By Ken de la Bastide
Tribune columnist
— Don’t expect any drama at the NASCAR Sprint Cup race this weekend at Richmond, which will set the field for the Chase for the championship.
The mostly meaningless part of the Sprint Cup season will come to an end on Saturday. Except for wins during the first 26 races of the year, the “regular season” is thrown out for the 12 drivers in the Chase.
No matter what NASCAR tries in terms of generating excitement over the final 10 weeks of the season, it won’t matter. The casual fan has already tuned out racing in favor of college and pro football.
Ten drivers are guaranteed spots in the Chase, no matter what happens at Richmond. When the points are reset Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin are locked in.
There will be lots of hype on how drivers can battle their way into the Chase field at Richmond. It’s not going to happen.
Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer could be knocked out of a Chase position, but it is not likely to happen. Ryan Newman trails Bowyer by 117 points, Jamie McMurray is 128 points back and Mark Martin is 147 markers behind.
If Newman were to win at Richmond and lead the most laps, Bowyer would still have to finish only 28th to ensure a spot in the Chase.
NASCAR is talking about making changes in the Chase format for 2011, maybe increasing the field to 16. They might has well expand the Chase field to 43 and throw out all the points for the first 26 races.
The next thing NASCAR will announce is it will be crowning a champion pre-Chase. It makes sense because then every year, NASCAR could pump out the PR and endorsement programs for two champions and not just one.
The reality is if a team doesn’t make the Chase, it had a dismal season. Take the case of McMurray. He wins the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400, but when looking back at the 2010 season, it will be noted that he failed to qualify for the Chase. His winning the two biggest races of the year will be noted when NASCAR returns for those events next year.
Stewart broke a 31-race winless streak Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway and is now being called the front-runner for the championship by some in the national media.
“Smoke” has one win compared to five for Johnson and Hamlin. So when the points are reset, he will no longer be sitting in the fourth spot, but somewhere south of that.
Johnson has won four consecutive NASCAR titles and admittedly has struggled at times this season. But the Lowe’s team is masterful when it comes to the Chase and the fact that most races are contested on 1.5-mile tracks plays into their advantage.
The Lowe’s team still has to be considered the favorite to repeat followed by Harvick and Kyle Busch.
In other racing news
There was an excellent super late model race at Winchester Speedway last Monday under the sanction of the Champion Racing Association. Veterans Scott Hantz and Johnny VanDoorn waged a classic battle over the final five laps.
The two ran side by side for several laps with Hantz making a valiant attempt to snatch the lead away from VanDoorn on the final straight away, he came up about half a fender length short.
This probably was a good preview for the Winchester 400 in mid-October for the super late models. A stellar field including Dave Stremme, Kyle Busch, Ross Kenseth and Chase Elliott is expected.
• Ken de la Bastide may be reached at ken.delabastide@ kokomotribune.com or 765-454-8580.
