According to the report from the NASCAR, The next race on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule will be Saturday evening at Richmond global Raceway with qualifying on Friday, September 11 at 5:45 p.m. ET.
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Here are the clinching scenarios for the drivers not secured in the Chase.
But will that be worth the risk?
Jamie McMurray – will clinch when he takes the green flag. Jeremy Mayfield, who was 14th in the standings with a 55-point deficit, won the 2004 Chevy Rock and Roll 400 and led the most laps to transfer into the ninth Chase spot, bumping Ryan Newman to 10th-place and knocking McMurray out of contention.
To make the Chase, a driver must be in the top 30 in points. Those who need some luck, don’t worry about the other drivers in the same position as you, worry about your vehicle, your team, control your race, and let the chips fall where they may. If there is a repeat victor, Newman and Gordon will make the Chase regardless of their finishing position.
“I think the general consensus among all of the drivers is that we would like to start with this and possibly try to get more downforce off the cars”, McMurray said.
The odd man out could be Bowyer.
If Bowyer runs into misfortune and happens to tie in points with Almirola or Kahne, he would advance on the basis of a third-place finish at Sonoma, Calif., this summer.
Now on the outside looking in, Almirola will either need to win or hope that there is not a new victor and finish 30 spots higher than Bowyer and three spots higher than Kasey Kahne. After four seasons at Roush, where he picked up a couple of wins but gained a lot more respect from his peers, he returned home to Ganassi and enjoyed the best year of his career.
Tony Stewart is the wild card.
NASCAR chairman Brian France has tasked his upper management with improving the on-track product, which has becoming increasingly boring this year. He can’t make it to the Chase on points and can only get in with a win.
For NASCAR’s sake I hope that Richmond 2015 brings more excitement than Richmond 2014 did. It was his second win the first coming in 2005. He’s also the winningest active driver at the track with four victories total.
At Richmond, Stewart says finding the balance is the key to success. “It seems like they race better when you are behind someone, when you are not as dependent on having the air on the auto. But the good news is we have dealt with it before”.
Hendrick spoke after an announcement that team sponsor Axalta would build a paint center for industrial clients at his organization’s campus but declined to name which driver Axalta will align with next year. True, the three-time series champion doesn’t have a top five to his credit this season, but he was up on the wheel last Sunday at Darlington, posting an average running position of 10th after spending a long stint in the top five. He also won the other marathon race known in the Sprint Cup series with the Coca-Cola 600 win even though Darlington proved to be the longest race time-wise this season after a record breaking 18 cautions mainly for spins and cars gaining their own personal Darlington stripe.
2. Could Kyle Busch grab the uncontested number one seed?
When the Chase for the Cup program debuted in 2004, the sophomore sensation’s progress was hampered by three blown engines, an oil pump failure and a rules infraction at Bristol, where NASCAR docked the team 25 points – the same amount of points that McMurray trailed 10th-place Mark Martin entering Richmond.
The best example of what can happen is a throwback points racing anecdote from 1973.
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“Benny crashed and I mean totaled his auto”, recalled Yarborough, who was driving for Junior Johnson.
