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2014 format means teams ‘go fast, or go home’

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Brad Keselowski has won the most races and enters this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with the points lead.
 
But does that mean the Team Penske driver and 2012 champion is the most likely to win it all for a second time in three years?
 
Does anyone discount the chances of Jimmie Johnson? The winner of more Chase races (24) and championships (six) than anyone in the field, Johnson is the only driver to appear in every Chase he’s attempted, regardless of format.
 
With the quest for a record-tying seventh championship beginning in earnest this weekend, what are the chances we won’t see the Hendrick Motorsports driver among the final four in Homestead?
 
Or Jeff Gordon, looking more and more like the driver who had four titles in his pocket before his 30th birthday?

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Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano? Each has won multiple races this year. And, at times, each has looked invincible.
 
What about Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Ryan Newman, in the Chase yet still looking for that first win of the season? The first lap hasn’t been completed and those three already find themselves 12 points down to the leader. Will we see an early exit for one or more, or is the consistency that carried them into the 10-race playoff more beneficial than most realize?
 
It’s a healthy mix of former champions, veterans still searching for that first title and a couple of newcomers making their Chase debuts, and it adds up to a 16-team field, the largest since the championship-determining format was first rolled out in 2004.
 
But a little more than a month from now, when the Challenger Round gives way to the Contender Round, four of them will be gone.
 
From the beginning, the Chase has always included teams that were "eliminated" from title contention. Have a bad couple of races to start the Chase, and your group can begin preparing for next year.
 
But the new format brings finality to the process. Go fast or go home.
 
There are favorites and there are underdogs as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rolls into Chicago this weekend for the MyAFibStory.com 400 (ESPN, Sunday at 2 p.m. ET). It’s the fourth time the 1.5-mile track has hosted the kickoff to the Chase, and twice the race winner has gone on to clinch the championship.
 
There are no pretenders. Each has arrived at this stage of the season deserving of the opportunity. From Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger, brushed aside by some before the field was completed, to Keselowski and Johnson.
 
The formula to get here was simple: win and remain inside the top 30 in points, and you’re in. Win in the Chase, or accumulate the necessary amount of points, and you’ll advance. And advance. And advance. Until only one is crowned champion at Homestead.
 
In any competition, someone always holds an advantage of one sort or another. Maybe it’s under the hood; maybe it’s the personnel. Sometimes, though, it’s a single decision that ultimately changes the outcome and allows the unexpected to become reality.
 
You can go through any number of scenarios in an effort to see what lies in store only to discover that numbers don’t drive race cars. Best average finish for the season, fewest results outside the top 20? Best mile-and-a-half program? Restrictor-plate success?
 
Add them all up and you get a glimpse of a team’s strengths and weaknesses, but you don’t get the entire picture.
 
You don’t see the guys flying over pit wall. You don’t see the call for two tires instead of four with the race on the line, or the decision to stay out rather than come to pit road.
 
Statistics provide a glimpse of what has happened. They don’t guarantee what will take place tomorrow, next week or next month.
 
The human element can’t be overlooked. It played a major role in determining who made this year’s Chase. And it will play just as big of a role in who continues to advance. Until in the end, only one remains.

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Posted on by Brad Norman

At Chase Media Day, veteran talks age, performance, history

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CHICAGO — Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a 39-year-old man in the midst of his best season since 2004, a time in which he drove for his family’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team and boasted a head of hair not even close to being slightly tinged with gray, as it is now.

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He’ll turn 40 one day before the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the fifth of 10 postseason races. Despite his remarkable season that consists of three wins (second-most in the series) and 11 top-fives (tied for most in the series) and the No. 3 seed entering the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Earnhardt realizes there’s always the chance he’s closer to the end of his career peak than he is the beginning — or even the middle.

He knows there’s something about age thresholds for any athlete, that there eventually comes a time when your body and mind can no longer do what it once did.

