Drivers only have three races left to punch their Chase for the Sprint Cup tickets: Bristol, Darlington and Richmond.
As of now, 11 drivers are qualified for the Chase with wins as long as they start the next three races and remain in the top 30 in points: Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards.
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The five remaining drivers on the Chase Grid have to either visit victory lane or stay high enough in the points standings where they don’t get bumped by a new winner outside the top 16.
These drivers are Jamie McMurray (70 points above the cutoff line), Paul Menard (+61), Ryan Newman (+56), Jeff Gordon (+55) and Clint Bowyer (+23).
Gordon returns to the “world’s fastest half-mile” donning his old rainbow paint scheme he immortalized from 1992-2000. During those nine seasons, Gordon won three Sprint Cup championships, made 52 trips to victory lane and won at 17 different tracks, along with being named rookie of the year.
Gordon is hoping that his old colors will bring back his winning ways, but he may have had a great shot without them. At Bristol, the No. 24 driver owns the second-highest average running position (9.954) and driver rating (100.3) at the track.
This weekend’s events begin with the Camping World Trucks race on Wednesday night, followed by the Xfinity Series race on Friday. The Sprint Cup will complete the triple-header on Saturday night with the 500-lap Irwin Tools Night Race.
NASCAR at Michigan time, schedule
(All times Eastern)
Wednesday, Aug. 19
8:30 p.m.: Camping World Truck Series UNOH 200 presented by ZLOOP (200 laps, 106.6 miles), FOX Sports 1
Friday, Aug. 21
9 a.m.: Xfinity Series final practice, NBCSN
11:30 a.m.: Sprint Cup Series practice, NBCSN
1:30 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series final practice, NBCSN
3:45 p.m.: Xfinity Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, NBCSN
5:45 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, NBCSN
7:30 p.m.: Xfinity Series Food City 300 (300 laps, 159.9 miles), NBCSN
Saturday, Aug. 22
7:30 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Irwin Tools Night Race (500 laps, 266.5 miles), NBCSN
Sprint Cup: 2014 Irwin Tools Night Race recap
Logano charged to the front on a late restart and took the lead from Kenseth with 45 laps remaining. He held off his teammate, Keselowski for his then-third win of the season. Keselowski made a hard charge in the final turn, but could not catch his teammate.
Keselowski finished second, followed by Kenseth, Johnson, Kurt Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Edwards.
McMurray led a race-high 148 laps and looked like he had the car to beat until a caution flag on Lap 431. But while McMurray, Logano and the rest of the leaders pitted, Kenseth stayed on the track to inherit the lead.
He could not hold off Logano, however, who charged from sixth on the restart. He caught Kenseth with 51 laps remaining, and finally got around him on Lap 455.
This season, Logano will have to hold off the Busch brothers if he wants a second August win at Bristol. Kyle and Kurt both claim five wins at “Thunder Valley” – tied Jeff Gordon for the lead among active drivers at the track.
Kurt last won at Bristol in 2006. He also visited victory lane there in 2002 and 2004, and swept the track in 2003, while Kyle’s last Bristol win came in spring of 2011. He also took the checkered flag there in 2007 and 2010, and swept the track in 2009.
2014 Irwin Tools Night Race results
Lap length: .533 miles (Start position in parentheses)
1. (5) Logano, Ford, 500 laps, 133.8 rating, 47 points.
2. (9) Keselowski, Ford, 500, 122.8, 43.
3. (16) Kenseth, Toyota, 500, 115.1, 42.
4. (6) Johnson, Chevrolet, 500, 106.8, 40.
5. (7) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 500, 107.1, 39.
6. (21) Stenhouse, Ford, 500, 80.1, 38.
7. (3) Edwards, Ford, 500, 100.4, 37.
8. (18) McMurray, Chevrolet, 500, 116.8, 38.
9. (17) Menard, Chevrolet, 500, 85.3, 35.
10. (8) Greg Biffle, Ford, 500, 89.4, 34.
11. (1) Harvick, Chevrolet, 500, 116.3, 34.
12. (40) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 500, 78.6, 32.
13. (11) Newman, Chevrolet, 500, 92, 31.
14. (22) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 500, 82.1, 30.
15. (25) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 499, 80, 29.
16. (2) Gordon, Chevrolet, 499, 87.9, 29.
17. (14) Bowyer, Toyota, 498, 66.7, 27.
18. (28) Michael McDowell, Ford, 498, 63.7, 26.
