Snapshot: Bristol

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Zack Albert

What: 55th annual Irwin Tools Night Race.

Where: Bristol Motor Speedway, .533-mile oval in Bristol, Tenn.

When: Saturday, Aug. 22, 7:30 p.m. ET.

TV/Radio: NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Distance: 500 laps, 266.5 miles.

Pit road speed: 30 mph.

Caution car speed: 35 mph.

Fuel window: 150 laps.

On the front row: | Full lineup

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota (131.407 mph)

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota (131.263 mph)

Did not qualify

Travis Kvapil, The Motorsports Group No. 30 Chevrolet; Jeb Burton, BK Racing No. 26 Toyota; Reed Sorensen, Premium No. 62 Motorsports Chevrolet

Fastest in practice

First practice: Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates No. 42 Chevrolet (129.833 mph) | Results

Final practice: Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota (131.146 mph). | Results

Driver rating (Best driver rating average at Bristol based on past 21 races):

Matt Kenseth (104.6)

Jeff Gordon (100.3)

Last year’s winner

Joey Logano, Team Penske No. 22 Ford.

Milestones in the mountains

Two drivers in the field will click off landmark starts in NASCAR’s premier series Saturday night. Ryan Newman is scheduled to make his 500th Sprint Cup appearance in Bristol’s annual night race, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will be making his 100th start in the series. For one of the two, the occasion came as a surprise. “I honestly had no idea until someone informed me of it this week,” Newman said. “500 is definitely a career milestone but for me, the biggest career start was my very first one. You got to have people who believe in you enough to just give you a chance and for that I am truly grateful.”

Gordon’s landmark

The return of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevy’s rainbow paint scheme may be a ‘one weekend only’ occurrence, but Bristol Motor Speedway gave Jeff Gordon a sustaining gift Friday that will last ages. A swath of seats in the mammoth grandstands will be known as the Jeff Gordon Terrace, joining sections named for stock-car racing legends — Earnhardt, Allison, Petty, Pearson, Waltrip, Johnson, Wallace, Yarborough and Kulwicki.

History lesson

Then named Bristol International Speedway, the .533-mile track debuted with the Volunteer 500 on July 30, 1961. Jack Smith was credited with the inaugural victory, but he was behind the wheel for only the first 290 laps, giving way to relief driver Johnny Allen for the final 210 circuits in the searing summer heat.

They said it

“One in 43.” — Matt Kenseth on weighing his chances of securing a second consecutive Sprint Cup victory, and a Bristol season sweep, this weekend.

Former Bristol winners in field

Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon (5); Matt Kenseth (4); Carl Edwards (3); Brad Keselowski (2); Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano, Tony Stewart (1)

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Zack Albert

RELATED: Full series standings | Chase Grid

BRISTOL, Tenn. — In postseason terms, Aric Almirola is still an outsider, but not by much — just 23 points behind Clint Bowyer, the final driver on the provisional Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff grid.

It would be easy, if not exactly sporting, for Almirola to rejoice about Bowyer’s short-term woes — a 41st-place finish last week at Michigan — and wider-scope issues — the impending breakup of Bowyer’s Michael Waltrip Racing team at season’s end. While opportunities exist for Almirola to capitalize, he’s not expecting his would-be Chase rivals to merely play out the string.

“There are two ways to look at it,” Almirola said after Friday’s final Sprint Cup practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. “One is, yeah, they may be vulnerable and guys are kind of distracted and they’re scrambling looking for jobs, but the other way to look at that is they don’t have anything to lose, so they can push all the gray areas as hard as they can and be really aggressive and what’s the worst that’s going to happen? They’re not going to lose their jobs because they’re already looking for work.

“There are a couple different ways to look at that and I think as hardcore racers as all those guys that he has on his team are, they’re not gonna lay down; they’re not gonna give up; they’re gonna fight hard; they’re gonna try and make the Chase. It’s about pride. Everybody in this garage area has egos and we all want to beat our competitors and I doubt any of those guys, Clint included, are going to lay down.”