"I’ve always wondered what happens to a person physically and mentally that changes their performance over time," Earnhardt said during Chase Media Day. "As their career goes further into their 40s, some people are fast still — (like) Mark Martin and Harry Gant. It’s something inside. It’s a passion to do the details, to do the extra work. I don’t know. I just wonder, do you know it’s happening where you’re falling off and not competitive anymore?

"I’ve often wanted to talk to other drivers like, ‘What’s that experience like when you go through the past few years of your career. Why do you think your career changed?’ We’re running great and I feel like I’m driving as well as I ever have, so I’m not too worried about it personally right now, but there’s going to come a day where I’ll have to make a serious decision about what I want to do with my career. Hopefully it won’t be for a few years." 

Earnhardt Jr. can look to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon if he needs a pick-me-up. At age 43, Gordon is a championship contender and has rebounded from a pair of sub-par years — at least by his own lofty standards — when whispers began about whether he had lost the touch, whatever "the touch" actually means. 

Still, Earnhardt’s insight Thursday demonstrated that the driver knows for every Gordon success story, there’s another driver who steadily declined once crossing the 40-axis. 

Want more pressure? Earnhardt knows he has the support — and at times, weight — of Junior Nation clamoring for that elusive silver trophy. 

"I know that we have a huge, very supportive fan base," Earnhardt said. "I’ve been reading all year long on Twitter and hearing the comments at the track to me directly. ‘Oh, this is the year, we’re gonna do it. You’re gonna do it.’ I can definitely sense that urgency. This is as close as I think the fan base feels like we’ve gotten to winning a championship. They really believe in it, so I know there’s a lot of people out there that want it to happen and there will be a bunch of people out there disappointed if it doesn’t."

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Busch discusses looking up to Gordon, now wanting to beat him on Chase tour

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CHICAGO — A student at George B. Swift Specialty School on Chicago’s North Side asked Kyle Busch who were some of the people he admired most during his childhood. 

"I always watched Jeff Gordon, and he was my hero growing up," Busch said. "And now I have the chance to beat him."

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Busch is hoping to do just that against Gordon when NASCAR’s playoffs — the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup — begin with the MyAFibStory.com 400 Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet (2 p.m. on ESPN). 

The race is also the debut of the new Chase format — the Challenger Round begins Sunday — where four drivers will be eliminated after every three races. The last four drivers eligible in the Chase are the Championship Four, and will race for the title at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 16. 

Busch’s appearance at Swift School Wednesday morning and later at Pioneer Court on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago are part of NASCAR’s Chase Across North America, where the 16 Chase drivers made appearances in cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico to promote the 10-race Chase.

Busch told the students at Swift School how the new Chase format works and that each class would have the chance to compete in a Chase Grid competition (www.NASCAR.com/grid). The winning class with the most accurate results at the end of the Chase would get a pizza party, Busch said. He later paid a special visit to the second grade class, recipients of a special donation from The NASCAR Foundation.

"I’ve been to a few school visits over time and I like to share my passion for the sport and my passion for school," Busch said. 

Busch is doing triple-duty at Chicagoland for the fourth time this season, starting with Friday night’s Lucas Oil 225 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race before the Jimmy John’s Freaky Fast 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday.

"I enjoy doing it, and I enjoy racing more so than just sitting in the motor home watching the races every weekend," Busch said. "Since I’m there, I might as well participate and get my take on the race track." 

Busch said he is hoping the truck and Nationwide races will give him a better idea of how Chicagoland’s track is holding up and how a new Goodyear tire will perform.

Busch has had success at Chicagoland. He’s won a total of seven races in Joliet: the 2008 Sprint Cup race, three Nationwide series races and three in the trucks series since 2009 when the track hosted its first truck event. 

"Chicagoland Speedway is a cool race track … it lends itself to good racing because the asphalt is a little bit older," Busch said. "You can run from the bottom of the race track all the way to the top by the wall. It gives up options to race more."

