The Biggest NASCAR Storylines Ahead of the Sprint Cup Series at Charlotte II
Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway, the first of the three-race Contender Round of the Chase, was an eye opener for several Chase drivers. Several big names are dangerously close to the chopping block, while others, including some who haven’t even won a race this year, are high up in points. This is a result of the new Chase format.
The race at Kansas also raised this question: “Is it the tires or how they're being used?”
Goodyear's Eagles are back in the headlines, and no one is happy about it, especially the drivers.
It wasn’t bad for all the Chase drivers at Kansas, as a pair whose fortunes this season have been up and down (mainly down) are now looking to move on to the next round of the Chase.
Jimmie Johnson’s misfortunes continue, and so do Kevin Harvick’s.
You’ll be talking about these stories and more in the week leading up to the Saturday night race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
First up, it was a very bad day for a certain beer-sponsored car...
Bad Day for Chase Drivers Elevates Stress Factor for Charlotte
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Brad Keselowski led a list of Chase heavy hitters whose fortunes changed dramatically when they suffered tire failures during the Hollywood Casino 400.
Keselowski took a heavy hit into the outside wall that damaged his Miller Lite Ford so severely it took many laps to repair and put the Chase driver in a precarious points position.
“We blew the right-front tire. I am not sure why,” Keselowski said in a post-race television interview on ESPN. “We didn’t have an aggressive setup or anything, we just blew the tire. It was just Russian roulette, and it was our turn.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who also lost a tire and was sent into the wall, described exactly what happened.
“The whole surface of the tire unwound like a string,” Earnhardt Jr. told a national television audience on ESPN. “It just came off the tire and it popped off the corner."
Both Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick had their afternoons impacted by tires real or imagined (see Slide 5 for the latter case), while six-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson’s early wreck left him with his worst finish in a Chase race since 2005.
Ironically, before the race, most drivers had been talking about the Talladega restrictor-plate race in two weeks as being the Chase’s “wild card.” Few expected to see the number of tire issues that made an impact on the outcome of the race.
This was all before Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway, which essentially shuffled the deck and placed three drivers—Keselowski, Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson are 10th, 11th and 12th in points, respectively—dangerously close to being eliminated.
Win Takes Pressure Off Joey Logano
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Easily the two happiest men in the state of Kansas on Sunday night were Joey Logano, whose win in the Hollywood Casino 400 automatically put him in the semifinal round of the Chase, the Eliminator Round, and his crew chief, Todd Gordon.
The victory represented peace of mind for Gordon, who can now breathe a sigh of relief—the outcome of the next two races being essentially moot.
“Today (Sunday) was a big stress relief, I'll tell you,” Gordon told the media in the post-race media availability. “When you look at this segment of the Chase with Talladega as the last one, it's a big wild card. I felt like this was a place that we could capitalize. We've run well here.”
It’s not likely that these two will change their approach for the next two races, according to Gordon, except perhaps they'll lighten things up a bit.
“We get to go and play a little different and work forward and know that come Martinsville, we're in that segment (the Eliminator round), and we've got to perform,” he added.
Jimmie Johnson's Problems Continue
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Perhaps the oddest part of the 2014 Chase is the poor performances from Johnson and the No. 48 team.
We’re used to not just seeing Johnson win races during the final 10, but doing so in a fashion that makes the rest of the field look pretty silly.
Not this year.
Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus came into this year’s Chase in perhaps their weakest position in years. They haven't won a race since Michigan in June. And the four-race string of top-10 finishes (Michigan to Richmond) that closed out the regular season was the team’s best four-week stretch since June.
Yes, Virginia, there is a weak side to Johnson and his team. We’re seeing it now. Of course, we’re not exactly sure what it is we’re seeing, other than a great driver and team slogging their way through what can only be called a “bad stretch.”
Of course, for many in the NASCAR crowd, Johnson’s absence from Victory Lane is a good thing for the sport. His domination in the past decade has been blamed for the loss of interest by many longtime and older fans.
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New Chase Format Creates Unsettling Scenarios
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I would imagine that when NASCAR executives were mulling over changes to the Chase format, they never saw it coming.
What exactly is “it”?
“It” was the race at Kansas that not only placed three of the sport’s biggest names with multiple wins this season in danger of being eliminated after this round, but also put drivers like Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman, who are winless, in a position to move on.