Almirola aims to gain more Chase ground, starting with Saturday night’s Irwin Tools Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM), the third-to-last race of the Sprint Cup regular season. Besides Bowyer in front of him, he also has Kasey Kahne just three points off his heels with three unpredictable races — Bristol, Darlington, Richmond — looming on the schedule.

The fickle nature of all three tracks presents the opportunity for wild points swings, but Almirola would prefer to get to the Chase on the merits of performance. Richard Petty Motorsports‘ season-long search for speed in Almirola’s No. 43 and teammate Sam Hornish Jr.’s No. 9 has made that a more difficult prospect.

“We’ve had a few setbacks that were costly to us, but all in all we’ve had 15th-place cars and we’ve been running top-15 with them,” Almirola said. “That’s really all we can do. The guys back at the shop are working extremely hard and so is everybody else in the garage area to bring better cars to the race track every weekend. We’ve just been playing catch-up all year long. I’m really proud of everybody at RPM, but the moral of the story is we just need more speed in our cars and as we work harder and harder and continue to get more speed in our cars, our results will reflect that.”

One factor that has made matters trickier — opening-day pitfalls in back-to-back race weekends. This Friday, Almirola made contact with the outside retaining wall in opening practice, forcing his RPM crew into repair mode to keep his primary car intact. But it hardly compares with last weekend’s adversity, which left him ailing and infirm in Michigan’s infield care center.

After missing portions of practice last weekend, Almirola rallied for a 14th-place finish in the Pure Michigan 400. This weekend, he’s happy to leave his ailment several states away.

“I’m back to 100 percent but my goodness was that rough,” Almirola said. “I never felt so bad in a long time. I had some sort of 24-hour stomach virus and it was maybe a little longer than 24 hours, maybe 36 hours, and I was down for the count. I was laying in the infield care center on Thursday night from 11 to maybe 2:30 in the morning getting IVs and went back to the bus and got a little bit of sleep, but woke up every half-hour with throwing up or whatever and you know what the other is, so it was a long night.

“I got back up the next morning and went back to get some more IVs and I watched the first hour of practice laying on my couch in my motorhome and it was all I could do to gather myself up and get over to the garage and make a couple laps at practice.”

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Reid Spencer

BRISTOL, Tenn. — When Chris Buescher‘s Ford faltered on a green-white-checkered restart on Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch took full advantage, as is his custom.

In a Food City 300 that went to two laps of overtime at the .533-mile short track, Busch finished .427 seconds ahead of Kyle Larson, as Buescher faded to 11th after his car failed to pick up fuel off Turn 2 of the next-to-last lap.

The victory was Busch’s third of the season in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, his eighth at Bristol and the 73rd of his career, extending his own series record.

“This is home — this is where I’m supposed to be,” Busch said, standing outside the car in Victory Lane. “I wish I was here Wednesday night (after the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race), so we could continue the sweep lookout for (Saturday), but that was a second place. Oh, well.”

Polesitter Denny Hamlin ran third, followed by Ty Dillon and Daniel Suarez, who got a bonus for his top-five run. As the highest finishing eligible driver in the XFINITY Dash 4 Cash program, Suarez picked up an extra $100,000.

Pit strategy put Buescher at the front of the field under the fourth caution of the race, caused by Cale Conley‘s spin in Turn 4. Staying out on older tires while most of the lead-lap cars came to pit road for fresh rubber and fuel, Buescher nevertheless pulled away from Busch during a succession of restarts, as Busch saved his equipment for what he thought would be the inevitable late-race caution.

“I let the 60 (Buescher) go,” Busch said. “He ran out there to about a straightaway on us, and I was just trying to save and do what I could to keep my tires underneath me. I knew we were going to get some cautions at the end to bunch us back up, and fortunately we did.

“I wasn’t sure they were going to make it on fuel (having pitted on lap 131 of 302), and obviously they cut it close — a little too close.”

Busch got the yellow he needed, just in time. Brad Teague‘s wreck on the frontstretch with five laps left set up the green-white-checkered and gave Busch the chance he needed.

Buescher, who saw his series lead shrink to 19 points over Ty Dillon, knew he could have made it to the end on fuel, had the race not gone to overtime.

