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Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford, is the only Chase rookie in this season’s expanded field of contenders.
As (bad) luck would have it, he was the first driver fighting for the 2013 title to exit the race at Chicagoland. Reason out: blown engine.
“We got to keep our heads up and keep the momentum that we have and not let this take us down,” he said. “With only 10 races, you really can’t have these issues, but we are strong enough to come back from it.”
In the past five years, only Jimmie Johnson has roared back from such a horrible Chase start to win the title (2010).
MUM’S THE WORD
Michael Waltrip Racing was fined heavily for team shenanigans at Richmond. All three of its drivers lost 50 championship points, and that points loss pulled Martin Truex from the Chase playoffs.
But as NASCAR cleaned up its Richmond mess, Clint Bowyer refused to admit he spun his No. 15 Waltrip Racing Toyota with seven laps to go in order to assist Truex in claiming a Chase berth.
Bowyer apologized to Ryan Newman, who was directly affected by the spin, and said he was sorry for what happened, but apparently decided to take the Fifth on his complicity in the scheme to assist his teammate.
Not only is there strong video and audio evidence, but eyewitness Dale Earnhardt Jr. stepped forward to say that Bowyer was purposely slowing in order to make the damning spin harmless to his racing machine.
“You asked about a line being crossed and obviously MWR stepped over that line,” Bowyer said. “We got penalized and then — like I said, I’ve given this interview on national television.”
Bowyer visited ESPN’s SportsCenter studio three days after the Richmond race and looked extremely uncomfortable, like he was sitting in a briar patch, during a tough line of questioning from former driver Ricky Craven. They had a back-and-forth moment. Back at Chicagoland Speedway, Bowyer played dodgeball with the media as his team prepared for the Chase. “We’ve had a great season, and as far as that’s concerned (Richmond), we know really — we know where the line is,” he said. And no, that “line” of which Bowyer speaks doesn’t in
volve an admission of guilt.
LOST IN THE SAUCE
With the Richmond hullabaloo, some major racing news was trampled, such as Ryan Newman being named as the driver of the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevy in 2014. Newman will replace departing veteran Jeff Burton. Did you see that AJ Allmendinger will be in the No. 47 Toyota next season? And Furniture Row Racing will remain aligned with Childress Racing for the foreseeable future.