Posted on by Brad Norman

Driver of No. 3 Camping World Truck series ride notes the number has special significance to his family

NEWTON, Iowa — Ty Dillon wheeled his winning No. 3 Chevrolet into Victory Lane two weeks ago after the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway, climbed to the top in celebration and looked out at the crowd.

What he saw reinforced his feelings on one of NASCAR’s most sacred numbers. The fans staring back at him were holding up three fingers.

“That was an awesome moment,” Dillon said Friday at Iowa Speedway, site of Saturday night’s American Ethanol 200 presented by Enogen (8:30 p.m. ET, SPEED). “The way that things have gone so far for us running the 3 in the Truck Series and Nationwide has been great, and all the fans have been very supportive. The only reaction we’ve gotten so far running in the Nationwide and Truck series has just been positive.”

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Dillon, though, knows that feeling isn’t unanimous when it comes to running the No. 3 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Dale Earnhardt made the No. 3 famous, winning 67 of his 76 Cup races in that car. The number has gone unused in the Cup Series since Earnhardt’s death in 2001.

Dillon, though, has driven the No. 3 most of his life — as has brother Austin Dillon, who’s driving full time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for the second consecutive season.

And before Earnhardt made the No. 3 legendary, Richard Childress — Austin and Ty’s grandfather — drove that number before claiming it as a team owner.

“I would love to see it back on the track at the highest level,” Dillon said. “My brother has really worn it well and done a great job of representing that number. Dale Earnhardt made the number famous, but my grandfather also raced the number back in the day, so it’s got a little more of a deeper meaning to us, too. Hopefully, one day it will show back up.”

That “one day” could be as soon as next year, when Austin Dillon plans for full-time Cup ride in a yet-to-be-announced number.

That was the talk last week at Daytona International Speedway, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he would have no problem with Austin Dillon re-establishing the number. Ty Dillon was listening closely.

“It means a bunch,” Ty Dillon said. “It’s towards Austin a little bit, because he’s the one moving up to Cup next, but to get that from Dale Jr. was so cool to hear for our family. He’s an awesome guy. We get to spend quite a bit of time with him away from the track. To get his blessing was awesome. We couldn’t get it from a better guy, and he’s the one who really matters in this whole deal, him and his family.

“You know, if the number moves up, there will probably be a couple few people who lash out about it and aren’t happy. But there should be a wide group of people that I believe will be happy to see it back on the track.”

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Posted on by Brad Norman

Both drivers finish in the top 10 in each of the day’s practices

Related: PRACTICE RESULTS

NEWTON, Iowa — Brendan Gaughan led the field in the second of two practices Friday at Iowa Speedway, leading the two-hour session with a best lap time of 23.083 seconds (136.464 mph).

The 38-year-old leading the second session was precisely the opposite of the opening 115-minute stanza, in which Erik Jones posted the fastest speed.

Jones, age 17, is only eligible to run at ovals one mile or less in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He quickly made himself at home at .875-mile Iowa Speedway on Friday afternoon, then finished ninth in the evening session.

“We were pretty quick unloading the truck, right there in the top 10 with all the other guys,” Jones said during an hour break between the two practice sessions. “We kept making it better, made a couple of big swings with changes we wanted to do. We put tires on, so we kind of cheated a little bit, but I needed to see about qualifying in these cars. We’re going to make a few mock runs, just so I can get a good feel for what these trucks do.”

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The other 17-year-old in the field, Chase Elliott, didn’t fare quite so well. He finished 15th on the grid in the second session, but brought out the caution flag 15 minutes in after taking a spin due to flat tires.

Behind Gaughan in the final session was second-place Ross Chastain (23.097 seconds, 136.381 mph), who had a great all-around day. In the opening session, Chastain finished third in his Brad Keselowski Racing No. 19 Ford.

German Quiroga Jr. (23.129, 136.193) was third in the second session, followed by Miguel Paludo (23.163, 135.963) and Jeb Burton (23.168, 135.963). Rounding out the top 10 in the second session was Johnny Sauter in sixth place, followed by most recent Camping World Truck Series winner Ty Dillon, Darrell Wallace Jr., Jones and Ron Hornaday Jr.