This alone is enough to spark heated debates over the fairness of the new Chase format, which has left much to chance, including the impact of failed tires on the outcome of the race.
As Jenna Fryer from The Associated Press pointed out (h/t Yahoo Sports), “The new Chase format that eliminates four drivers every three races exposes Goodyear to scrutiny like never before. One bad tire can wipe out an entire season, and Goodyear better hope it doesn't happen in the season finale.”
Keselowski, Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson all suffered problems Sunday that resulted in poor finishes. Both Keselowski and Earnhardt Jr.'s problems were caused by failed tires.
In the past, the race at Kansas would have been easily dismissed as their one “mulligan” race and nothing more; the old format allowed for one bad race. But the new format has changed things so dramatically that now the real possibility of Kenseth and Newman moving on to the next round while the three aforementioned drivers, with a total of 11 wins this season between them, would be eliminated.
Kevin Harvick Plays It Safe, and Monkey Remains on His Shoulder
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Rather than hit the wall, Kevin Harvick brought his No. 4 Chevrolet on to pit road Sunday to replace a tire that the Stewart-Haas Racing driver thought was in danger of failing.
There was nothing wrong with the tire. But it was another of those strange things that keep happening to Harvick that place his chances of winning the title this season in jeopardy.
“I thought I had a flat tire and pitted because you see all the trouble that is going on,” said Harvick in a post-race television interview. “We qualified well and had good track position. That saved us in the beginning of the race, and when I thought I had a flat, just got us behind.”
It’s difficult to watch a talented driver like Harvick, with a very talented crew chief in Rodney Childers, missing the mark week in and week out. At times, it’s been the fault of the crew, on others Harvick's to blame. But no matter who or what is at fault, this team has got one hell of a problem going on with its luck or lack of it.
Still my pick to win the title, Harvick will throw the monkey off his back and win the finale at Homestead.
Is Kyle Busch Back?
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You’d have thought by his joy in finishing third that Kyle Busch had won the Sprint Cup race Sunday.
In reality, Busch’s finish in the Cup race was a career best at Kansas.
"I want champagne and to do donuts right now, but I think they would frown on that if you're third,” Busch said in a post-race interview with ESPN.
The Joe Gibbs Racing teams have all struggled on 1.5-mile tracks this season, but Busch's more than the others. It used to be that those tracks were Busch’s strengths, but with the new rule change this year affecting the ride height of the race cars, it’s thrown the JGR teams for a bigger loop than others.
Busch’s statistics this season have not been his worst, with two poles (Loudon and Chicagoland) and seven top-five finishes. However, with only one win early in the season—at Fontana in March—it’s been a long season of frustration for the veteran driver, who is used to mixing it up at the front of the field instead of running uncharacteristically in the teens.
Nevertheless, the third-place finish at Kansas has given rise to a strong wave of optimism within the No. 18 camp.
“We just need to carry on and continue to run strong in these remaining races and have another good, solid run next week at Charlotte, and then we can go into Talladega with a little bit of a cushion on our side," Busch said in an interview with his manufacturer representative after the race.
Talladega Wild-Card Race Looms Large
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If there is such a thing as having a driver and team in NASCAR looking past the current weekend’s race toward another one down the line, it was in full swing this past weekend at Kansas, as the Talladega race on October 19 was on everyone’s mind.
Drivers were concerned with having a strong result at both Kansas and Charlotte that would outweigh any potential problems.
“It makes Talladega a lot easier, that is for sure. To know we are on to the next round we can focus on a few more races coming up, and we will keep trying to capitalize like we are doing,” race-winner Logano said in his post-race interview with ESPN.
“The best way to avoid any concerns at Talladega is to win,” Johnson said in his pre-race media availability. “One, maybe two, will have that opportunity. But the other 10 Chasers will show up over there with a lot of pressure on them just to get to the checkered flag.”
For Carl Edwards, Talladega represents an opportunity for his team, which has struggled on the 1.5-mile tracks and elsewhere, despite Edwards’ two wins this season.
“Well, this is the first time I have been enthusiastic about Talladega, and that is because of the format combined with the opportunity it gives our team in particular,” Edwards said in his pre-race media availability. “I think this format perfectly suits our situation.”
All quotes are taken from official NASCAR, team and manufacturer media releases unless otherwise stated.
Bob Margolis is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association and has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, the NHRA and Sports Cars for more than two decades as a writer, television producer and on-air talent.
On Twitter: @BobMargolis
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