Here are the drivers in that group after the New Hampshire race.
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Johnson passed Keselowski with three laps to go, overtaking the most dominant auto of the day in the AAA Texas 500 Sunday afternoon. Even though he had posted four wins in the regular season he did not enter the Chase with the momentum of Joe Gibbs Racing or the speed of the Penske Racing’s two auto entry of Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski. And yet even he didn’t leave distraught.
The driver with the most impressive resume in the Arizona desert happens to be third in the standings – and the reigning series champion. Johnson led just six laps but denied the eight remaining contenders in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs an automatic berth among the championship-eligible quartet. I feel like we’re making progress. “It is a cushion that we have and I guess you average that out to 12 spots per race so if we go out and finish top-10 the last two we should be in good shape”. Or Keselowski and Kevin Harvick trying to win another title, or Kyle Busch coming back from a devastating injury to win it all. “We have to keep it going”, Keselowski said.
“We led 300-some laps and these debris yellows always favor someone, and it wasn’t our day for them to favor us”, Keselowski said. “I don’t know what I would have done differently or could have done differently”. Truex fell to eighth but attributed that to a loose right-front wheel rather than any contact with Keselowski. After the race, Keselowski walked straight to Truex and they shared a laugh and a handshake. Kyle Busch, Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. sit in the most comfortable position in the drivers standings. “When you get somebody of that caliber and surprise them, then you have to be happy”. He said he thought he came up. Good hard racing-rubbing a little. Keselowski seemed poised to cruise to a comfortable advantage like he had all day, but Johnson soon appeared on his bumper and stalked him for the lead. “I just kept the pressure on him”, Johnson said. I’m not sure if the sensation I felt, flying through a corridor of Christmas lights, is exactly what it feels like on any given night race for my lookalike as he whips around the track under the spotlights, but it’s unlike any other experience I’ve encountered.
“What’s gone on between other drivers the last few weeks has no bearing on myself”. The second time came under similar circumstances on Lap 281 of 334, and that instance cost Harvick a lap during an off-sequence green-flag pit stop. “It just wasn’t in the plans today”. His fifth win of the season was his sixth at the 1.5-mile Fort Worth track and the 75th of his premier-series career.
But the focus of the race was on the guys in the Chase, and Johnson was eliminated in the first round. Jeff Gordon won at Martinsville to advance to Homestead, and seven drivers are competing for the three remaining spots. The driver in fourth (currently Truex) is obviously the most vulnerable.
Instead, it is Keselowski who finds himself in dire straits, 19 points below the cut line and in desperate need of a win or a lot of luck at Phoenix.
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As the series heads to Phoenix next week for the final race of this round, Logano’s only shot to advance to the final four is with a win, as he is now 63 points out of the cutoff.