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Complete starting lineup

BRISTOL, Tenn. — If it’s pole day in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Joe Gibbs Racing must be celebrating.

Denny Hamlin powered his No. 11 Toyota around .533-mile Bristol Motor Speedway in 14.602 seconds (131.407 mph) on Friday to win the pole for Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race (on NBCSN at 7:30 p.m. ET).

In breaking Kevin Harvick‘s August 2014 track qualifying record by .005 seconds, Hamlin won his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his third at Bristol and the 22nd of his career.

JGR swept the top three spots in qualifying for the second straight week, having accomplished the feat last Saturday on the two-mile track at Michigan International Speedway. The pole was JGR’s fifth straight on an oval track (AJ Allmendinger, in a JTG Daugherty Chevrolet, claimed the top starting spot for the Aug. 9 race on the road course at Watkins Glen).

Hamlin edged teammate Kyle Busch (131.263 mph) by .016 seconds. Carl Edwards (130.655 mph) took the third starting spot, followed by David Ragan in a Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota (130.460 mph) and Joey Logano in a Team Penske Ford (130.344 mph).

Hamlin also won the pole for Friday night’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race.

“To have that two nights in a row here is hopefully going to pay dividends,” Hamlin said. “We’re excited. Bristol’s been a great track for me in the past, and we’ve got nothing to lose this weekend, just gearing up for the Chase, so I think our FedEx team’s ready.”

Hamlin has a victory at Bristol in addition to his two poles, and with a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup position guaranteed by virtue of his victory at Martinsville in April, he can go all-out for a win on Saturday night without fear of consequences.

Busch fought handling issues in the final two rounds of knockout qualifying and went for broke on his final attempt in the last round.

“We were just a little too free there the second segment and the first run of the third segment,” Busch said. “It’s a little edgy up there, so you try not to push too hard, but still make a good lap and come back safely.

“Then there at the end we tried a ‘Hail Mary’ and it worked. It picked us up speed, but it didn’t pick us up that spot.”

Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson grabbed the sixth through 10th spots on the grid, respectively. The qualifying effort was Stenhouse’s best of the year.

Jeff Gordon will start 24th in his last race at Bristol as a full-time Sprint Cup driver. Travis Kvapil, Jeb Burton and Reed Sorenson failed to make the 43-car field.

Posted on August 20, 2015 by

NASCAR fans, check your calendars.

Sure, it’s hot and humid outside — it is August, after all — but this week feels a lot like Christmas, doesn’t it?

Saturday marks one of the premier days of each year in motorsports — we’ll be runnin’ ’em under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway in the Irwin Tools Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).

For many, the night race at Bristol is the most-anticipated event of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, even ranking ahead of the Daytona 500.

Seeing that race live is something special, something sure to be on every fan’s ultimate bucket list.

So that has us wondering — what’s on your bucket list?

NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola and Jessica Ruffin offer their personal ones, and you should feel free to list your own down in the comments section.

DeCola: My NASCAR bucket list? Man, that’s a tough one. The sport has so much history at so many different tracks for so many different reasons, it’s hard to narrow it down. For starters, I think I’d want to knock the Brickyard 400 at Indy off my list. The Brickyard is arguably the most famous track in the world — certainly in the United States — and I have a sneaking feeling the history runs so deep there that you can breathe it in just as easily as the exhaust from 43 cars running around a 2.5-mile rectangle at 200 mph. Indy’s an obvious bucket list item.

Ruffin: Stepping on those celebrated bricks and looking up at the famed pagoda is nothing short of a NASCAR dream, Pat. Indy definitely makes my list, too. And while it’s much smaller and less glamorous than Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I’m going to throw Martinsville Speedway on my NASCAR bucket list. As the oldest track on the circuit, Martinsville takes you back in time to the roots of racing. All the greats from Fireball Roberts to Junior Johnson to Richard Petty to Dale Earnhardt have wheeled race cars around the paperclip oval. Watching old-school short-track racing from the grandstands — which all have a spectacular view — while munching on a legendary Martinsville hot dog is a must-do for any diehard fan.

