NASCAR at Dover: Harvick, Busch, Earnhardt face Chase elimination – SportingNews.com

It’s elimination time and some of NASCAR’s biggest names are in jeopardy of not moving on to the next stage of the Chase as NASCAR heads to Dover International Speedway.

Sunday’s AAA 400 is the first cutoff race of the Chase and Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. could be among the first four out with a poor performance.

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No driver faces more dire straits than Harvick. The defending NASCAR champion ranks 15th out of 16 drivers on the Chase grid and sits 23 points below 12th-place Earnhardt on the cutoff line. His only likely shot at moving on to the 12-driver Contender Round is to win, something he’s never done at the track known as the “Monster Mile.”

To advance in the Chase, Kyle Busch needs to either win Sunday’s race or avoid being one of the four winless drivers lowest in points. He (along with Paul Menard) currently sit one point behind Earnhardt in 13th place on the Chase Grid. Luckily for Busch, he owns two wins, nine top fives and 13 top 10s at the Delaware track. Busch also has the third-best Dover driver rating (105.0) and the fourth-best average running position (11.235).

Here is a look at the Chase bubble entering Dover.

10) Jeff Gordon, 2068 points, plus-12 above cutoff line.
11) Jamie McMurray, 2058, plus-2
12) Earnhardt, 2057, plus-1

Bottom four drivers facing elimination:

13) Kyle Busch, 2056, 1 point out of 12th
14) Menard, 2056, minus-1
15) Harvick, 2034, minus-23
16) Clint Bowyer, 2018, minus-39

It will be a busy weekend for the NASCAR circuit as the Xfinity Series joins the Sprint Cup at Dover, while the Camping World Truck Series will run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

TV schedule (all times ET)

Friday, Oct. 2

11 a.m.: Sprint Cup Series practice, NBCSN

1:30 p.m.: Xfinity Series final practice, NBCSN

3:45 p.m.: Sprint Cup qualifying, NBCSN

Saturday, Oct. 3

11 a.m.: Sprint Cup practice, CNBC

Noon: Camping World Truck Series final practice, FOX Sports 2

12:15 p.m.: Xfinity Series qualifying, NBCSN

2 p.m.: Sprint Cup final practice, NBCSN

3:30 p.m.: Xfinity Series Hisense 200 (200 laps, 200 miles), NBCSN

7:05 p.m.: Camping World Truck Series qualifying, FOX Sports 2

10 p.m.: Camping World Rhino Linings 350 (146 laps, 219 miles), FOX Sports 1

Sunday, Oct. 4

2:30 p.m.: Sprint Cup AAA 400 (400 laps, 400 miles), NBCSN

Sprint Cup: 2014 AAA 400 race recap

Gordon led 94 laps, including the final 71, to win the AAA 400 and advance to the next round of the Chase playoffs. It was his first win at the “Monster Mile” since 2001.

Gordon passed Brad Keselowski for the lead on Lap 306 and cruised to the win. Keselowski, who won the Chase opener last season at Chicagoland Speedway, finished second, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Larson.

Earlier this season at Dover, Johnson led the final 23 laps to hold off Harvick for the win. It was his 10th career win at Dover.

Hamlin led 118 laps in the May race, but after getting hit in the rear by Bowyer with 15 to go, he spun into the backstretch wall and finished 21st.

This time around, Johnson will make his 500th start on Sunday at the oval he dominates but Joe Gibbs Racing may be the team to beat.

JGR won the first two races of NASCAR’s playoffs (Hamlin at Chicagoland; Matt Kenseth at New Hampshire) after visiting victory lane in eight of the last 11 regular season races. The team has also finished 1-2 in three consecutive races, a feat that hasn’t happened since 1956.

2014 AAA 400 race results

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (6) Gordon, Chevrolet, 400 laps, 134.5 rating, 47 points, $240,901.

2. (4) Keselowski, Ford, 400, 130, 43, $208,008.

3. (8) Johnson, Chevrolet, 400, 118.5, 41, $188,861.

4. (16) Logano, Ford, 400, 97.5, 40, $156,191.

5. (14) Kenseth, Toyota, 400, 107.8, 40, $167,836.

6. (7) Larson, Chevrolet, 400, 100.5, 38, $134,135.

7. (26) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 400, 85.7, 37, $125,573.

8. (20) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 400, 90.5, 36, $108,515.

9. (9) Bowyer, Toyota, 400, 99.1, 36, $126,756.

10. (2) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 400, 108.4, 34, $141,606.

11. (18) Carl Edwards, Ford, 400, 85, 34, $105,240.

12. (3) Hamlin, Toyota, 400, 99.4, 32, $96,540.

13. (1) Harvick, Chevrolet, 399, 118.6, 33, $135,623.

14. (15) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 399, 87.2, 30, $119,798.

15. (11) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 399, 81.7, 29, $117,815.

16. (19) Menard, Chevrolet, 399, 66.7, 28, $111,229.

17. (25) Earnhardt., Chevrolet, 399, 70.2, 27, $91,615.

18. (22) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 399, 80, 26, $83,790.

19. (24) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 399, 72.9, 25, $118,840.

20. (12) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 399, 90.9, 24, $99,865.