Busch is hoping the weekend culminates with a victory Sunday afternoon in the Sprint Cup series. He’s entering the Challenger Round with one victory, six top-five finishes and is nine points behind standings leader Brad Keselowski and six behind Gordon. 

"We need to pick up our mile-and-a-half program, and this is the first of five mile-and-a-half races in the Chase so this is the first for us to get going better," Busch said.

"There are some guys in the Chase that you wouldn’t expect to be in it, which is great for the sport and for those teams and their sponsors. The first couple races are going to be interesting to see how all this plays out."

Busch is also appearing in Toyota and Sprint’s two-hour Chase Grid Live, alongside the other Chase-eligible drivers on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET at Pioneer Court on Michigan Avenue. 

Chase Week entertainment kicks off with a free concert Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET, also at Pioneer Court, with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

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Panel of experts debate that and more as the roundtable returns

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1. OK folks, the field of 16 for this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has been determined. Looking at this year’s roster, is there a favorite in the field?
 
Alan Cavanna: I filled out my Chase Grid (like I hope you have, print a blank one out here) — and started with my champion, Jeff Gordon. Huge year, fast speed, and the sense that the driver from the late ’90s is back.
 
Brad Norman: I’m not so sure there is a "favorite," but there’s definitely a group of "favorites." That would be the Team Penske duo and the three heavyweights at Hendrick Motorsports – sorry, Kasey Kahne. Throw in Kevin Harvick, if he gets the pit-road problems cleaned up with a new over-the-wall crew. I can’t imagine a scenario in which the final four drivers at Homestead don’t come from that group.
 
Kenny Bruce: For the first time in, well, a long time, I don’t think you can assume that Jimmie Johnson is a clear-cut favorite. The No. 48 team started the season slower than many expected, caught fire at mid-season but has been "average" (for them) recently.

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Cavanna: OK fellas, I’m the only one going out on a limb with a solid pick. C’mon now.
 
Norman: True, Alan. If forced to pick one, I’d go with top-seeded Brad Keselowski. He’s back to form, he’s got a great strategist in Paul Wolfe calling the shots and the Team Penske cars have been phenomenal on those intermediate-type ovals. Of which there are five in the postseason.
 
Bruce: I’ll lean toward Alan on the Gordon pick, but I’ve got to give props to 2012 champ Keselowski as well. The No. 2 team has been pretty stout of late, and that momentum’s got to be worth something.
 
Cavanna: I understand though. The four drivers in the Championship Round aren’t necessarily the four "best." They’re the three winners, and the most consistent. A great driver will be left out of the championship race at Homestead.
 
Norman: One thing that’s most interesting about Keselowski is that Joey Logano is one of his biggest challengers. They share a garage, share info. After Logano won at Bristol and Keselowski finished second, Bad Brad was asked about how those two will continue to share info during the Chase — and it was a topic the 2012 champion was reluctant to discuss.
 
Bruce: I think it’s interesting that Gordon and Keselowski probably feel as if they have something to prove. Keselowski for not making the Chase last year and Gordon for not winning a title in the Chase-era. And I’m not sure how much you can compare 2013 to this season, but Mr. Kenseth reeled off back-to-back wins to open the Chase a year ago, I believe.
 
Cavanna: You beat me to it, Kenny. Ten weeks from now we’ll all look like fools when Matt Kenseth is hoisting the Sprint Cup trophy.
 
Bruce: My biggest concern with the entire JGR group is their win total this year. Three teams, two combined wins. That probably won’t cut it in the Chase.
 
Norman: For Gordon, I imagine what he’s feeling is just like what a veteran may feel at any job. You see these upstarts come in and win races, you don’t perform as well and perhaps you wonder if you can still hang. That’s a wonderful motivator. Mr. Gordon (hey, respect your elders) can most certainly still hang.

2. Speaking of JGR, Kenseth is one of three drivers in the Chase without a win this year and two drivers, Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger, are making their first appearance in the "playoff." How do we expect these guys on the bottom half of the board to fare?
 