19. (19) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 497, 71.9, 25.
20. (23) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 497, 68.4, 24.
21. (15) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 497, 71, 23.
22. (39) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 497, 57.9, 0.
23. (29) David Ragan, Ford, 496, 52.9, 21.
24. (36) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 496, 52.2, 20.
25. (32) David Gilliland, Ford, 495, 49, 19.
26. (43) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 495, 44.6, 18.
27. (24) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 493, 45.2, 17.
28. (26) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 493, 35.6, 16.
29. (30) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 492, 42.8, 15.
30. (34) Cole Whitt, Toyota, 492, 38.1, 14.
31. (41) David Stremme, Chevrolet, 491, 33.5, 13.
32. (27) Alex Bowman, Toyota, 489, 53.9, 12.
33. (37) J.J. Yeley, Ford, 489, 37.4, 0.
34. (10) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 480, 53.8, 10.
35. (12) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 477, 79.6, 10.
36. (4) Kyle Busch, Toyota, accident, 442, 68.4, 9.
37. (33) Ryan Truex, Toyota, engine, 338, 38, 7.
38. (38) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, accident, 243, 29.9, 6.
39. (20) Earnhardt, Chevrolet, accident, 176, 68.6, 5.
40. (13) Hamlin, Toyota, accident, 160, 79.5, 5.
41. (42) Almirola, Ford, accident, 123, 43.7, 3.
42. (31) Brett Moffitt, Toyota, engine, 78, 30.8, 2.
43. (35) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, overheating, 37, 24.8, 1.
———
Race statistics
Average speed of race winner: 92.965 mph.
Time of race: Two hours, 52 minutes, 0 seconds.
Margin of victory: 0.390 seconds.
Caution flags: Nine for 64 laps.
Lead changes: 16 among nine drivers.
Recent winners at Bristol (fall)
2014: Logano
2013: Kenseth
2012: Hamlin
2011: Keselowski
2010: Kyle Busch
Recent winners at Bristol (spring)
2015: Kenseth
2014: Edwards
2013: Kahne
2012: Keselowski
2011: Kyle Busch
Top five drivers at Bristol since August 2010 (10 races)
Kenseth (two wins, seven top 10s, one pole, 10.0 average finish)
Kyle Busch (two wins, four top 10s, one pole, 14.7 average finish)
Keselowski (two wins, four top 10s, 15.3 average finish)
Kahne (one win, six top 10s, 15.4 average finish)
Menard (six top 10s, 13.2 average finish)
Top five current driver ratings at short tracks since 2013 (15 races)
Kenseth, 111.7
Gordon, 106.9
Harvick, 103.3
Logano, 99.6
Keselowski, 97.3
News and notes
— Newman and Stenhouse will log their 500th and 100th respective Sprint Cup career starts on Saturday. Neither has ever visited victory lane at Bristol.
— Winless drivers this season who have won at Bristol in the past and have yet to earn Chase berths this season are Gordon, Kahne and Stewart.
— A currently winless driver who wins at Bristol would clinch a spot if he/she is 97 points ahead of 31st place. No driver who remains winless after Bristol will clinch a spot.
— Menard (16 starts) leads the series in starts with the fewest DNFs (0) at Bristol.
— Eighty-seven of the 109 (79.8 percent) of Bristol races have been won from a top-10 starting position, including 54 from the first four spots.
— If Gordon can lead 169 laps Saturday, he will become the sixth driver in Sprint Cup history to lead 25,000 laps, joining Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson and Bobby Allison.
Xfinity Series: Food City 300 race recap
Ryan Blaney stole the lead from Kyle Busch on a restart with six laps to go and held on, beating Kyle Busch by less than 0.2 seconds to win the Food City 300. After the race, Kyle Busch was upset, saying that Blaney hit the throttle before the restart zone, thus gaining an illegal advantage, but officials held up the ruling and Blaney captured the win.
Chase Elliott, Ty Dillon and Regan Smith followed Blaney and Kyle Busch across the finish line.
This season, if Blaney wants to repeat, he’ll have to hold off a host of Sprint Cup drivers including Kyle Busch, Harvick, Larson, and Hamlin. Both Kyle Busch (seven, series-most) and Harvick (five, second-most) are former Xfinity Bristol winners.
Chris Buescher remains first in the standings, 25 points ahead of Ty Dillon and 26 points in front of Elliott, who owns three top 10s and an average finish of 6.0 in three starts at “Thunder Valley.”