Seven drivers finished in the top 10 in both of the first two practices in advance of Saturday night’s American Ethanol 200 presented by Enogen: Burton, Chastain, Gaughan, Hornaday, Jones, Paludo and Wallace.

Ryan Blaney, the most recent Truck Series winner here, held the top spot in the first practice for nearly an hour before being bested by Jones. He finished 12th in the second practice.

Missing from the top 10 of both practice sessions was series points leader Matt Crafton.

Crafton has five top-10s in his five starts at Iowa Speedway, but finished 13th and 14th, respectively, in Friday’s practices.

The veteran has a 22-point lead over Burton and talked at length about how much he likes the track earlier in the day.

“We’ve ran really, really well here, ThorSport as an organization,” he said. “I always look forward to coming to Iowa. I guess it has always fit my driving style. It’s a short track, but I think it races like a mile-and-a-half to be totally honest. I’ve said that — I did the very first Goodyear tire test here and this place has the mile-and-a-half feel to it.”

Final practice is scheduled for Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET and is the first event in a busy day. Keystone Light Pole qualifying follows at 6 p.m. ET (shown on SPEED on tape delay at 7 p.m. ET), followed by the race at 8:30 p.m. ET (SPEED).

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No. 14 has chance to solidify Chase spot during stretch of favorable tracks

Tony Stewart doesn’t know why it happens, only that it does. There’s something about the summertime that brings out the best in the three-time champion of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series — a pattern that could be on the brink of repeating itself yet again this year.

"I would say probably the last 13 or 14 years, people have been asking me that same question. I never have had a good answer. I honestly don’t know," Stewart said Thursday on a teleconference with reporters. "The only thing I can think of is just, the tracks get hot and get slick. Seems like when the tracks get slick, that plays into your driving style a little bit. I really don’t have any scientific explanation or anything of why. Like you say, history shows, the stats show, this is the time of year when we get running better."

"I would say probably the last 13 or 14 years, people have been asking me that same question. I never have had a good answer."

— Tony Stewart, on why his performance heats up in the summer months

That was certainly the case last weekend, in a runner-up finish at Daytona International Speedway that could serve as a springboard for Stewart’s drive toward the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The next few weeks feature a stretch of tracks that traditionally favor Stewart, who is back in the top 10 in the standings, and has recorded only six of his 48 career victories on NASCAR’s premier circuit before the month of June.

That push continues this weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway, where Stewart has won three times and owns the highest driver rating (111.7) of any active competitor on tour. Stewart-Haas Racing tested at the 1.058-mile Loudon facility for two days before the race at Kentucky, trying to add to a track record that includes a seventh-place finish in the most recent Granite State event last September.

“I’m excited about it. It didn’t seem like it drove any different than it had with the other car,” Stewart said. “Just a matter of going through the same process that we did with the other cars, just trying to get balanced. Still seems like the handling characteristics are the same. You fight loose entry and exit and tight in the center. It’s figuring out how to keep that balance. Track was fast. So I’m looking forward to it, for sure.”

SHR seemed slow to adapt to the redesigned Generation-6 car that debuted on NASCAR’s top series this season, but right on cue Stewart warmed up along with the weather, breaking through with a victory in June at Dover that vaulted him squarely into the Chase conversation. Now comes an opportunity to solidify that position, beginning with a race at a New Hampshire track where both Stewart and SHR teammate Ryan Newman have run well over the past few years.

Then it’s on to Stewart’s backyard and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the Indiana native has two career victories and yearns to win above anywhere else. A few weeks after that comes Watkins Glen International, the road course where Stewart’s five career race wins are a record in NASCAR competition. Stewart also took part in a Goodyear tire test at the Brickyard, which could help his cause there — although Watkins Glen may be another story.

“I’m nervous about Watkins Glen now,” he said. “We were so bad at Sonoma that we’re definitely going to have to go to work and find a lot to get our car better. But they’re all tracks that historically we’ve been good at. It’s just this year we’ve fought trying to keep the car balanced, doing the things we need to do to be fast every week.”

