The Top Highlights and Lowlights from the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase so Far
What a start it's been to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
In the 11th edition of the Chase, and the first to be contested with an expanded driver field (16) and knockout elimination for the first time in NASCAR history, there have been a significant number of highlights and lowlights, excitement and drama to pathos and disappointment.
And that's just after three races.
There are seven more battles still to go, including this Sunday at Kansas Speedway, when the three-race Round 2—the Contender Round—gets underway.
After the first four drivers have been eliminated, we're down to a 12-driver field. Three races from now, though, that field will shrink again to only eight drivers who will continue on after Talladega.
Let's give a quick review of some of the top highlights and lowlights that we've witnessed thus far:
Highlight: Team Penske Dominance
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Team Penske ran roughshod over the first 26 races of the season, with the tag team of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano accounting for a combined nine wins in that stretch.
Any thoughts that maybe the two teammates would falter once they were in the Chase was resoundingly answered when Keselowski dominated en route to victory in the playoff opener at Chicagoland Speedway.
And then the following week, it was Logano's turn to take the spotlight as he won at his home track of New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Barring any type of unexpected slump by either driver, these two are primed to win, both with different types of motivation pushing them forward.
Logano wants to win his first Cup championship to prove he truly is a legitimate title threat, while Keselowski is out to prove his 2012 Sprint Cup championship wasn't a fluke.
Rather, he wants to show that his failure to defend his title in 2013—unable to even qualify for the Chase—was the true fluke. He is bound and determined to prove it to his doubters.
Lowlight: 15-Caution Race at New Hampshire
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This one was a wild affair but not overly surprising. New Hampshire Motor Speedway, for whatever reason, seems to bring out the worst in drivers, particularly when it comes to wrecks or race cautions for debris.
It seemed like just when it appeared we'd get a good, long green-flag run, out would come the yellow flag yet again … and again … and again.
Still, with home-track favorite Joey Logano winning the race, it helped take away some of the bad taste left in many people's mouths because of all the caution flags.
Highlight: Jeff Gordon Proves He's in It to Win It
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Jeff Gordon looked very strong at New Hampshire, only to suffer tire failure and a resulting crash that made him the poster boy of the fickleness of the new Chase format. Gordon had a great race one week (Chicagoland), only to have a terrible outing the next week (New Hampshire).
But as low as he sank at New Hampshire, Gordon got right back on the horse at Dover and proved he's most definitely in the hunt for his fifth championship.
Remember, Gordon has been chasing the elusive fifth career Cup crown for 13 seasons (his last came in 2001). That's a long time for his "Drive For Five" to simmer, but right now, Gordon's championship hopes are at a full boil.
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Lowlight: Kevin Harvick's Bad Luck at Dover
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Even if you're not a fan of Kevin Harvick's, you can't help but feel bad for him in his run at Dover this past Sunday.
Harvick dominated the race, leading from the pole and leading 223 of the scheduled 400 laps.
But a flat tire about two-thirds of the way through the race forced him to the pits not once, but twice for new rubber and additional work on the body.
He managed to rally back for a 13th-place finish, but Harvick—for perhaps the umpteenth time this season—couldn't be blamed if he asked himself once again, "Why do all these things keep happening to me? Am I ever going to catch a break?"
Highlight: Even with Mishaps, Kevin Harvick Continues to Have Strongest Car
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Despite that bad luck, Kevin Harvick has had arguably the fastest car in the first three races of the Chase.
Had there been no tire issue, it's not a stretch to think Harvick would likely have gone on to win that race rather than Jeff Gordon.
But we're not overly worried about Harvick. Sooner or later, his misfortune—which prompted a change in pit crews just before the Chase—is bound to turn around and get his hopes for a first career Cup championship pointed in the right direction.
Lowlight: Kurt Busch Fails to Advance Past First Round of Chase
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With all the ballyhooed anticipation of Kurt Busch coming to Stewart-Haas Racing this season, and with Busch becoming the first driver in a decade to attempt the Indianapolis 500-Coca-Cola 600 "double," you would think he would have gone further than he did in the Chase.
Unfortunately, NASCAR's self-proclaimed "outlaw" was one of four drivers eliminated from further advancement, the others being AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola and Greg Biffle.
Many of Busch's fans likely were hoping he'd make it all the way to the final four-driver, winner-take-all battle in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway—if for nothing else, because he won the first Chase in 2004, and it would have been somewhat fitting if he won the first Chase under the new elimination format, as well.
Highlight: The Chase's New Elimination Format Works
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When NASCAR introduced the new format for the Chase—16 drivers (up from 12) and a first-time elimination format that would see only the last four drivers standing heading into the season finale—a lot of people didn't know what to expect.
But after the excitement and drama that took place at Dover this past Sunday, with the "is he in or out" roller coaster that carried on for 400 laps, we finally saw NASCAR chairman Brian France's vision—and it was a vision that was nothing short of genius.
Sure, the Chase has gone through a few tweaks over the first 10 years of its existence, including expanding the original field from 10 to 12 drivers and the insertion of wild-card entries, but this new format was essentially a complete overhaul.
After asking ourselves how things would play out leading into the first elimination round, and then seeing what transpired over those first three races, it would not surprise me to see the Chase continue to build like an opera, going from a quiet start to a deafening crescendo when we reach Homestead and ultimately crown a champion.
Lowlight: What's Happened to Roush Fenway Racing?
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It's hard to believe that Greg Biffle, after fighting so hard to make the Chase this season, was one of the first four drivers to be eliminated after the Challenger Round.
But in a way, Biffle coming up short and being unable to advance any further isn't all that much of a surprise, given parent team Roush Fenway Racing's struggles this season.
Biffle failed to win a race this season. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had a horrible sophomore campaign. And Carl Edwards, despite two wins in 2014, has had an up-and-down season.
Even though the second round of the Chase starts off with a 12-way tie for first place heading into Sunday's race at Kansas, it's easy to consider Edwards to be one of the "favorites" (and we don't mean that nicely) to be eliminated from advancement to the third round after the race at Talladega three weeks from now.
While it would have been a storybook ending to have Edwards win the Sprint Cup championship in his final season at RFR before moving to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2015, unfortunately—as much as we hate to say it—it's just not going to be in the script for Cousin Carl this year.
Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski
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