Norman: Certainly, you expect more from Kenseth than you do Almirola or Allmendinger because of his pedigree, his team, his equipment … all that stuff. I’m not sure Kenseth can get to Homestead still in contention for the championship, but there’s no reason he shouldn’t be in the Eliminator Round. Of all the guys on the bottom of the board, I think he’s clearly got the best chance.
 
Cavanna: I’m not totally worried about the winless drivers just yet. The consistency we’ve seen from drivers like Kenseth and Ryan Newman should carry them forward for a round or two, even without wins.
 
Bruce: You’re spot on Brad. Given Kenseth’s consistency, I expect him to advance beyond the first round, probably the second. Gets tougher after that, though. Newman has been consistent all year, Greg Biffle more so of late. I think Aric and AJ test the waters and see what it’s like. But advancing would be a surprise. A nice one, but a surprise just the same.
 
Cavanna: I hate to say I have little faith in the 47 team (Allmendinger) moving on. But, Aric Almirola is riding into the Chase with two straight top-10 finishes. If he gets three more, that will put him in the next round.
 
Norman: I do think we’re going to see a "surprise" driver advance, though. I’d pick Allmendinger, if forced to give a name. He’s gotten better at intermediates. More than that, though, I can foresee a scenario in which a guy more favored to advance wrecks at Chicago, and then has a couple of gambles fail as he tries to get back in it over the next two weeks.
 
Cavanna: Brad, I like your thinking for a roundtable rookie. I think the sport and fans are in for a big surprise. It’s easy to think of the better drivers and assume they all advance. But one glance at any NCAA Tournament tells you that never happens. There’s always an upset or three.
 
Bruce: The thing about it is if a driver advances beyond the first round (Chicago, New Hampshire and Dover), Talladega looms as the cutoff race for the Contender Round and as we know, anything can happen there. How cool would it be, Alan, to see the 43 battling for a title? OK, battling for a spot in the next round? A lot of history there.
 
Cavanna: It’s a long shot, but the 43 will certainly be a chic pick for advancing to the top-12.
 
Norman: I am the Kyle Larson of the roundtable, Alan.
 
Cavanna: You’re a dry wiper?

3. Now that we’ve determined who will win, who will advance and who can go ahead and start taking the yellow ID markings off their cars … which teams on the outside are most likely to pick up a win during the final 10 races?
 
Norman: It was rare to see that happen with frequency when there were 12 (or 13) drivers in the postseason. Now with 16? I think it’ll be even more rare. The biggest contender to me, the roundtable rookie, is … Kyle Larson. Maybe at Charlotte. Heck, he could win any of them.
 
Bruce: I don’t think it was that rare … but the folks that won were often guys you thought would have been in the Chase to begin with most of the time. Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray, Biffle, Denny Hamlin, Gordon. But you make a good point about the numbers decreasing the likelihood.
 
Cavanna: Prior to the start of the season I picked Austin Dillon to win a race, with Talladega in mind. I’ll stick with that. Clint Bowyer showed some promise at Richmond Saturday night, but I worry that may be the team’s best performance of the season.
 
Norman: To be fair, it happened three times last year. And if you look at who won those races, two of those guys are in the Chase field this year – Keselowski and Hamlin. And McMurray was the other, winning at Talladega which is a wild card. So if anyone outside the Chase field wins, I think it could portend a big 2015 season. Larson, Bowyer, Dillon … what about Stewart?
 
Cavanna: I think a lot of people are overlooking what a win by a non-Chaser does to the championship run. Every time that bell rings, it’s one less automatic spot for a guy going after a championship.
 
Bruce: Bowyer is tough at New Hampshire, so maybe it’s better late than never for him and the MWR team, Alan. But I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the rookies, Dillon or Larson, gets a win now that there’s no Chase pressure.
 
Norman: Alan, you make a good point about the championship run. Can you imagine in any round, if somehow a non-Chaser wins two in a row?
 
