The Chase ‘Points’ Out to Drivers the Next Five Races are Crucial
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
The Race For the Chase is starting to heat up as the NASCAR ‘Cupsters’ head into the second road race of the season at Watkins Glen in the Finger Lakes region of New York State.
Only the top 12 drivers in the points will be allowed to compete in the last 10 races of the season for a chance to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup and with only five races remaining until The Chase, every point gained on the track might mean the difference between sitting in 12th or 13th in the standings.
Matt Kenseth (17) fell out of the top 12 after last week’s race in Pocono and is just 11 points from the 12th and last spot. David Ragan (6) has quietly put together a good sophomore year and is sitting 14th in points, just 46 out of 12th. Could Ragan make The Chase? With five races left, you never know. But one thing for sure is that everyone who wants to stay, or get in, the top 12 will have to have a good race at The Glen.
If you do poorly on this road course, you may just find yourself on the outside of the top 12 come Chase time.
The Glen is a fast road course encompassing 11 turns over hilly terrain for approx 2.5 miles. The spots to watch out for on the track are turn 1, where it is easy to overdrive your car and lose several positions in the process; and turns 5, 6, 7 and 8 that make up what is called the “inner loop”, which is a chicane that was put in after the death of NASCAR driver J.D. McDuffie in 1991 in order to slow the cars down before they enter what is now called turn 9.
One other place to watch for interesting developments is pit road. At The Glen, cars enter pit road on the right side instead of the left, and this means that the pit crews must service the cars backwards by changing the driver’s side tires first instead of last. This little change in routine might be enough to throw even the best teams off, especially if the driver pulls in too close to the pit wall because they can’t see it very well.
The drivers to watch at this track are Tony Stewart (20) and Jeff Gordon (24), who have combined to win eight of the last 11 races and both of whom are winless so far this season.
Also, you can’t leave out point leader Kyle Busch (18), who won the last road race in Sonoma, and Mark Martin, who is no slouch on road courses and has an average finish at The Glen of 6.9 in 19 starts.
The darkhorses will be Canadian Ron Fellows (01), who won last week in the history-making Nationwide race in Montreal where NASCAR continued the race in the rain with the race cars using a specially designed rain tire for the first time, and former Trans Am ace Boris Said (45), who taught most of today’s NASCAR drivers how to properly race on road courses.
No matter who you are cheering for on the weekend, pay attention to those drivers in the top 12 in points because if they are doing well or not, this race may not get someone into The Chase. But a poor performance will almost certainly keep them out, and that just may be a bigger story than who won the race.
Boris Said - AP Photo/Tom Ryder
