Rainout gives Chicago pole to Harvick

Not by a long shot.

Earlier in the season, Johnson and Harvick were performing at a higher level than everyone else, but since has been passed up.

After the 2013 season, NASCAR announced a major overhaul for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. So there is time. “I am most proud of my team for having a fast race auto to come to the track; having a plan and doing all the things they did to pay attention to the weather”. I don’t think anybody here is realistically thinking about that as a possibility.

“Year to year is tough”.

“The tracks we race at in the summer”, Johnson said, “are different, quirky and we just don’t have the statistics at those tracks”.

He jumped from third to first on the restart with five laps remaining, and has now earned an automatic spot in the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

“I would rather have been first but I feel good about that”, contributed Logano after being confirmed on the front row alongside Harvick.

Logano, the Daytona 500 victor this year.

Johnson finished 11th and Gordon, second on the final restart, faded to 14th over the final five laps.

Hamlin stepped up and once again showed his resilience by rallying for a surprise victory in the first race of the 10-race Chase.

More recently, it’s been a running joke that if a wall needed a SAFER barrier, Gordon’s vehicle would find it. He’s survived it all and won four titles.

Ryan Newman was fourth in the No. 31 Chevrolet and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five in the No. 20 Toyota. Kyle has always had bad luck in the chase, even in his best season in 2008.

Harvick is last in the 16-driver field, and four drivers will be cut from the Chase in two weeks.

“In my grid he only makes it to the second round”. Every driver who won a race is now eligible for the Chase, no matter where they finished in points as long as the driver finishes in the top 30 in points. They don’t know what strategies will get them through to the second round, and haven’t seen firsthand how the intensity will pick up starting today at Chicagoland Speedway.

Logano has been on the receiving end of Harvick’s verbal jabs before, and said he learned quickly to ignore the driver.

“I wouldn’t consider us behind the Gibbs cars”, Harvick said.

And just as last year, animosity that builds with the pressure could come as a bump on the track, punches on pit road or an outright chase through the garage the way the usually restrained Kenseth went after Keselowski last year. Kevin Harvick, thought to be a championship favorite after winning previous year , is suddenly in danger of being eliminated in the first round after he blew a tire getting into it with Jimmie Johnson on the track. This is the third time this has happened to Blaney this season, and this weekend it’s to the benefit of the #62 of Jay Robinson’s Premium Motorsports team that has missed more races than it’s made.

Momentum says an all-Gibbs final is possible. Though Johnson is the #1 seed he is realistically the 4th or 5th best driver in the series right now. Confidence is on Harvick’s side.

Jamie McMurray and Clint Bowyer are the other non-winners who made the Chase. The guy who put a polish of professionalism on his sport.

The greybeard hoping to beat the odds.

Why he won’t: Dale Jr.is one of the Sprint Cup’s best superspeedway racers, boding well for him at Talladega, but he’s been poor at Martinsville (36th) and Phoenix (43rd) this season, where he’ll need to succeed to get to Homestead.