Bruce: Your comments reminded me of something, guys. If a non-Chase driver wins a race in the Chase, does he get one of those yellow "winner" stickers to go above his window? For that matter, does anyone?
 
Cavanna: Everyone likes rewards, Kenny. I hope the stickers remain.
 
Norman: Everyone’s a winner here, Kenny.
 
Cavanna: Even Brad Norman’s Chase beard.

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2012 champion looking to lead sport in Chase Across North America trip

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For Wednesday’s Chase Across North America event, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series sent it’s 16 postseason-eligible drivers across the continent to promote the 2014 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Some flew to the other coast (Dale Earnhardt Jr., Los Angeles), some took off to the Big Apple (Jimmie Johnson, New York City), some even went to visit our neighbors to the north and south (Jeff Gordon, Toronto; Carl Edwards, Mexico City).

What about 2012 Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, who re-enters the Chase after missing it last season?

"We made our way here to Raleigh (North Carolina), met with the governor and some fans here won some contests and we’re here with Miss Sprint Cup," said Keselowski, a Michigan native and North Carolina resident. "Trying to showcase, obviously, a huge race for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase in Charlotte. It’s an important race, for sure, being where it’s at in the (Chase Grid), so just having a little fun with it."

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On the outset, it may appear that the Chase’s No. 1 seed and only four-time 2014 winner may have gotten the short end of the stick — seeing as some of the other drivers ended up in major markets like Chicago, Phoenix, San Antonio, Boston and Miami and didn’t just take a ride up I-85 for a few hours. Heck, even Kevin Harvick got to hit up the ESPN studios for the day, so why the seeming lack of respect for Keselowski?

Well, there’s more to it.

He spent the day in North Carolina touting the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, one of the Chase’s flagship events — a race that he won last year as a non-Chase driver, when a victory was needed most to set himself up for a roaring 2014. But even if he did feel slighted in the least, it’s a feeling he’s gotten used to as NASCAR’s unheralded misfit champion.

In an exceedingly heartfelt and well-written post on his website BradRacing.com on Tuesday, Keselowski addressed just this.

"Each time I made some progress, I figured, ‘Heck, I’ve made it this far. Might as well keep going.’

The funny thing is this: even though I was having success, a lot of the time, I didn’t feel like I belonged. I felt like an outsider.

I’m sure part of it was in my head. Part of it was probably where I’d come from, literally 700-plus miles from the heart of NASCAR. Still, I couldn’t help feeling like one of the Bad News Bears a lot of the time, unable to find a place to fit in. In 2009, when Hendrick Motorsports decided to keep Mark Martin as a driver and I lost my Cup ride, there was a logical reason for it, but it still hurt.

Later, as I had more and more success, it still seemed like I constantly had to prove myself. It probably sounds crazy, but even after we won the Cup championship in 2012, I felt like we didn’t get credit for it a lot of the time. It baffled me. In two years, we had taken a 35th place Cup team and transformed it into a champion. But there was always someone ready to say, “You only won because of pit strategy,” or a bunch of other things that basically meant, “You didn’t deserve to win. It was a fluke.”

There are two ways to quiet those types of people. The first is to ignore them, which is certainly a virtue, but not one I’m particularly good at practicing.

The other is to win another championship."

And here we are with Keselowski back in championship form, 10 weeks removed from finding out if he has what it takes to prove his doubters wrong; to prove that he has what it takes to hoist that trophy over his head again and move his name from a list of one-time champions like Alan Kulwicki, Kurt Busch and Bobby Labonte to the more sacred group of two-timers that consists of five NASCAR Hall of Famers (Herb Thomas, Tim Flock, Buck Baker, Joe Weatherly and Ned Jarrett) and one likely eventual Hall of Famer in Terry Labonte.

All that stands in his way now are the 15 drivers competing for the same prize over the next 10 races, five of which play right into his wheelhouse as 1.5-mile tracks.

