Kenny Bruce: Chase For The Sprint Cup field beginning to take shape
Stewart-Haas Racing's Tony Stewart (left) and his crew chief Darian Grubb appear poised to make the Chase For The Sprint Cup. // Jerry Markland, Getty Images for NASCAR
COMMENTARY
The top 10 in the point standings in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series remained unchanged, despite the mayhem of Daytona, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t expect a lot of movement during these next eight races.
It might be quiet – although no one is immune to trouble on the track – for those 10 teams, but for the groups clinging to 11th through 15th or so, time is growing short.
A year ago, only one change occurred in the top 12 between the second Daytona race and the cutoff event at Richmond – Kasey Kahne fell out of the top 12 and Kevin Harvick raced his way into the Chase. A major shakeup in the standings isn’t out of the question, but it becomes less and less likely with each passing race.
Which means drivers such as Juan Pablo Montoya (11th) and Kahne (12th) won’t be exhaling any time soon. Not with Mark Martin, David Reutimann and Jeff Burton (13th, 14th and 15th, respectively) squarely in their rearview mirrors. The latter three have spent time inside the top 12 this year, and it’s safe to say they’ll likely make it interesting before the series returns Richmond for a final time.
Burton was enjoying perhaps one of his best runs of the season at Daytona when trouble – in the form of a flat tire – sent his Richard
Childress Racing Chevrolet to pit road on lap 130 - just after Burton had taken the lead on three laps earlier.
“But we were able to get our lap back and had a fast enough car to get some spots,” Burton said afterwards.
That he was caught up in the last-lap incident was unfortunate, but Burton says it wasn’t surprising given the fact that there was a late,
double-file restart which crowded the cars back together.
Still, he noted, “We did cross the finish line.”
The RCR team, which finished 16th, is 105 points out of the Chase heading to this weekend’s race at Chicagoland Speedway.
• Regan Smith finished 12th at Daytona, and for what it’s worth, that was tops among teams running a partial schedule this year. It was just the 10th start of the year for the Furniture Row Racing team.
Smith may be just 38th in points, but he’s ahead of at least two others who have twice as many starts this season. The team’s next stop will be Indianapolis and the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
• NASCAR’s Cup series has now seen its last two restrictor-plate races finish with multicar accidents. Saturday’s melee, fortunately, didn’t result in any injuries, but it still raised questions regarding the safety and sanity of plate racing.
No, I don’t have any answers. Drivers aren’t doing anything any differently than they do at other tracks, yet the high speeds at Daytona and Talladega create much more dangerous situations.
So is the answer to slow the cars down? Outlaw blocking, and then go crazy trying to police it?
Or simply accept the fact that such incidents are likely going to continue to occur?
The next restrictor-plate race is scheduled for Nov. 1 at Talladega Superspeedway. Given Saturday night’s wild finish, ticket sales should be brisk.
