In the aftermath of a
chaotic Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas that saw championship contenders fall like
leaves in autumn, the 2014 championship picture is in utter disarray. While
Joey Logano assumed favored status with an impressive victory, a number of his
fellow Chase contenders now find themselves on the brink of elimination.
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| Johnson is in trouble |
“I just got tagged in the
left rear,” said Johnson afterward. “(I was) cruising along on top and
everything was fine, then found myself sideways down the back straightaway.
“Our problem started on
Friday in qualifying,” he admitted. “If you're going to be in the back in
qualifying, you put yourself in harm's way. Today is proof of that.”
The good news for Johnson is
that the series travels to Charlotte
Motor Speedway Saturday night for the Bank of America 500. The Hendrick Motorsports
driver is a seven-time CMS winner, and went to Victory Lane in his most recent
start there in May. That win signaled the start of a four-week hot streak for
Johnson, with wins at Charlotte, Dover and Michigan.
Much has changed since then, however. Johnson has not led a lap in the last
eight races, and is currently locked in the throes of a 15-race winless streak.
"If I can get taken out today, somebody else can later,” said Johnson
Sunday. “We'll do our best to get on track and (we will) certainly need Ws -- I
would assume -- going forward."
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| "We gave it all back" |
Former series champion Brad Keselowski also experienced a right-front tire issue at Kansas, pounding the wall and finishing 36th. Sunday’s misfortune stalled – at least temporarily – a Chase drive that had featured a win at Chicagoland, a seventh in New Hampshire and a second at Dover.
"We took a big points lead in here and gave it all back,” moaned Keselowski yesterday. “The good side of it is that we can still win our way out of this, and we have two really good tracks ahead."
Indeed, Keselowski is a former winner at both Charlotte and Talladega, and has shown impressive speed throughout the 2014 campaign. He and crew chief Paul Wolfe hope to right the ship this weekend and put themselves back into the Comfort Zone, heading to Talladega.
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| Junior Nation, stock up on Maalox |
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. also struggled Sunday, losing a right-front tire
while leading on Lap 123, hitting the wall and limping to the garages for
lengthy repairs that left him 39th at the drop of the checkered
flag. He now ranks 11th in the 12-man Chase standings (ahead of only
Johnson), and bemoaned the fate of his battered Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet
after Sunday’s race.
"Man, that was a great
race car,” he said. “I was going into Turn Three and the surface of the tire
unwound all the way across the surface. The whole surface of the tire unwound
like a string... and popped off the corner. This is going to hurt us in the
points, but we've got a lot of racing left and a lot of racing to win.”
NASCAR’s perennial Most
Popular Driver has been mediocre at Charlotte over the years, with no wins, 11 Top-10 finishes in 29 career starts and an average CMS
finish of 19.4. If he cannot right the ship in Charlotte – and past history
says he might not – Earnhardt will be forced to save his season with a strong
run at Talladega Superspeedway, where he is a five-time winner.
Junior Nation, stock up on the Maalox.
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| Kahne looking to CMS |
Also among the imperiled is Kasey Kahne, who saw a strong Kansas run go awry
when he hit the Turn Two wall while attempting to execute a three-wide pass on
a Lap 235 restart. He soldiered on to finish 22nd in the final
rundown, and is ninth in the championship standings heading to Charlotte.
Kahne is a four-time CMS winner, with much of that success coming in
night races. He’ll need to be at his best under the lights Saturday night, if
he hopes to avoid a must-win situation at Talladega, where he has just three
Top-5 finishes… ever.
"I want to win Charlotte,” said Kahne of his flickering title hopes. “It's
been a while since we won there, and I know that we can."
I may not like the outcome but this is by far the best chase format ever IMO, nobody can go out and ride around, for certain not at Homestead,,, What say you Mr Moody ?
ReplyDeleteThought Talladega would shuffle things up a bit.Makes Charlotte even that more important.Me thinks the sales of Tums,Maalox and Mylanta will see a sales spike in the Charlotte area this week.
ReplyDeleteDave, not to complicate your world, but have you considered thumbs up/down buttons for your blog for those of us who on occasion and in the interest of brevity would like only to agree/disagree with someone's post without replying?
ReplyDelete