"I think the mile-and-a-halves are going to be critical to winning a championship, for sure," said Keselowski, who holds two wins at intermediate tracks this year. "It’s hard to say which one other than Homestead, which is obvious. We’re trying to aim towards Texas and Charlotte being very critical as well with where they fit in the schedule. Similar tire compounds, similar demands out of the car in those three races. If you can run up front and win there, you’ve got a shot at winning the whole thing when it comes time to go to Homestead."

Photo credit: CMS/HHP Photo

With the new Chase format introduced in 2014 that consists of three rounds of three races in which four drivers are eliminated after each, leaving the remaining four to battle it out at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it almost forces teams and drivers to look ahead to which tracks and races could be strong points, as the Team Penske driver and crew chief Paul Wolfe clearly already have.

Conversely, the concerns about weaker or more unpredictable tracks also set in earlier than usual for drivers, and Keselowski is no exception.

"I think you have to worry about Talladega. No doubt about that," he said. "You just don’t control your own destiny there. To some extent Kansas has been that way the last few years as well, so those could be the two tougher races."

It brings to mind, though, how much the landscape of the sport has changed overall just since a 28-year-old Keselowski, in just his third full-time season, managed to wrestle away the attention from what easily could have been (at the time) Johnson’s sixth championship had a few cards fallen differently. Not only that, but the changes we’ve seen in Keselowski as a driver and as a person — they’re dramatic.

After reading his blog and speaking with him Wednesday, it’s abundantly clear that this man’s goals, perspective and confidence in himself and those around him have transformed exponentially over the course of the past two years.

He doesn’t just want to win. He wants to lead by example.

"I think we’re stronger than we’ve ever been," he said. "Obviously we have another win in the Chase, which is more than what we had in 2012 and a confidence booster. We have secure footing with a manufacturer in Ford, who’s committed long term and we have a team that just has more experience. I think in a lot of ways we’re more secure across the board.

"I think in order to be effective as a leader of the sport, you have to be successful in some fashion. We’ve accomplished one championship with the Cup side and one on the Nationwide side. I feel like we’re capable of a lot more and I’m certainly up for that challenge. But Iike I said in (my blog), I want to be a part of helping the sport grow and the leadership base that’s required for that across the board and it’s my hope that that’ll happen if I can win a championship across the board, (in all three series)."

Don’t be so quick to think of Keselowski as a toned down version of his former self, though. While he’s certainly growing up, he hasn’t forgotten the art of celebrating with grandeur.

"If we won all three, we’d probably have to go out of the country."

With perhaps the best odds of anyone to accomplish the feat across the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series (as an owner) this year, it’s looking like he could get that exotic foreign trip he missed out on Wednesday, after all.

The journey starts Sunday at Chicagoland (2 p.m. ET, ESPN).

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Posted on by Jason Lofing

Despite a couple of late cautions, Ottinger (05) was in total control at Richmond.

Despite a couple of late cautions, Ottinger (05) was in total control at Richmond.

With his hopes for a NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series Powered by iRacing.com championship fading in the past couple of races, Nick Ottinger showed he is not out of the fight yet with a dominating performance at Richmond International Raceway. Starting fourth, Ottinger wasted no time moving to the lead, then paced the field for 153 of 200 laps on his way to the win. Adam Gilliland finished second, followed by Ray Alfalla. Matt Bussa and PJ Stergios finished fourth and fifth to round out the top five.

Alfalla started from the pole and, like Ottinger, was hoping to gain ground on series points leader Michael Conti. Alfalla’s car was good on the short run but fell off the pace once the tires started to wear. Ottinger, on the other hand, got stronger as the laps wore on and it was clear no one else in the field could keep pace.

As Alfalla and Ottinger battled up front, Conti was stuck back in the pack after qualifying a disappointing fourteenth. It was a surprising performance by Conti, who always seems to run at the front on short tracks and nearly won at Richmond last year before a late-race crash derailed his chances at the victory. Things didn’t get any better for Conti once last night’s race started, as he was unable to make significant progress through the field during the first half of the race while battling a very tight race car.