Stewart’s seven career road course victories are second-most in NASCAR history, behind Jeff Gordon’s record of nine. But he certainly didn’t look like a road course expert last month at Sonoma Raceway, where the team’s old setup issues resurfaced and he finished an uncharacteristic 28th. That performance prompted natural concerns over the next road course race on the schedule, even if the venue is historically one of Stewart’s best.

“We seemed to be so far off at Sonoma, so we underestimated how we thought our car was going to be for the race,” he said. “You know, I just feel like we’ve got a lot of work to do. There were guys that we were around and saw during the race that their cars had a lot of grip, were fast, had speed. We just struggled for grip the whole time we were there. That’s something that’s kind of uncharacteristic for us. You always struggle for grip at Sonoma, but it seems like in the race it would always kind of fall into our hands. It went the other way this year. As the race went on, it just got worse and worse for us. I think it’s getting the handling where we need to be is the biggest thing I’m worried about right now.”

The good news is, his team still has four weeks to work on it. Requiring more immediate attention is New Hampshire, where Stewart will attempt to snap a streak of 10 different winners over the track’s last 10 events. Setups often carry over at the Loudon track, meaning success this weekend might provide an advantage when NASCAR returns to the facility for the second race of the Chase — not to mention a boost in his efforts to get there.

“Loudon is a good track for us,” Stewart said. “We’re looking forward to it obviously. If we can have a good race there this weekend, that will be a lot of momentum to carry for two weeks to come to Indianapolis for the Brickyard.”

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Even while guiding son Chase’s career, the former Cup champion wouldn’t turn down the right ride

Bill Elliott hasn’t started a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in over a year, since qualifying sixth in a Turner Scott Motorsports car at Daytona International Speedway last July. Much of his time since has been spent helping to further the career of his son Chase, who is taking his first steps into the sport’s national division.

But is the 1988 champion of the sport’s premier circuit retired? Well, not if the right ride came along. The 44-time winner still feels the urge to race.

"…If you don’t get good equipment, then you’ll never know how good you really are."

— Bill Elliott

“Oh, yeah, I think so. You know, I would love to do it,” he said. “But you know, you’ve got to have all the right circumstances. And to me … you’re only as good as the equipment you’re in, and if you don’t get good equipment, then you’ll never know how good you really are. To me, it’s a point of getting the right circumstances and getting the right things together. That’s the way I look at it today.  There’s so many good drivers that are on the sidelines that are looking for that good drive.”

Elliott last competed full-time in NASCAR in 2003, winning that season’s penultimate event at Rockingham in a car owned by Ray Evernham. He raced on a limited basis for the next nine years, sometimes making as many as 20 starts, sometimes as few as a couple. He attempted three races last season, failing to qualify for the Daytona 500 and finishing deep in the field due to electrical failure at Talladega and a crash at Daytona in July.

Now 57, Elliott has moved into another role: molding his 17-year-old son Chase, who will make his fourth start in the Camping World Truck Series when he competes Saturday night at Iowa Speedway. Even with the added responsibility of guiding his son’s career, Elliott wouldn’t rule out jumping behind the wheel again himself should the right offer present itself.

“Right now, I’m just trying to weigh my options ‑‑ do more races, or if that’s not in the cards, I’ll go the other directions,” he said. “I’d like to go out and do some other stuff, but right now try to focus on Chase and what he needs to do on that side. That’s kind of been my focus here the last number of months, and, you know, take that a step at a time, and once that kind of goes, then go from there.”

Asked if he had any options to drive, Elliott laughed. “I don’t at the moment,” he added.

“There’s just not a lot of opportunities out there. You know, after driving the car that I drove the last Fourth of July for Turner Motorsports, and that’s as good a car as I had. And as good as that car ran — man, it’s hard to do any less, I’m telling you. And the problem is, it’s just, man, it’s just such a struggle today.  …Either you go out there and make your laps or you go out there to run good. I want to race to run good, but man, it’s just hard to do.”

If Elliott doesn’t start a race this season, it would mark the first year since 1975 that he hasn’t competed at the sport’s top level. It would also start his countdown toward eligibility for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, given that drivers have to be retired from the sport for at least three years before they’re qualified for enshrinement. But being fitted for a blue blazer isn’t Elliott’s focus just yet.