DeCola: Tell me about it. Much to my cholesterol-level’s dismay, Martinsville probably makes my bucket list for the hot dog, alone. Continuing down the history trail here, another one any fan would be thrilled to cross off their list is Darlington Raceway, especially for this year’s Labor Day Throwback race. Sure, the summer trips to Myrtle Beach are great, but driving along the outside of the landmark track along the way only makes me wish I could be standing in the infield, watching those killer throwback schemes race to take home the biscuit race for one of NASCAR’s majors — the Bojangles’ Southern 500.

Ruffin: This year’s throwback schemes at Darlington are going to be incredible — fans can bet they’ll be transported back to another age of racing when they watch Kevin Harvick‘s old-school Budweiser scheme turning laps around the speedway Labor Day weekend from the infield. Another place that makes my bucket list possibly for the infield alone is a “Big One” — good ole Talladega. Located in the heart of Dixie, the larger-than-life tailgating — which includes everything from mud wrestling to weddings — and passionate fans make ‘Dega a must-stop on the circuit. The racing’s pretty awesome, too, with the superspeedway-style drafting, high speeds and crazy, multi-car pile-ups. And if someone like Junior — the ‘Dega fan favorite — takes the checkered, the contagious post-race excitement is bound to leave you singing “Sweet Home Alabama” all the way home.

DeCola: Home, you say, eh? Well, there’s no better place to call home than Daytona International Speedway, which may as well consider itself the flagship track of our entire sport. Sure, I’ve been there before, but guess what — the annual season-opening Daytona 500 should be on every NASCAR fan’s bucket list … every year. One of the most unpredictable, enthralling races of the entire season, there’s no reason to “cross it off” if you’ve been there before. Once is surely not enough.

Ruffin: Daytona International Speedway isn’t called the World Center of Racing for nothing, that’s for certain. It’s an iconic track and the Daytona 500 — NASCAR’s Super Bowl — is the perfect way to open up the NASCAR season. Let’s fast forward from the first race to the last race now: The season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. While it’s not considered a NASCAR Major in everyone’s book (see what we do consider the four NASCAR Majors here), the final race of the season is a bucket list item simply for the sake of it being the race that ultimately decides the NASCAR Sprint Cup champion. Judging by the exciting, nail-biting atmosphere it created last season with four drivers all vying for the title, Homestead’s popularity and hype is bound to increase. Not to mention its located in beautiful south Florida — so why not make a vacation out of it?

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Nascar

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Toyota officials made their first official comments concerning the demise of Michael Waltrip Racing Thursday, citing the automaker’s long relationship with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series organization.

“We want to thank everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing for a great partnership and for being a part of our ‘freshman class’ — one of the race teams that helped us enter the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series nine years ago,” Ed Laukes, Vice President marketing, performance and guest experience for Toyota Motor Sales, USA, said in a statement.

“Clint Bowyer has been a valuable member of the Toyota Racing family for the past four years, and we will continue to support him, and the rest of the MWR team through the end of the 2015 season.

MORE: Bowyer free to pursue other opportunities for 2016

The two-car organization, which currently fields Toyota Camry entries for drivers Bowyer and David Ragan in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, announced Tuesday that Bowyer would not return for 2016 and the group would not field a full-time team beyond this season.

MWR is co-owned by Rob Kauffman and Michael Waltrip . Its drivers have won seven Sprint Cup Series events with four drivers. Bowyer, who has driven the team’s No. 15 entry since 2012, finished a career-best second in the points standings in 2012 and enters this weekend’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway 15th in points and looking to secure one of the 16 available spots in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Ragan has been with the organization since May of this season, filling in for former driver Brian Vickers , who has been sidelined this season due to health issues.

Toyota made the move into Sprint Cup competition in 2007 and MWR, along with Red Bull Racing and Bill Davis Racing, was one of three organizations to field Toyota entries. The automaker moved into what is now the XFINITY Series in ’07 as well. It began competing in the Camping World Truck Series in 2004.

