Bruce: Consistency has put RCR driver in position to win a championship
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HOMESTEAD, Fla. – When Ryan Newman qualified for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup earlier this year, along with 15 other drivers, his inclusion in the field caused nary a ripple.
The fact that he had failed to win a race wasn’t a sore spot for most fans. He was one of three Chase drivers, along with Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle, who were winless through this year’s first 26 races.
No one said he or Kenseth or Biffle didn’t deserve to make the Chase.
But a funny thing happened on the way to Sunday’s Championship 4 and the Ford EcoBoost 400 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN), the title-determining race scheduled for here at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Newman and his Richard Childress Racing No. 31 team continued to advance without making it to Victory Lane.
Biffle fell by the wayside early, failing to finish any higher than 16th in the opening Challenger Round. Kenseth made it all the way to the Eliminator Round, but couldn’t overcome a 25th-place finish at Texas. Others that had won, either during the first 26 races or once the Chase began, eventually fell by the wayside as well.
In the meantime, Newman clicked off just enough top-10 finishes (five) in the nine Chase races to keep himself in the title picture. Now, he stands one finish away from potentially being crowned 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. Without winning a race.
And some folks think that’s absurd.His competition has won races this season – Joey Logano five times, Kevin Harvick four. Even Denny Hamlin can claim one victory.
NASCAR has never crowned a premier series champion that failed to win at least one race along the way, although the possibility has always existed. Four former champions won only once on the way to the title – Bill Rexford (1950), Ned Jarrett (’61), Benny Parsons (’73) and Kenseth (’03).
Likewise, winning the most races in a given season hasn’t guaranteed a championship trophy. Since 2004, six champions failed to win the most races in a season, but still won the championship. But, as others are quick to point out, they did win “some” races.
Perhaps it’s notable that following Kenseth’s title, officials rolled out the first Chase format in 2004. Winning had its privileges even then – each checkered flag during the regular season earning the winner bonus points used to determine how those in the Chase field would be seeded.
Never were they “as important” as this year, though. Win a race, earn a spot in the Chase (as long as the driver met all other criteria). Win a race in the Chase, and move on to the next round. Points weren’t tossed to the side, but they were no longer the golden ticket they had been for so many decades. Or so it seemed.
Absurd? Or an unexpected turn of events?
No one had any idea how this year’s new format would play out. The only sure thing was win and advance. But what if you didn’t?
We saw Chase drivers win all three of Challenger Round races; we saw two drivers escape elimination with last-chance victories; and we saw non-Chase drivers, shut out in the first two rounds, win two of three races in the Eliminator Round. No two rounds were the same. Uncertainty was everywhere.
Sunday, four drivers will have an opportunity to capture the sport’s top honor. None faces a must-win situation — finishing ahead of the other three will suffice, although that’s a tall order on any given weekend, no doubt even more so with so much on the line.
All four have earned the right, including Newman.
His lack of wins this season wasn’t an issue when the Chase got underway back in September. And it shouldn’t be an issue now.
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