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NASCAR Chase math: 4 races, 12 ‘chaser’ comments
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Denny Hamlin
After 32 of 36 races, four Chase races are remaining in the long NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
The championship could still be a race for the top three, four and maybe five, if the No. 48 team and Jimmie Johnson ever have a bad day.
The Chase for the Sprint Cup situation and comments:
From No. 1 to No. 5, it’s still a race to the big prize, but Jimmie Johnson has built up a comfort zone - 118 points strong.
1. Jimmie Johnson:
“In the end I'm really just trying to focus on trying to do my job and not spend time worrying about what other people are thinking. At the end of the day I need to keep my blinders on and stay focused on my job."
2. Mark Martin: “We need to pick it up now. Eighths, sevenths, that won’t get it right now.”
3. Jeff Gordon: “It is risk versus reward. Let’s hope we get down to the final laps of this race or any race from here on out and we get to show just how hungry we are to win this championship.”
4. Tony Stewart: “A lot of it is dictated by what those guys do too in front of us. It is about math. I mean, there is no magic to it. We have got to go out and…we could finish 20th the next five races if they finish 42nd or 43rd. It’s literally about math. We just have to figure out how we can outperform them and this is a part of the year when they are strong. I don’t know if we can do that.”
5. Juan Montoya: “You've got to say the 48 team is doing an amazing job and they deserve everything they're doing right now. Do we want to beat them? Yeah, we want to beat them. But it's not over.”
For the No. 6 the math is not good, not impossible, but not believable.
6. Kurt Busch: About No. 48 car, “The depth that they have is deep. They have all the weapons. For the rest of us, it’s going to take luck.”
From No. 7 on back, it’s really next year already. The mountain of math is daunting when a team faces a 300 point to 500 point deficit with four races remaining. The question is -- will contender status in 2009 sustain momentum for the 2010 season? Returning to the Chase is everything again.
7. Ryan Newman: “We're just going to go out there and race and not worry about points. We want to continue to run strong in the last four races and hopefully get our first win of the season. We're going to fight hard and carry the Soldiers' motto of never quitting and battling to the finish."
8. Greg Biffle:“I don’t think it would be realistic for a guy from us on back could win it, just simply for the fact of doing the numbers. The facts are we’re gonna have to have some help. Something is gonna have to happen to them. So if you just look at it logistically, it just doesn’t make sense that anybody on back has an opportunity. I think I can get to third or fourth, if one of those guys has some trouble and we get going here pretty good.”
9. Denny Hamlin: “Everywhere we go from here on out. We don't have any weak spots anymore in our race team. .Obviously when you put yourself in position like we have over the last few weeks, you're going to win races. It's just great to have that feeling, able to go to a racetrack and know that you can win no matter what type of racetrack that you're on.”
10. Carl Edwards: Edwards spoke about South Beach where he took a promotional ride on a land-sea vehicle and performed his famous back-flip into Biscayne Bay off Miami near the Atlantic Ocean.
“If we were to win the championship, South Beach is where we would come,” Edwards said. “My crew guys would really like this.”
11. Kasey Kahne: “I don’t think either of us can stop him at this point as far as points go. It’s definitely not over. Anything can happen the rest of the year. If it doesn’t, Jimmie is the guy to beat.”
12. Brian Vickers: “I think we said going into it, being in the Chase was huge for us. We met our goals. We came into the season with goals of sitting on a pole, winning a race and being in the Chase. So, we accomplished all those goals.”
NASCAR Sprint Cup Point Standings
1. Jimmie Johnson [Leader] [6098]
2. Mark Martin [-118]
3. Jeff Gordon [-150]
4. Tony Stewart [-196]
5. Juan Montoya [-200]
6. Kurt Busch [-237]
7. Ryan Newman [-312]
8. Greg Biffle [-350]
9. Denny Hamlin [-352]
10. Carl Edwards [-413]
11. Kasey Kahne [-439]
12. Brian Vickers [-530]
NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase Schedule
11/01/09 Race 33 Talladega Superspeedway 12 p.m. [ABC]
11/08/09 Race 34 Texas Motors Speedway 2:30 p.m. [ABC]
11/15/09 Race 35 Phoenix International Speedway 2:30 p.m. [ABC]
11/22/09 Race 36 Homestead International Speedway 2:30 p.m. [ABC]
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