“Right now, that’s something that I feel like I’m looking at down the road,” he said. “… But like I said, I just ‑‑ right now, I’m just kind of waiting.”

Related: Age proving no barrier for upstart Elliott | Video: Meet Chase Elliott

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Posted on by NASCAR Wire Service

Blaney comes back to scene where he won as an 18-year-old

Last September, Ryan Blaney penned his name in the history books in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
 
In only his third start in the series, the then 18-year-old driver from High Point, N.C., captured the checkered flag at Iowa Speedway.

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This Friday, he returns to the 0.875-mile track to defend his victory in the American Ethanol 200 Presented by Enogen. To say Blaney, who is the son of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series veteran Dave Blaney, isn’t excited upon the series’ return to the Hawkeye state would be a huge understatement.
 
"This date couldn’t have come sooner. I’ve been waiting to get back to Iowa in the Truck Series ever since I left there last September victorious," said Blaney. "Our team has really buckled down over the past month and my confidence is at an all-time high."
 
Going into the ninth race of the season, Blaney is tied with Johnny Sauter for fifth in the standings, 47 points behind leader Matt Crafton.  
 
In the last three races, Blaney has finishes of third, eighth and fifth. In fact, out of the eight races the trucks have run this year, he’s finished outside the top 10 only twice (16th at Martinsville and 25th at Charlotte).
 
In last year’s victory, he started on the outside of the front row, next to polesitter Parker Kligerman. It wasn’t until Lap 151, however, that Blaney took his first lead of the race after passing Sauter. Blaney remained in the lead for the final 50 laps to become the youngest race winner in series history at 18 years, five months and 15 days old.
 
Blaney drove the No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing RAM last season and gave the team its first win. If he wins again Friday night, he would give BKR its second win and Ford its first win at Iowa Speedway.

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Winner of contest’s first bonus admits to looking for other Dash 4 Cash players on track

Don’t for a second assume that Elliott Sadler isn’t aware of the running positions of the three drivers he’s competing against for the Dash 4 Cash program’s weekly bonuses.
 
Such was the case during the first leg of Nationwide’s four-race Dash 4 Cash program that awards the highest-finishing driver among four eligible drivers $100,000. Look for more of the same to happen this Saturday during the CNBC Prime the Profit 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

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"Heck yeah, we know where each other’s at," said Sadler, who finished third at Daytona on Friday night to win the first Dash 4 Cash. "(Austin Dillon and I) were laughing that we always know where the other guy is and the last restart I knew Austin was on second and we were fifth, and I was trying to figure out should we get in the top lane should Kyle Busch drop down and get in the bottom lane."
 
Sadler, Dillon, Kyle Larson and Brian Vickers all qualified to compete for the first $100,000 bonus after being the four highest-finishing points-eligible drivers in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Kentucky Speedway the previous week.
 
By winning the first leg, Sadler automatically qualifies for the second leg at New Hampshire, where he has a best finish of fourth in nine series starts. Dillon and Larson also qualified for the second leg by finishing fifth and sixth, respectively, at Daytona.
 
Vickers finished 13th, but will be replaced by Sam Hornish Jr. in the Dash 4 Cash race at New Hampshire.
 
If Sadler wins the Dash 4 Cash race this weekend and repeats the feat next weekend at Chicagoland, he would be eligible for an additional $600,000 if he were to win the Indianapolis race outright.
 
Among the four participants eligible for this weekend’s Dash 4 Cash, Sadler has more NASCAR Nationwide Series experience at the 1.058-mile track than his competitors. In only two starts at the track, Dillon has finishes of third and 25th. Hornish has only made one start in the series at New Hampshire, but finished fourth last year. This will be Larson’s inaugural trip to the track.
 
