What other sport could possibly have 14 drivers (teams) battling it out for a final race (event) in hopes of winning a championship? NASCAR has made one of the more impressive moves over last season by changing the points system to better fit a ‘playoff’ style feel.
Needless to say, Carl Edwards even agrees with the notion that we may not know who the champion will be until Homestead, what more could the NASCAR fan want?
Clinched
-A total of nine drivers have clinched in this year’s Chase, starting with the defending 5-time champion, Jimmie Johnson. Along with Johnson, there are: Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, and Ryan Newman
Up In The Air
There are a total of four drivers who could desperately use a ‘date’ with luck to continue their pursuit for the Cup:
-Dale Earnhardt Jr.- Needs to finish P20 or better Saturday night
-Tony Stewart- Needs to finish P18 or better, which might be a much simpler task than you might think.
-Denny Hamlin and Paul Menard- Both are in the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase with a win.
My money would be on Hamlin this week, but that’s just me.
This season has set up the perfect scenario that will have race fans sitting on the edge of their seat, which we will see our first taste of that this week.
Could we possibly have that ‘NFL playoffs’ feel we had been longing for? If so, NASCAR may not have to worry about fans switching over to football during the latter part of the season.
