Only winner Logano can relax
Threats to Chase drivers' hopes abound
Joey Logano had a near-perfect performance en route to a win Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway that ensured him of a spot in the elite eight of NASCAR’s 10-week, 16driver playoff.
But here’s the thing about this round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, which cuts four drivers from the current field of 12: Drivers don’t have to be dominant like Logano was. They don’t have to lead 227 laps, and they don’t have to win races.
All they have to do is get three solid finishes and avoid really bad ones.
“If you look at the history, if you can average 11th or 12th over this three-race span, then we’ll move on,” said Adam Stevens, crew chief for Kyle Busch.
The only problem? It’s not that easy.
Stevens knows that firsthand, because his driver — along with two other championship con- tenders — had major problems at Charlotte. Now Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth must try to recover next week at Kansas Speedway or risk leaving their fate up to the roulette wheel of Talladega Superspeedway two weeks from now.
And no one, Stevens said, wants to “have to get up there in the bees’ nest” at Talladega.
So many things have changed with the new elimination-style Chase format, but one important element has not: A bad finish can still be killer for a driver’s playoff hopes. But the way those devastating results can happen is ever evolving.
Perpetually snakebitten Busch was enjoying an excellent run Sunday and was in third place when a caution flag flew with 140 laps to go. Busch, as he often does, faked coming to pit road and darted onto the track before reaching the commitment line. But Kyle Larson, who was ordered at the last second to pit, suddenly swerved to the left and came right across Busch’s nose.
“I just feel awful for those guys, and I hope I’m not the reason they miss the next round,” Larson said.
The damage from a fluke incident caused Busch to lose all of his track position, and his bad day got a cherry on top when he ran through oil — or what he thought was oil — and smashed into the wall. He finished 20th.
“Just every single year,” Busch said. “Keeps going the same way.”
Earnhardt insisted he, too, slid through oil and hit the wall at about the same time as Busch. It left him in 28th place.
These are the kinds of things that can spoil a season.
Kenseth is in the worst shape of anyone, which seemed unlikely after his day started so well. This season’s only five-race winner led 72 laps early in the race but lost his track position on what seemed like an innocuous strategy call: a simple four-tire pit stop.
But because others stayed out or took two tires, Kenseth could not get through the traffic, and that snowballed into a collision with Ryan Newman, damage and a meeting with the wall.
Just like that, a heavy favorite to make the final four at Homestead-Miami Speedway finished 42nd and fell 32 points behind the cutoff for the next round. It’s hard to fathom that’s all it takes to go from favorite to also-ran, but that’s the reality of the Chase.
“It’s still a crapshoot; anything can happen,” said Carl Edwards, who finished sixth. “You saw what happened today — a bunch of different guys had problems. Unless you have a win, no one is going to rest easy.”