would either need a win or would have to surpass him in points. The wild card chasers are as follows, shown with their points deficit behind Kyle Busch.

Jeff Gordon (-16)

Ryan Newman (-19)

Marcos Ambrose (-28)

Joey Logano (-69)

Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman can advance with strong performances and mediocre work from the #18 crew. Ambrose and especially Logano must win to get in.

The entire chase drama has come down to Tony Stewart to the extent to which he could only be a wild card driver, but to minimize that, Stewart starts from the pole for the AdvoCare 500. As long as he maintains his lead over Kasey Kahne, Stewart should be in good shape. Thus the real battle for the next two weeks is between the one win teams and Carl Edwards for who will take the second wild card position.

Of lesser interest would be the seedings based among race winners. Here’s how that field sets up with each driver earning ten points for each win.

Jimmie Johnson +3

Brad Keselowski +3

Tony Stewart +3

Greg Biffle +2

Denny Hamlin +2

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. +1

Matt Kenseth +1

Clint Bowyer +1

Martin Truex, Jr. (0)

Kevin Harvick (0)

Danica Patrick joins the field with her second consecutive Sprint Cup race qualifying in 23^rd position. Despite four cars not quality, there still remain a substantial number of junk entries whose presence would be disgraceful if having any impact on the final chase field selections. NASCAR fans need to get the word out that if a team that is part of a go-or-go home scenario where a team prepared to go the distance could be denied entry in the race, they’d damned well ought to just STAY HOME. How much longer the “start and park” fiasco will be allowed to continue is hard to figure and that the NASCAR allows this farce to continue reflects horribly on the sport. Thank God they don’t run the “Tour De France” where everyone lucky enough to pass a drug test could peddle into the great European spectacle. Alas, Joe Nemechek and his cronies will show up in their tricycles and go for a short Sunday cruise and disappear predictably again.

POS		CAR		DRIVER		MAKE		SPONSOR	SPEED
1		14		Tony Stewart		Chevrolet		Office Depot / Mobil 1	186.122
2		16		Greg Biffle		Ford		3M / Manheim Auctions	185.648
3		18		Kyle Busch		Toyota		Wrigley's Doublemint	185.492
4		17		Matt Kenseth		Ford		Ford EcoBoost	185.319
5		24		Jeff Gordon		Chevrolet		DuPont	185.307
6		55		Mark Martin		Toyota		Aaron's Dream Machine	185.232
7		11		Denny Hamlin		Toyota		Sport Clips	185.220
8		48		Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet		Lowe's / Kobalt Tools	185.139
9		20		Joey Logano		Toyota		The Home Depot	185.084
10		9		Marcos Ambrose		Ford		DEWALT	185.053
11		5		Kasey Kahne		Chevrolet		HendrickCars.com	184.997
12		99		Carl Edwards		Ford		Subway	184.930
13		43		Aric Almirola		Ford		AdvoCare	184.874
14		34		David Ragan		Ford		Glory Foods	184.738
15		22		Sam Hornish Jr.		Dodge		Shell / Pennzoil	184.609
16		51		Kurt Busch		Chevrolet		HendrickCars.com	184.566
17		39		Ryan Newman		Chevrolet		Army Medicine	184.480
18		27		Paul Menard		Chevrolet		Quaker State / Menards	184.425
19		13		Casey Mears		Ford		GEICO	184.082
20		1		Jamie McMurray		Chevrolet		Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats	184.070
21		2		Brad Keselowski		Dodge		Miller Lite	184.058
22		36		Dave Blaney		Chevrolet		Tommy Baldwin Racing	183.747
23		10		Danica Patrick		Chevrolet		GoDaddy.com	183.673
24		29		Kevin Harvick		Chevrolet		Rheem	183.643
25		47		Bobby Labonte		Toyota		Kingsford	183.509
26		31		Jeff Burton		Chevrolet		Caterpillar	183.412
27		78		Regan Smith		Chevrolet		Furniture Row / Farm American	183.388
28		56		Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota		NAPA Shocks	183.370
29		38		David Gilliland		Ford		House / Autry	183.364
30		15		Clint Bowyer		Toyota		5-hour Energy	183.333
31		30		David Stremme		Toyota		Inception Motorsports	183.037
32		21		Trevor Bayne		Ford		Good Sam Club / Camping World	182.886
33		42		Juan Montoya		Chevrolet		Target	182.759
34		49		Jason Leffler		Toyota		Robinson-Blakeney Racing	182.675
35		88		Dale Earnhardt Jr.		Chevrolet		National Guard / Diet Mountain Dew	182.627
36		95		Scott Speed		Ford		Jordan Truck Sales	182.549
37		87		Joe Nemechek		Toyota		AM / FM Energy	182.380
38		91		Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet		Plinker Tactical	182.189
39		23		Scott Riggs		Chevrolet		North Texas Pipe	182.141
40		83		Landon Cassill+		Toyota		Burger King	181.224
41		93		Travis Kvapil+		Toyota		Dr Pepper / Burger King	180.527
42		32		T.J. Bell+		Ford		Greensmoke	180.457
43		37		J.J. Yeley		Chevrolet		MaxQworkforce	182.069
DNQ
44		98		Michael McDowell		Ford		Phil Parsons Racing	181.777
45		26		Josh Wise*		Ford		MDS Transport	181.390
46		33		Stephen Leicht*		Chevrolet		Little Joes Autos	181.283
47		19		Mike Bliss		Toyota		Plinker Tactical	180.651