21. (27) Greg Biffle, Ford, 399, 67.7, 23, $123,665.

22. (5) McMurray, Chevrolet, 398, 71, 23, $116,104.

23. (28) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 398, 60.6, 21, $100,398.

24. (10) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 398, 66.4, 20, $127,326.

25. (13) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 398, 59.6, 19, $90,415.

26. (17) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 398, 66.4, 18, $107,910.

27. (30) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 397, 53.4, 17, $105,473.

28. (21) Aric Almirola, Ford, 397, 56.3, 16, $118,001.

29. (23) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 395, 52.8, 15, $102,973.

30. (29) Cole Whitt, Toyota, 395, 50.5, 14, $82,165.

31. (37) David Ragan, Ford, 395, 43.4, 13, $99,648.

32. (33) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 394, 44.7, 12, $86,837.

33. (31) David Gilliland, Ford, 393, 46, 11, $85,140.

34. (34) Alex Bowman, Toyota, 391, 36.3, 10, $76,965.

35. (36) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 391, 38.1, 0, $76,740.

36. (40) Mike Bliss, Chevrolet, 391, 35.3, 0, $76,570.

37. (38) David Stremme, Chevrolet, 389, 31, 7, $76,426.

38. (42) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 389, 31.5, 6, $71,330.

39. (39) J.J. Yeley, Ford, 387, 27.9, 0, $67,330.

40. (41) Mike Wallace, Toyota, 384, 25.9, 0, $71,330.

41. (35) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, axle, 361, 42.8, 3, $59,330.

42. (32) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, suspension, 197, 37.1, 2, $55,330.

Race statistics

Average speed of race winner: 130.541 mph.

Time of race: Three hours, three minutes, 51 seconds.

Margin of victory: 4.352 seconds.

Caution flags: Five for 23 laps.

Recent winners at Dover (fall)

2014: Gordon

2013: Johnson

2012: Keselowski

2011: Kurt Busch

2010: Johnson

Recent winners at Dover (spring)

2015: Johnson

2014: Johnson

2013: Stewart

2012: Johnson

2011: Kenseth

Top five drivers at Dover since September 2010 (10 races)

Johnson (five wins, nine top 10s, one pole, 4.0 average finish)

Gordon (one win, five top 10s, 8.8 average finish)

Keselowski (one win, four top 10s, one pole, 12.6 average finish)

Kenseth (one win, six top 10s, 15.6 average finish)

Bowyer (nine top 10s, 9.1 average finish)

Top five driver ratings at one-mile tracks since 2013 (16 races)

Harvick, 117.4

Keselowski, 112.8

Kenseth, 106.4

Johnson, 105.5

Kyle Busch, 103.0

News and notes

— Stewart announced his retirement as a Sprint Cup driver after the 2016 season and confirmed that Bowyer will be his replacement beginning in 2017. Smoke needs one more top-10 finish to reach 300 top 10s. 

— Newman leads all active drivers in the Sprint Cup in average starting position at Dover with a 9.92. 

— Seventy-one of the 91 (78 percent) Sprint Cup races at Dover have been won from a top-10 starting position.

— If Johnson leads one lap or more this weekend he will surpass the 3,000 laps led mark at Dover International Speedway, becoming the seventh driver in series history to lead 3,000 or more laps at a single track. Gordon is the only other active driver to accomplish the feat (Martinsville — 3,744 laps led.) 

— If Gordon can lead 128 laps Sunday, 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. 

— Kahne will make his 425th consecutive Sprint Cup start this weekend. The No. 5 driver is eighth on the active consecutive Sprint Cup starts list, 33 consecutive starts behind Biffle (457) in seventh.

Xfinity Series: 2015 Hisense 200 preview

While the Sprint Cup has eight races remaining, the Xfinity Series has six races left on the schedule. 

Points leader Chris Buescher returns to Dover hoping to complete the single-season sweep at the “Monster Mile” and increase his points lead over Ty Dillon (-19) and Chase Elliott (-25). 

The next six races are key for Elliott, fortunately he has an average finish in the top 10 at four out of the six tracks — Dover, 4.5, Kansas, 10.0, Charlotte, 17.7, Texas, 4.3, Phoenix, 7.0, Homestead-Miami, 17.0.

Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. may be gotten a bit heated with Brian Scott after last weekend’s race at Kentucky, but the Xfinity Series rookie looks to stay hot as he competes for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year. Trailing Daniel Suarez by 23 points, Wallace will need to finish on average four positions higher than Suarez in each of the remaining six races. 

Camping World Truck Series: 2015 Rhino Linings 350

Last week, all eyes were on Austin Dillon has he led 80 laps from the pole to win the UNOH 175 – the 500th race in Camping World Truck Series history. This week, eyes will be on extreme sports star Travis Pastrana as he makes his return to NASCAR. 

Pastrana’s last race was the 2013 Xfinity Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway where he finished 18th. That season he ran a full schedule for Roush Fenway Racing, posting four top 10s and earning one pole in 33 starts.

Las Vegas defending race winner Erik Jones enters the race riding a streak of nine consecutive top-10 finishes that has seen the 19-year-old overtake the lead in the points standings. 

Matt Crafton (-7) and Tyler Reddick (-19) have six more races to pass Jones for the points lead.