“We wish everyone associated with the team the best of luck in the future and we look forward to closing out the season focused on competing for a championship,” said Laukes.

MWR fielded three full-time Sprint Cup Series teams as recently as 2013. But after the group was penalized prior to the start of the ’13 Chase for manipulating the outcome of the final regular-season event at Richmond International Raceway, primary sponsor NAPA departed at the end of the year, forcing the group to scale back to two teams.

Toyota has three drivers sitting firmly in the Chase entering Brisol in Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. Kyle Busch, who has four wins, also is poised to make NASCAR’s playoffs as long as he can remain in the top 30 in the drivers points standings. He enters Brisol in 29th place, 23 points ahead of 31st-place driver Cole Whitt.

MORE: Updated Chase Grid standings

Posted on August 20, 2015 by

It seemed as though Terry Labonte had the 1995 Goody’s 500 won, as he propelled around Bristol Motor Speedway in his No. 5 Chevrolet. The Hendrick Motorsports wheelman had led 59 of 500 laps at the historic short track and had developed a lengthy lead over the second-place car of Dale Earnhardt.

Granted, the black No. 3 is likely not the car any driver wanted to see in their review mirror in those days.

As the laps dwindled down, Earnhardt continued to shave away at Labonte’s lead, lessening the gap to 1.6 seconds with eight laps to go. But with Bristol only 0.533 miles in length, the task seemed daunting, even for the ruthless “Intimidator.”

As the white flag was waved, Labonte began to battle lapped traffic, allowing Earnhardt to reach his bumper. In the final corner, the “Intimidator” tapped Labonte’s bumper, turning the No. 5 car sideways — but still first across the finish line to take the checkered.

The front end completely destroyed and leaking fluid, Labonte drove his No. 5 Chevrolet into Victory Lane, ready to commemorate what would become one of NASCAR’s most memorable finishes.

“That was a finish, wasn’t it?” Labonte said with a grin in Victory Lane.”… (Earnhardt) gave me a little shot in the back there, I just stood in the gas and we beat him across the line.

” … Think I used up a pretty good race car, but we’ll get another one.”

In great spirits, Labonte then climbed out of his heavily damaged car, the Kellogg’s rooster on the front bent in several directions and the front end smoking.

“I think I ran all night long, didn’t put a scratch on it until the end, but that’s the way it goes.” Labonte said, smiling. “We won.”

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Holly Cain

Not to be lost in a week of highly emotional and impactful news of the sport, is the encouraging and positive outcome from the reigning Sprint Cup champion Stewart-Haas Racing.

Because what’s good for Danica Patrick and good for that team is actually also good for all of NASCAR.

Tuesday’s announcement that Nature’s Bakery will begin a multiyear primary sponsorship of Patrick’s No. 10 Chevrolet beginning in 2016, is a significant sign for the sport.

It’s a fresh start and prime opportunity for this young and ambitious company, and a real indication that NASCAR is considered a thriving destination and viable option for a diverse group of potential corporate partners — not just for the petroleum, tire and tool brands that have historically laid the foundation.

“To have somebody new to this sport, that’s a victory on top of a victory, just getting a new partner,” Stewart-Haas Racing owner Tony Stewart said Tuesday after the team’s formal announcement.

“To bring somebody new into the sport, I think that shows the sport is still solid, it’s still marketable and we have a lot of good things going on in this series.”

Even the way this partnership materialized feels serendipitous.

The bakery’s two production facilities in St. Louis and Nevada use products supplied by Haas Automation, SHR co-owner Gene Haas’ company.

The company executives are longtime NASCAR fans and … one relatively innocuous conversation between a bakery representative and a Haas representative led to another, which led to a Patrick “taste test,” which rather quickly led to a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal between an up-and-coming company and one of the country’s most marketable professional athletes.

“Roughly about 100 days from beginning to end,” said Nature’s Bakery co-founder Dave Marson, who called it a “kind of a crazy idea that we’ve made reality here today.”