The amount of excitement the Dash 4 Cash program brings to the series during these hot summer months is not lost on Sadler.                                                                                              
"What Nationwide Insurance does for our series, you know, this Dash 4 Cash stuff, man this is a great program and I’m not just talking about the extra money they’re putting on the table," Sadler said. "This brings a lot of exposure to our race team, brings a lot of exposure to our sponsors. I mean, this is a big, big program for our series. And for those guys to do it four weeks in a row and bring that much attention to our racing means a lot to me, means a lot to our owners, well it means a ton to our sponsors."
 
As for during Saturday’s race, it’s safe to assume Sadler will once again be keeping tabs on where his fellow Dash 4 Cash competitors are running.

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A win would bring peace of mind but the No. 15’s season is still swell without one

Sitting second in points just eight races away from when the field resets for the start of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is always a good place to be.
 
However, in the case of the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota driver Clint Bowyer and his crew chief Brian Pattie, they would prefer to have some trips to Victory Lane thrown in for good measure … and perhaps a little peace of mind.

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"Yes, second in points puts us in a position where we could take a shot and more importantly being 116 points in front of 11th place helps a lot," Pattie said. "We are not locked in. You look at what the No. 5 car (Kasey Kahne) did from Dover over a stretch of a couple weeks and he lost almost 70 points in about three weeks, so I definitely want to watch that something like that doesn’t happen."
 
Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301 (1 p.m. ET, TNT) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway could be just the remedy they need.
 
In September 2007, Bowyer claimed his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at the 1.058-mile oval. Three years later, he won there again. In 14 starts, he has two victories, four top-fives and six tops-10s. He has led more laps (475) at New Hampshire than at any other track on the schedule, which is the second-highest total among drivers trailing only Tony Stewart’s 887.
 
Last season, Bowyer finished third and fourth in the two Loudon races. He’s also experienced success throughout the first half of the season, especially over the past month, where he has four consecutive top-10 finishes: seventh (Michigan), fifth (Sonoma), third (Kentucky) and fourth (Daytona). Bowyer hasn’t finished outside the top 20 since Auto Club in March, a streak of 13 races.
 
"If we keep on the pace that we’re on now and we can lock in around Bristol that would be super exciting for us — then we can go for some wins," said Pattie, who is in his second year working with Bowyer. "I think it’s all risk versus reward."
 
At the end of last season, Bowyer used a runner-up finish in the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to surprise everybody and pass Jimmie Johnson for second place in the standings, 39 points behind NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski.
 
Bowyer’s fourth-place finish last Saturday at Daytona returned him to second in the standings for the first time since the end of 2012. In order to remain there, and perhaps inch closer to points leader Johnson, Bowyer (minus-49 points) will need to continue his streak of strong performances. However, if he hopes to knock the leader from atop his lofty perch, he’ll need to find some wins … soon.
 
By this time last season, Bowyer had already claimed one trophy for his mantel. But, it wasn’t until the second half of the season before he came on strong. In year-to-date comparisons of his last two seasons, he is statistically performing better this year in many categories, with the exception of wins.
 
He is currently ranked higher (second vs. 10th), has more points (609 vs. 572), more top-five finishes (seven vs. three), more top-10 finishes (11 vs. nine) and more laps led (114 vs. 77).

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Posted on by Holly Cain

Top 10 drivers separated by just 70 points heading into home stretch

After 16 races and 2,778 laps, the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship is as unsettled entering Saturday’s New England 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway as it was when teams showed up in Daytona Beach to kick off the season.

Regan Smith leads Sam Hornish Jr. by a mere six points. Fifth-place Austin Dillon is only 17 back and 10th-place Trevor Bayne is still in the mix 70 points behind Smith.

The only thing that is decided heading into the weekend is that Elliott Sadler — who is third in the championship standings — is leading the series’ Dash 4 Cash bonus program and collected $100,000 for his third place last week at Daytona. He’ll compete against Dillon, rookie Kyle Larson and Hornish this week for another $100,000 bonus. If Sadler can best the group again at New Hampshire then July 21 at Chicago and win the July 27 race at Indianapolis outright, he’ll have earned a $1 million prize from Nationwide.

"We just need to keep our heads down and move forward. I’m happy it’s as close as it is."

— Sam Hornish Jr.

In the meantime, there’s a championship to decide. And no one’s running away with anything.

