Harvick to start Chase on pole after qualifying canceled

“I think that, as you go into these 10 weeks, you have to put it all together, and there’s a lot more than racing to handle”. It was Kenseth’s second-highest total of laps led in a race in his career.

Jeff Gordon: As nice as it would be to think the retiring four-time Cup champ will run better in his final Chase than he has all season, he has never been known as a driver who just flips the switch during the season to run better.

The fest will feature all 16 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series challengers and have live concerts by country cover band the Suburban Cowboys and Grammy-nominated band, 3 Doors Down.

None of these drivers won a race and all had to use their position in the standings to fill in the bottom of the Chase field.

Carl Edwards has two wins on the season and has been strong down the stretch. Erik Jones won on June 21, while Sprint Cup regular Kevin Harvick won this race last September….

Busch has the same amount of victories in the Chase as Brian Vickers, Dale Jarrett and Joe Nemechek – one.

The Chase for the Sprint Cup officially kicked off Thursday with media day in downtown Chicago. They aren’t winning or leading many laps.

Undoubtedly, at some point on Saturday as he, and everyone else, waited out the rain, Matt Kenseth thought back to 12 months ago and the dominant performance of Brad Keselowski at Richmond worldwide Raceway and thought, why not me?

Stewart will not win at Chicagoland, and it’s doubtful that Harvick will pull into the winner’s circle.

Jimmie Johnson’s quest to become a seven-time Cup champion will be free and clear of sponsorship speculation.

Steckly already has three championships and is gunning for a fourth while Ranger, with two, would love to match Steckly with the most championships ever. Once he gets to the 76 number, it could serve as either a distraction or motivation for Johnson.

Brad Keselowski: He has shown strength the past 10 races, but Logano has beaten him in 17 of the 26 races this year, so if the championship is going through any Team Penske driver, it’s likely Logano. That’s when my run of six straight Cups came to an end. A serious accident in mid February kept him out of the first 11 races of 2015.

For Kyle Busch, the season started in disaster. The most exciting moment came on the final restart with 18 laps to go.

Edwards lost the closest points battle in NASCAR history in 2011, against Tony Stewart. With the fast cars at JGR, they are definite contenders. Last season he finished third at Charlotte and fifth at Kansas, only to get knocked out after the second round when he was caught up in a wreck at Talladega. The cars are running good. The Eliminator round picks up in November with races from Martinsville, Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix.

Although McMurray and Menard would both like a win to ensure a spot in the next segment, they both know that moving through the Chase without a win is possible. Aric Almirola, who made the Chase field last year as a race victor , was the first man out of this year’s Chase. It’s also the first time in a decade, there’s not a major controversy swirling around the 37-year-old driver. He is the first to admit that things have only been moderately to his liking this season. At a minimum, he should make it to the second round of the playoffs.

Whoever wins it will earn it under this format.

Four spots remained open as the green flag flew at Richmond. Hamlin is racing, despite a torn right ACL suffered while playing hoops.

The question we asked, “Can anybody catch Joe Gibbs Racing?”

Still, it’s hard to overlook the injury and being able to see Hamlin outrunning his teammates in the Chase.

But after a winless season, can the 43-year-old Gordon survive this year’s Chase?

That was then, this is now. The victor of any of those three events translates to an automatic invitation into the next round.

And the action-packed pre-race fun is just the beginning. Truex has finishes of 25th or worse in three of the last five races. And inconsistency doesn’t win championships, even in this format. “Three races is a lot to recover from a bad finish“. If he made it to the championship race, it’s not inconceivable to see McMurray win the title. The guy who put a polish of professionalism on his sport.

Gibbs Racing teams are the popular Chase favorites this year.

American driver Alexander Rossi said it is “very surreal” to be preparing for his Formula One debut this weekend after signing a deal with the Manor team, becoming the first American to race in the series since 2007.

This will be the seventh race this season on a 1.5-mile track and the first of five in the Chase.