Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup – Week 2
THE RACE: Dover 400 at Dover International Speedway (Dover, Delaware)
WHEN: Sunday, Sept. 23 @ 1:30 p.m. (ET)
TV: ABC
DRIVERS QUALIFIED FOR THE CHASE: Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer.
DEFENDING SERIES CHAMPION: Jimmie Johnson
DEFENDING DOVER 400 CHAMPION: Jeff Burton
CHASE FACTS:
The last 10 races of the 36-race NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series season.
12 drivers in the Chase field.
The top 12 drivers in the series standings after the season’s 26th race (at Richmond on Sept. 8) qualified for the Chase. Those 12 had their point totals reset at 5,000; they then got 10 bonus points for each race victory prior to the Chase. The bonus points created the Chase “seedings.”
Jimmie Johnson started the Chase as the top seed with 5,060 points, via his six wins pre-Chase.
THIS WEEK’S STORIES:
New Jersey native Martin Truex Jr. considers Dover his “home track” and obviously felt right at home in June, winning impressively at Dover – his first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup victory. That win highlighted a surge that got Truex into the Chase field. He comes into Dover sixth in points. Truex, a two-time (2004-05) NASCAR Busch Series champion, will be the “new face” of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated’s driving lineup next year, with the move by Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Hendrick Motorsports.
Clint Bowyer got his first career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup victory on Sunday at New Hampshire and jumped from 12th to fourth in the Chase standings.
Last year, Jeff Burton ended a 175-race victory drought in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series by winning at Dover in September. That victory fueled a four-week stay atop the Chase standings en route to a final points finish of seventh. Burton, who drives for legendary car owner Richard Childress, is in the Chase again, looking for a repeat Dover victory. He’s 11th in the Chase points.
The inherent pressure of being a driver competing in the Chase is even more intense at Dover. The “Monster Mile” is fast, high-banked and physically demanding. Many drivers consider the 400-lap Dover events the most demanding of the season.
NASCAR’s safety-oriented “Car of Tomorrow”, which has provided extremely competitive racing this year during a partial-season “rollout,” will be run at Dover for the second time.
THE CHASE SCHEDULE (track sizes in parentheses)
Sept. 16—New Hampshire (1.058 miles); Sept. 23—Dover (1 mile); Sept. 30—Kansas (1.5 miles);
Oct. 7—Talladega (2.66 miles); Oct. 13—Charlotte (1.5 miles); Oct. 21—Martinsville (.526 mile); Oct. 28—Atlanta (1.54 miles); Nov. 4—Texas (1.5 miles); Nov. 11—Phoenix (1 mile); Nov. 18—Homestead (1.5 miles).
