Dale Earnhardt Jr

Earnhardt drives the iconic #88 National Guard / Amp Energy Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. You may have heard that Earnhardt’s father, Dale Sr., was a pretty good racecar driver himself. Earnhardt’s championship pedigree goes back even farther. Less well-known is his grandfather, Ralph, who was also a champion in his own right. Ralph won the NASCAR Sportsman Division title way back in 1956.

Junior’s first full year on the Nationwide Series was in 1998. He won the Series championship as a rookie and went on to repeat in his sophomore season. In 2000 he moved up to the Cup Series and became the first rookie to ever win the All-Star Race. He finished 16th that first year and would go on to finish 11th or better in five of his next six campaigns.

After that solid run, Earnhardt’s success trailed off significantly. He finished 16th in 2007, 12th in 2008, then dropped to 25th in 2009 and 21st in 2010. Although he went winless — again — in 2011, he had a solid year and hovered around the top of the pack all season. He had four Top 5 finishes and 12 times finished 10th or better. Junior made the Chase for the Cup and finished the year seventh in series points, his best since 2006.

(National Guard photo)

Brad Keselowski finished fourth, first among an underperforming field of contenders.  In a race that was vitally important for the Chase, less than half of the contenders finished in the top 24.  Big names littered the higher numbers in the results.  Points leader Carl Edwards maintained his position despite an 11^th place finish.  Matt Kenseth crossed 18^th.  Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon eventually finished in 24^th-26^th place.  A terrible showing, unless you compare them to Kevin Harvick and the Busch Brothers who were all in the 30’s.

The new reality of the Chase is that it is Edwards’ to lose.  He stands 14 points ahead of runner up Kenseth with only four races to go.

Keselowski, Tony Stewart, and – despite his atrocious day – Harvick, still have a chance.  Beyond those four, the rest of the field have to be considered long-shots, although I still wouldn’t count out Kyle Busch or Johnson.  But time is running out for either to make their move.

They’ll get another chance at Martinsville next Sunday in the Tums Fast Relief 500.

(U.S. Air Force photo)

Kurt Busch

Stewart fell out of first place, a position now held jointly by Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards (pictured), despite having won 2 out of 3 Chase races thus far.  NASCAR’s points system is a cruel mistress and Stewart’s ugly 25^th place day dropped him into a tie for third with Sunday’s winner, Kurt Busch.  The two now sit nine points behind the leaders, and four points ahead of perennial champ Johnson.

Maybe the biggest surprise of the race to the finish between Busch and Johnson was how cleanly the two ran.  Whether their scuffles at Pocono and Richmond earlier this year have been forgiven and forgotten or the drivers simply weren’t willing to mess around now that the season is winding down and the title is on the line, neither Busch nor Johnson showed any signs of a grudge.  Both just raced – and raced hard – for the coveted first place finish.

Busch proved the better driver on this day, twice making a superior run on the restarts that gave him position for the final 42 laps.  Carl Edwards could easily have been a third serious contender for the checkered flag, but a pit road speeding penalty cost him dearly.  Even so, he managed to finish third, followed by Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth to round out the top 5.

Dale Jr.’s unlikely run for the title suffered a serious setback with his 24^th place finish.  He’s now 34 points behind the leaders.  Only Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin are more distant, 41 & 68 points out respectively.  Their hopes are fading fast, but it’s too early to count anyone out.

Next Week: The Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

(Photo: U.S. Air Force)

But we’re not so sure we like that kind of race setting the order for the Chase after the first race. Like it or not, that’s what we got on Monday, a day after the GEICO 400 was originally slated to run.

Tony Stewart was the guy at the front of the pack of misers as the leaders coasted toward the checkered flag. He outraced a charging Kevin Harvick by nearly a second to win the first race of the Sprint Cup Chase. A win was good enough to vault Stewart seven places and set him within seven points of the new leader, the aforementioned runner-up Harvick who moved from second to first in the standings.

Dale Earnhardt Jr finished third, moving up five spots to fifth. That gave Chevrolet the top three spots in the race.

Carl Edwards and his Ford snuck in at fourth in the race and is now third in the standings. Brad Keselowski finished next and sits one point behind Junior, tied with Ryan Newman. Jimmie Johnson‘s fuel-deprived 10th place finish cost him two spots. In the eighth spot, Johnson is still within striking distance at 16 points off the lead. Matt Kenseth actually crossed ahead of Johnson, but was penalized by NASCAR for getting a little nudge from teammate J.J. Yeley on the last lap and was technically listed as 21st place. Kyle Busch, who woke up Monday second in the standings, fell to 9th after finishing a distant 22nd Monday afternoon.

Next Week: With no Nationwide race on the docket, there will be nothing to detract from the Sylvania 300 at Loudon.

Brad Keselowski

The two Busch brothers, Kyle and Kurt, in that order, followed Kes across the finish line. A not-at-all happy Jimmie Johnson finished fourth after a little bumping between him and Kurt Busch on the final lap. I’m sure their friendly conversation on pit road will not be the end of the discussion. The interest level in next week’s race at Watkins Glen just went up several notches.

Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon were next, followed by points leader Carl Edwards. 7th place was good enough for Edwards to maintain his 9 point lead over Johnson in the Cup standings. Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Paul Menard rounded out the top 10.