With no caution flags early in the going, Conti had no choice but to soldier-on while watching Ottinger and Alfalla drive away. He would eventually catch a break, but the race was more than three-fourths of the way through when things went his way.

The race looked like it could go caution-free for much of the evening but the yellow flag finally flew on Lap 156 when Brandon Schmidt got loose off of Turn Two and hit the back straightaway wall.  Moments after the green flag waved again, a multi-car accident triggered a second caution and the sim racing did not resume in earnest until Lap 168.

The back-to-back cautions gave the field one more shot at Ottinger, but it did not matter as his car was simply too good. On the ensuing restart, Ottinger quickly jumped out to a five car length advantage and held station while the rest of the leaders fought for second.

The yellows were a blessing for Conti as he able to make adjustments to his ill-handling car.  The changes helped as Conti used some skillful moves on the restarts to move to tenth.  Still, P10 had to be quite a bitter disappointment for the championship leader, although he did well to limit the damage on a night that his car clearly could not run with the leaders.

Richmond continued the recent trend in NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series races of long green flag runs and few cautions. RIR is notorious for spins, crashes, and hot tempers but the caution waved only twice, following up back-to-back caution-free races at Atlanta and Watkins Glen.

Despite his subpar finish, Conti retains the championship lead over Alfalla.  With just two races remaining, Conti holds a 17 point edge over Alfalla with Ottinger inching closer, now just 21 back of the lead. Chad Laughton and Chris Overland are fourth and fifth, but are well out of the running for the title unless something catastrophic happens to the top three.

Richmond marked the last short track of the season as the series now heads to Darlington Raceway for the penultimate race on the calendar. Conti, who was very strong at Atlanta, should be an early favorite but Alfalla and Ottinger will be putting-in extra time trying to gain an edge. Conti will be looking to build his margin for the Homestead finale but Darlington’s tricky turns can reach out and grab even the most experienced drivers. With the points so close, the top three cannot let their guard down for even a corner. Will it come down to a three-way fight to the finish? Or will Darlington claim one or more of the front runners before the checkers? Find out in two weeks on iRacing Live!

Posted on by Staff Report

Los Angeles, Mexico City, Toronto and San Antonio were added to this year’s tour

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In four short days, NASCAR’s playoffs — the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup — will begin. To help launch the Chase, NASCAR sent all 16 drivers who will vie for the championship on a 16-market, three country media blitz known as Chase Across North America Wednesday.

The tour, the largest of its kind, expanded in 2014 with the announcement of the likewise expanded playoff field. This year, 16 drivers will compete in the Chase. In previous years, only 12 drivers earned a shot at the title.

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As has been the case in previous editions of the pre-Chase media tour, drivers visited all 10 markets that host a Chase race, as well as New York City and ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. Added to this year’s tour: Los Angeles, Mexico City, Toronto and San Antonio, Texas. 

Carl Edwards, who speaks some Spanish, flew to Mexico’s capital for an array of media hits at iconic Mexico City locations such as the Angel of Independence monument.

"I really like Mexico," Edwards said. "When I heard what NASCAR was doing with the Chase Across North America, I chose to come here because I love it."

Brad Keselowski, who triumphed at Richmond last Saturday night to lock up the No. 1 seed in the Chase, visited North Carolina’s capital city of Raleigh to help promote Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Oct. 11 Chase date.

"I feel very privileged to be here in (Raleigh) as the first seed in the (Chase),” Keselowski said. "Someone did write me on Twitter, you know there are 16 drivers going across the nation and I got Charlotte, and they said I had home field advantage. … Charlotte is a huge race for us.”

NASCAR has grown in popularity in Canada over the past decade, with national series races hosted there since 2007 – the same season NASCAR started sanctioning its NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. This is the first time, however, that a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver kicked off the Chase north of the border.

Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon flew to Toronto for a day of media and photo opportunities at the CN Tower, Dundas Square and the Hockey Hall of Fame. 

Of course, no matter the location, the topic du jour was the revamped Chase, which kicks off Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway (2 p.m. ET on ESPN)  There will be four rounds during the Chase, with four drivers being eliminated after the third race of each round. The field of 16 will be whittled to 12, then eight, then four. The four – known as the Championship 4 – will compete in the single race final round at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 16 The first to the finish line among those four eligible drivers will win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

"In this format, you won’t know who the final four will be until the last lap at Phoenix [the second-to-last race in the Chase],” said Denny Hamlin, who visited Phoenix for his Chase Across North America event. "You live in the here and now in racing. I really think this will be the most exciting format. As far as the Chase is concerned, NASCAR nailed the system and I think it will stay for a long time.”

The other driver-market pairings included: Jimmie Johnson (New York City); Kevin Harvick (Bristol, Connecticut); Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Los Angeles); Kurt Busch (San Antonio); Matt Kenseth (Ft. Worth, Texas); Kyle Busch (Chicago); Kasey Kahne (Boston); Greg Biffle (Wilmington, Delaware); AJ Allmendinger (Kansas City, Missouri); Joey Logano (Birmingham, Alabama); Ryan Newman (Martinsville, Virginia); and Aric Almirola (Homestead, Florida).

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Keep tabs on all the action this weekend at Chicagoland

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This weekend brings the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to Chicagoland Speedway.

The Sprint Cup Series MyAfibStory.com 400 is on Sunday, Sept. 14, at 2 p.m. ET with coverage on ESPN.

The Nationwide Series Jimmy John’s Freaky Fast 300 powered by Coca-Cola is on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 3:30 p.m. ET with coverage on ESPN2.

The Camping World Truck Series Lucas Oil 225 is Friday, Sept. 12 at 8:30 p.m. ET with coverage on FOX Sports 1.

For more information on track times, press conferences and GarageCam, you can check out this weekend’s schedule. For TV times, see this week’s TV schedule.

We know you may not have the time to watch the race action without any interruptions, so if you’re on the go, here’s how to keep up at Chicagoland.

FULL CHASE COVERAGE

• Chase hub page
• Chase Grid games
• #MyChaseNation

NASCAR.com’s live Sprint Cup Series leaderboard and Nationwide Series leaderboard update in real-time and offer constant text updates of lead changes, cautions, strategies, strong runs and everything in between. On the go? Download the NASCAR Mobile app to follow the leaderboards live from your device.

Lap-by-Lap will keep you caught up even if you can take a peek here and there. Check in now and then to read back through all the laps you’ve missed, or keep an eye on the feed for real-time race updates.

We’ll also send race updates via Twitter through the official @NASCAR and @NASCARStats handles.

Haven’t tried RaceView yet? If you sign up, you’ll get virtual video of cars on the track from various angles and hear what your favorite team is saying over the radio. Use it as a second screen or as your only screen. Just want to scan the radios? You can have that too with RaceView Audio. On a mobile device? Get RaceView Mobile here.

If you want to be more involved in the on-track action, you can manage your fantasy team on NASCAR.com and follow your team’s performance in NASCAR Fantasy Live. Mobile users can also download NASCAR Connect, a game from OneUp Sports that allows users to play other fans with race predictions, for some off-track competition while drivers battle it out on the track.

Live Press Pass video streams will keep the NASCAR action rolling even after the winner goes in and out of Victory Lane. Catch interviews with the top finishers immediately following the checkered flag for the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series, and stay tuned to NASCAR.com throughout the week for the latest news.

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Chat with fellow NASCAR fans in the first week of the Chase

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See where the Twitter conversation is coming from

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16 drivers. 16 cities. ONE awesome map! As Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers spread out to visit fans across North America, see where the social conversations are taking place.

Join the conversation by using the hashtag #MyChaseNation and follow all of the action by selecting the dots below.

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Chase news

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