“It’s really been kind of crazy because normally the summer stretch is where we kind of stretch out,’’ observed Justin Allgaier, the driver of the No. 31 Brandt Chevy and fourth place in the championship, only 15 points behind Smith.

“You get through the beginning months and see who the cars are that you’re going to have to beat, then you hit the summer stretch and it usually goes one way or the other. This is probably the oddest I’ve seen it being as close as it is.”

The standings have varied widely from Hornish hanging on to a single-point advantage in April to Smith holding more than a full-race lead in June.
With four top-five finishes — a win and two runner-ups — in the first five races of the season, Hornish jumped out to a commanding 28-point edge in March only to see that dwindle.

Smith picked up where Hornish left off and had amassed a 58-point lead three weeks ago and put 10th-place Brian Vickers a distant 100 points back.

Yet as the teams arrive in New England, it’s almost as if the season’s been re-set.

“If you would have ask me leaving California how I felt, I’d be pretty upset to come back here and have it be as close as it is, but leaving Michigan, if you were to ask me, I’m pretty happy about it,’’ said Hornish, who drives the No. 12 Alliance Trucks Ford.

“Three races ago we were 58 points out and now we’re back in. I’m happy about that and we knew going into the road courses would be where we could make some up. We just need to keep our heads down and move forward. I’m happy it’s as close as it is.

“Hopefully we’ll have this reset and get out of here with a decent finish and start getting that points lead back and building on it.’’

The extreme fortunes have also given new hope to drivers such as Sadler, Allgaier and Dillon, who are very much in the thick of things even though Smith and Hornish have been the only names atop the standings this season.

“I would say the top eight are closest I’ve seen in a long time for this part of the season,’’ Allgaier said. “I’d like to say it’s going to separate itself out so that you have a little breathing room if you have a bad race you’re not worried that you’re back 10th in the points.

“But at same time, the way we’ve seen the competition level this year has been amazing here in the Nationwide Series and that’s why you’re seeing guys closer. It’s how hard it is to separate yourself from somebody.

“You have a good day and it’s top-five and they (the guys leading the championship) are running seventh.  Last week in Kentucky, we had a decent day and I lost a spot in points. We’ve all noticed it’s really crazy how competitive it is.’’

Dillon couldn’t agree more.

“I think you see the guys up there still that you’ll see come and go, you see the guys that you know you’re going to have to race slowly move their way back into the top five, top three,’’ said Dillon, driver of the No. 3 AdvoCare Chevy.

“It’s such a long season, people are going to have bad luck. It’s just so hard to be consistent for 33 races and as tight as the competition level is right now you can’t have a mistake or a fall to get the lead. And once you have the lead, it seems like it’s even harder to keep it. ‘’

That’s certainly been the case. Despite their best efforts, neither Hornish nor Smith has riden off into the sunset yet.

Hornish has a win, a series best six top-five showings, and only four finishes worse than 10th. But when he’s not challenging for a win, it’s been the opposite extreme — 34th at Texas and 32nd at Michigan.

It’s been a similar situation for Smith, who also boasts impressive statistics but had had his points lead suffer on consecutive 32nd- (Road America) and 30th-place (Kentucky) outings.

“It’s exactly what we knew could happen,’’ Hornish said. “There’s a lot of people we felt like would have opportunities to run good and be there for the championship. I felt like Regan was going to be a tough competitor and obviously, Elliott (Sadler) and Austin (Dillon). When I look at who’s around me when we park here in line, it’s the same guys and that’s how it goes.

“You’re going to have (off) days like that. People will catch up to you. We just need to get back to doing what we did the first five races of the year and find that stride because we were just gaining points and had a strong lead early.

“When I look at how we’ve run, there’s no reason why we can’t gain points every weekend and win this championship. I feel like we have all the opportunity in the world to win the championship if we do the right things.’’

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Click here to enter your Quaker State Streak to the Finish picks for this weekend

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Posted on by George Winkler

Midway through the season, the Chase is shaping up to be one of the closest in years

Related: Sprint Cup Series standings

The next eight races leading up to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup are almost certain to produce plenty of drama for those of us watching, as well as the drivers and teams competing for their playoff lives. One or two good or bad finishes down the stretch could make a big difference, more so than in recent memory.