Marson explained, “We flew out, we met with Tony and Danica and instantly we knew that this was right. We were honest with them and said, ‘Hey, we’re not Coca-Cola. If you’re looking for Coca-Cola, if you’re looking for General Mills, you’ve got the wrong people, but if you believe in an up-and-coming brand in a category that’s growing, we’re your guys.’

“They believed in us.”

MORE: Herman Unplugged: Danica deal proves sport’s strength

In many ways Nature’s Bakery — which started as a family-owned bakery and now bakes and sells healthy snack bars in 22 countries — embodies exactly the kind of spirit and fundamentals that NASCAR fans embrace. The fact that it’s a family-owned American company with 420 employees — not 50,000 — is a concept well received.

This is a sport whose fans appreciate the underdog and cheer for those putting in the hard work.

“This is the next natural level and evolution of our brand,” said Marson. “It brings us to the forefront. It lets us play with the big boys now, so we’re ready for it.”

On a practical level, this buoys Patrick’s confidence in her pursuit of NASCAR success and it allows SHR to continue its focus on defending its 2014 championship run with one less major distraction.

And for Patrick and Stewart, sealing a deal between them was the only option considered.

“I just think it makes everything seamless to where we’re just continuing business as usual,” Stewart said. “There’s no change; she just gets to keep building on what she’s been doing up to this point with us. For us, it’s the same deal, too, we don’t have to worry about a transition.”

Added Stewart, “We continue to see progress in her.

“Everyone puts so much pressure on her that everything that she does — or if she makes a mistake — it’s magnified by everybody, so I think considering that, she’s done a pretty damn good job up to this point.”

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Staff Report

Regan Smith defined what it meant to pull a 180 at Mid-Ohio last Saturday.

One week after nearly coming to blows with Ty Dillon on pit road at Watkins Glen, Smith found himself smiling and pumping his fist triumphantly in Victory Lane.

“This is an incredible feeling, just an awesome feeling,” Smith exclaimed after winning for the first time in 52 starts.

On Friday, Smith will try to celebrate for the second consecutive week by winning the Food City 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN).

“Once you do it (win a race) once, you want to do that every week,” Smith said. “That moment when you pull up to the pit wall and do a burnout with your guys standing there, who put so much time and effort into everything that you get to go out there and showcase, there’s no moment like that, nothing that compares to that, no feeling or sensation.”

Currently fourth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings, Smith trails his JR Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott (+26 points), Ty Dillon (+27) and Chris Buescher (+51) for the lead. Bristol is a prime place for Smith to gain ground on his young adversaries. He has made as many starts (11) at the .533-mile track as Elliott, Dillon and Buescher have combined.

RELATED: Series standings

Also on the line for Smith is the $100,000 NASCAR XFINITY Series Dash 4 Cash bonus. To earn the extra money Smith must finish ahead of Daniel Suárez, Ryan Blaney and Elliott Sadler. He grabbed the first two Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonuses at Dover and Indianapolis, so if Smith earns the bonus this weekend, he can win $1 million through the Dash 4 Cash program by winning the XFINITY race at Darlington on Labor Day weekend.

“We want to win this weekend, for sure, with the XFINITY Dash 4 Cash on the line, and there’s no better place for it than Bristol,” Smith said. “We’re looking forward to it.”

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Staff Report

RELATED: Chase Grid | Updated standings

Only three races remain before the 16-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field is set. Here are the scenarios for clinching a Chase berth at Bristol Motor Speedway:

Below is the complete list of drivers currently in the Chase Grid.

Drivers with wins who have clinched a spot in the Chase as long as they stay in the top 30 in points:

1. Jimmie Johnson

2. Kyle Busch

3. Matt Kenseth

4. Kevin Harvick

5. Joey Logano

6. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

7. Kurt Busch

8. Martin Truex Jr.

9. Brad Keselowski

10. Denny Hamlin

11. Carl Edwards

Drivers currently in the top 16:

12. Jamie McMurray

13. Paul Menard

14. Ryan Newman

15. Jeff Gordon

16. Clint Bowyer

If a winless driver goes to Victory Lane at Bristol, he or she would clinch a spot only if that driver is 97 points ahead of 31st place. No driver who remains winless after Bristol will clinch a spot.