One and Done: Price Chopper 400

Christopher LeoneSep 29, 2009

This weekend, the Sprint Cup Series will contest the third race of this year's Chase, heading to Kansas for the ninth annual Price Chopper 400. Jimmie Johnson won this race last year, giving him a points lead that he would not relinquish for the rest of the year.

Kansas Speedway is a 1.5-mile rounded tri-oval, similar to ISC sister track Chicagoland Speedway. With 15-degree banking in the turns and slightly banked straightaways, the track is widely cited as one of NASCAR's most prominent "cookie cutter" speedways. It is the first of three 1.5-mile tri-ovals in the Chase, with Charlotte coming up in two weeks and Texas occurring around this time next month.

The eventual Sprint Cup champion has always finished well at Kansas: In 2004, Kurt Busch placed sixth, his best-ever Kansas finish; Tony Stewart was fourth in 2005; and two of Jimmie Johnson's past three Kansas races have resulted in podium finishes. Finishing well at Kansas isn't the perfect predictor of a Sprint Cup champion, but consider that in four of the past five years, the points leader coming out of the weekend has gone on to win the championship.

With that in mind, whichever of these drivers leaves Kansas with the points lead has a good shot at winning the title. Going with the theory that only Chase drivers are worthy of picking anymore, here are this week's "One and Done" picks:

Jeff Gordon (avg. fn. 9.8): Gordon won the first two Kansas races to take place, in 2001 and 2002. He's almost always solid at Kansas, with five top-fives in eight starts. Only a 39th place finish in 2006, caused by a fuel pump failure, mars his Kansas record. Mired in 8th in the Chase standings, 122 points out of the lead, Kansas could be the catalyst to Gordon's fifth championship run, if he can run as well as he normally does at the track.

Greg Biffle (avg. fn. 9.9): Da Biff is actually about a solid bet at Kansas as I can imagine. In four of his past five Kansas races, he's finished third or better. He's only had two more meaningful starts at Kansas, both resulting in 12th-place finishes. Discount a spot start filling in for the late Bobby Hamilton in 2002, in which Biffle crashed and finished 36th, and Biffle has the best record of anybody at Kansas. Like Gordon, he could use a huge Kansas run to boost his Chase hopes.

Jimmie Johnson (avg. fn. 10.4): Johnson entered this race last year 10 points behind the leader. He came out with the lead after winning the race, and look how that turned out for him. While points leader Mark Martin finished second at Dover, Johnson's win gained him 25 points in the standings. Another Kansas win might do the same thing for him this weekend.

Mark Martin (avg. fn. 13.1): The Kid still holds the points lead over Johnson by a slim margin. He, too, has won at Kansas before, leading 139 laps on the way to victory in 2005. The problem is, he hasn't even led a lap since, with two finishes outside of the top 10 in the past three years. (Granted, both were in Ginn/DEI equipment, but still.) He can't afford not to lead at least one lap this weekend—not with Johnson catching fire.

Juan Montoya (avg. fn. 24.0): Obviously this isn't a pick based on history, it's a pick based on momentum. Montoya has been fantastic through two Chase races. He's risen to the occasion the past four weeks, with three top-fives after only one in the previous 24 races. He's getting hot at the right time, on tracks he's never been anything special at (Loudon comes to mind).