That’s because from Kurt Busch, who is in ninth place, to Jamie McMurray, who is in 17th, the gap is only 26 points. With drivers bunched so closely, we could see more shakeups in the standings like we saw coming out of Daytona last week when Tony Stewart and Busch improved six and five places, respectively, and Joey Logano and Paul Menard both dropped five spots.

To use a racing analogy, this Wild Card race figures to be similar to drivers going four-wide at Daytona. How long can it last before someone makes a slight bobble and sends themselves, along with maybe a few others, careening into the wall? And who will emerge when the dust settles?

McMurray is the perfect example of how fortunes can change quickly. Two consecutive top-10 finishes have moved him up from 21st place to 17th, but the gap between him and the contenders has shrunk from 58 points to the aforementioned 26. However, it could be tough for McMurray to continue the upward trend during this week’s Camping World RV Sales 301 (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, TNT) in New Hampshire, where in 20 career Sprint Cup starts he has just four top-10s.

It also could be tough because of the sheer unpredictability of the sport. McMurray summed up the swings of fortune after finishing second two weeks ago at Kentucky.

“It’s just the last 10 percent of the race, something has happened each week.  Michigan, blew a tire; Dover, something fell off a car and went through our radiator; Charlotte, the radiator broke; last weekend, had a flat tire with, I don’t know, 30 laps to go or whatever.

“It’s just every week it’s been something. So it’s nice to have some good luck, yeah, feel good about it.”

Will McMurray have better luck this week? Well, when it comes to closing at New Hampshire, McMurray hasn’t exactly been Craig Kimbrel-esque. According to NASCAR Loop Data, in the past eight years at New Hampshire, the No. 1 car is only tied for 47th in positions improved in the last 10 percent of laps. He will have to buck the trend in order to finish strong this week.

While McMurray has experienced plenty of ups and downs, Stewart might be the poster boy for this wildest of Wild Card races. A month ago Stewart was in 10th place after a fifth-place finish at Michigan. He dropped to 15th after Sonoma and to 16th following Kentucky before rebounding to 10th with a second-place showing at Daytona.

Said Stewart of the wreck-filled finish at Daytona, “Just glad we were ahead of the carnage.”

This week could be Stewart’s chance to stay ahead of the carnage for good. His history in Loudon, N.H., provides a decent indicator: In 28 starts, he has 17 top-10s, including three wins with his last ‘W’ coming in the second race at the track in 2011. He also holds the highest average driver rating in the last 16 races in New Hampshire at 111.7.

In other words, we might finally get to see the No. 14 solidify his spot among the Chase contenders.

Ready to pounce: After four straight weeks hanging out in 18th place, Ryan Newman moved up to 16th last week with a 10th-place showing at Daytona. It was his seventh top-10 finish this season and second of the year at Daytona.

But for a guy who has crashed out of three races this year and suffered an engine failure in another to be just eight points behind Kasey Kahne, the final Wild Card contender, isn’t bad. And when you examine Nemwan’s history at New Hampshire, one can see how it could go from not bad to better.

In 22 starts at the 1.06-mile track, Newman has 15 top-10s, including three victories with his last win there coming from the early race in 2011. He also has won six Coors Light Poles at New Hampshire and holds a 94.9 average driver rating there in the past 16 races, which is seventh among active drivers.

In danger of dropping out: Aric Almirola was a nice sleeper pick early in the season when he posted four straight top-10 finishes from Texas to Talladega. But after placing 20th at Darlington, he went on to finish no better than 15th in his next seven races, including two crashes.

After the second of those crashed-out races last week at Daytona, he dropped three spots in the standings to 19th and is teetering on the brink of Chase extinction. Can he get back on an Almi-roll-a?

It’s not looking too good. Although it’s a small sample size, Almirola has zero top-10 finishes in his five Cup races in Loudon. However, he did finish in the top-five there in 2011 as a NASCAR Nationwide Series driver, so there is that glimmer of hope for fans of the No. 43 car.

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Preview: New Hampshire

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Week 18

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