Few drivers in NASCAR history dominate a track as thoroughly as Kevin Harvick does Phoenix global Raceway. Joey Logano, apparently in excellent shape for a championship after winning all three races in round two, must win Sunday after Matt Kenseth wrecked him at Martinsville (after Logano wrecked Kenseth at Kansas, leading to Kenseth falling out of championship contention).
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Martin Truex Jr., in the No. 78 Chevrolet, must either win or finish ahead of Carl Edwards in the No. 19 Toyota, Brad Keselowski, in the No. 2 Ford and Kurt Busch in the No. 41 Chevrolet.
“Being in this position, it’s obviously good, but I’ve been in a really good position before and had stuff happen and been knocked out”, said Kyle Busch.
Standing in his way? “Our set-up is similar to (teammate) Kevin Harvick’s and he has won five of the last six races”.
“The vehicle has speed”, Busch said.
“You look at this particular Chase; it’s much different than last year’s Chase”.
Indeed, Harvick has won five of the last six visits to the Arizona track.
But Busch hasn’t been too bad, and he finished a respectable fifth there in March. Busch did not race at Phoenix earlier this year due to injuries but as the season winds down he has posted back to back top five finishes in this Chase round. He is second in points in the Eliminator round and can clinch a berth in the finale at the Homestead-Miami Speedway if he finishes as high as third and leads a lap.
“It’s gotten pretty insane”. “The Chase is definitely at a boiling point for everybody”. Then he’ll race another two times.
Kurt Busch, who won the first Chase title in 2004, is 34 back – almost a full race’s worth – and would need a quirky set of circumstances to move on unless he wins.
Gordon, with the only safe seat in the house, knows that the other seven Chase drivers will stop at nothing to join him at Homestead.
Points-leader Chris Buescher finished 13th.
“This new format, I think it is better still”, Gordon said. “Obviously, we want to be better than fourth, but we’re close enough to the front that we have a good pit stall selection”. “Learned a few things here today that I think can help out and looking forward to seeing Adam here in a little bit”.
Jones has a busy weekend as he’ll run triple duty for the second consecutive week.
Jimmie Johnson gets ready before practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race, Saturday, October 3, 2015, at Dover worldwide Speedway in Dover, Del.
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“I laughed in their faces because I thought that was the most hilarious thing I had ever heard of”, Gordon said. Harvick has seven wins in 25 career starts at Phoenix and has owned the track recently.