Kyle moved up a spot to 3rd and Kurt jumped two places to 4th in the standings at the expense of Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth. That was the only movement within the top 14 drivers, although Biffle is now just three points away from the final Chase spot currently held by Clint Bowyer. Then again, with the new Chase rules, it may well be that neither makes it to the final 12. Keseloswki’s 2 wins put him ahead of either driver for the 12th spot, even though he’s now 18th in points.

There are now just five races remaining before the Chase begins in earnest. Drivers on the cusp have to be thinking wins, not points now. Watkins Glen next week will be the first of five final opportunities to score a victory and make the Chase.

If only it had been the Coca Cola 599 ¾. Never has a major race come to such a surprising ending on the final turn since… earlier in the day at the Indianapolis 500. But this was much worse because a) that was open wheel racing; this is NASCAR b) the driver who came up short in the Indy 500 was some rookie named JR Hillenbrand; this was our most beloved legacy driver Dale Jr. and c) Hillenbrand hit the wall in an unforced lapse of his own making, Junior ran out of gas after taking a calculated risk.

Kevin Harvick – the best closer in the sport – did it again, taking advantage of Junior’s mishap to come from nowhere to take the checkered flag while Junior puttered along the final stretch. Junior did manage to roll across the finish line in 7th place. Jimmie Johnson’s luck was even worse on Sunday night. Johnson received a penalty that dropped him to the back of the lead lap when his pit crew left a tool attached to his car. He worked his way back to 10th with some ferocious driving when his engine went out with a mere 5 laps left in the race.

If the race was 1,000 feet too long for Junior and 7.5 miles too long for Johnson, it must have felt about 4 hours too long for Greg Biffle, whose cooling system went out. Biffle endured the long race in 90 degree weather and was right in the mix to win it until low fuel forced him to take a micro-pit stop. Despite his own troubles, Biffle finished 13th.

One other driver who must have thought 600 miles was too many is Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., an up and coming driver from the Nationwide circuit. Stenhouse had never competed in a race longer than 300 miles before Sunday. He did a total of 900 this weekend and managed a very respectable 11th place finish.

Next week: Kansas.

Sports writers across the net were mentally writing their columns, crediting his new shop, or his new shop mate, or whatever else for Junior’s return to glory.  This was the day.  This was the race.

Only Kevin Harvick thought otherwise.  Harvick, who led occasionally and hung around the top of the pack all afternoon, finally made his move when Junior got loose with 4 laps to go.  He crossed the finish line with an on-the-thin-side-of-comfortable lead.  Junior and Kyle Busch duked it out all the way to the finish line in a bang-bang 2nd and 3rd finish.  Jimmie Johnson missed the top ten by a hair.

Harvick’s back-to-back wins have moved him up a full 10 spots in the last two weeks.  By my highly unofficial accounting of the points, he should be just 15 points behind the current leader.

Speaking of whom, there is a new leader at the top of the board.  Busch’s third place finish was good enough to move him slightly ahead of the previous holder of the spot, Carl Edwards.  Edwards finished a distant 18th.  Given the direction in which his season has been moving, that is probably the last time Edwards will be in sniffing distance of first place this year.

The good news is that we don’t have to wait the full week for the next race.  The Samsung Mobile 500… *sigh* I’ve given up even bothering to mock the corporate naming in NASCAR… brings us racing action early.  The race kicks off Saturday night at 7:30 in Texas.

After that… is anybody’s guess.  Ryan Newman knows he’ll be in there somewhere.  Bill Elliott, too.  Joe Nemecheck, the Pride of Lakeland, Florida, squeaked through the go-or-go-homes to earn a spot.  They’ll be joined at Daytona by the aptly-named Scott Speed. But they’ve got to wait until this week’s Duels are over before they’ll know their starting positions.

The 52^nd running of the Daytona 500 is just a week away, and the hype is kicking into full gear.  Whether or not Danica Patrick runs, whatever drama unfolds throughout the week, this is the week that NASCAR officially begins.  Whether by coincidence or design, it is significant that just as the final whistle blows at the Super Bowl, bringing the NFL season to a close, the next big thing in the world of sports is nearly upon us.

All that stands between us and the Daytona 500 is seven little days and two big Gatorade Duels.  Let the games begin.

Junior made a showing of it from then on, until he had the misfortune of pitting just before a caution came out, costing him a second lap.  He was already out of contention when a belt mysteriously fell off, cutting power to his vehicle and officially ending his day.

Are there any lessons to be learned from Junior’s bad day?  Well, of course, there are.

#1 – NASCAR is a fascinating combination of individual and team sport.  The driver is out there all alone, one man (and his machine) against other individual men (and, natch, their machines).  But that one man can’t do it alone.  The pit crew is absolutely essential to success in car racing.  That’s not just the moral of the Pixar movie Cars, it is true in real life.

#2 – The Price Chopper 400?  Really?  That sounds like the setting for the sequel to Taledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.  I know there’s big money in naming rights, but what’s next?  The Tidy Bowl 500?  (NOTE TO PRICE CHOPPER’S MARKETING PEOPLE: I watched the whole race, and I still don’t know what Price Chopper is.  Maybe you should rethink how you’re spending those marketing dollars.  Just a thought.)

#3 – Some days, you just have bad luck.  Ask Mario Andretti about being the best driver with the best car and the best crew.  He’ll tell you that some days that isn’t enough.  (DISCLAIMER:  I don’t actually know Mario Andretti.  Actual results may vary if you do ask him.  He may well say something more like “What are you doing on my lawn?  Go away, you freak.”)