NASCAR Sprint Cup Power Rankings: Top 15 After Chicagoland

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Between the Stewart butt grab and the Gordon mustache, you might have forgotten that there was an actual race with actual points for the actual Chase going on. Groundbreaking stuff, right? But, yes, there was a 400-mile postseason kickoff event, one that Brad Keselowski won to take control of the point lead. Yet Jimmie Johnson was right behind him, making sure he wasn’t forgotten either. Heck, he almost won the race himself and sits second in points! Title number six is still very much a possibility.

IndyCar Round Table: Season Finales, American Champions, and Doubleheaders

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*Give your thoughts on the MAVTV 500 overall. Did it live up to the hype?*

Toni: I think it definitely lived up to the hype. I thought the race was great on its own and the championship had all the drama you could want. I particularly loved seeing so many different drivers running well.
Huston: I really don’t have anything positive to offer. For being a championship race, I thought it fell flat.
Matt: I thought it was a pretty good race. Did it live up to the hype? I’m not so sure. Having Power wreck out that early in the event kind of killed some of the drama, and the race itself was “good not great” in my opinion. I felt that they kind of missed a bit on the aero package.

Top Ten Pre-Race Rituals for Chasers Other Than Tony Stewart

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*10.* Jeff Gordon: Burns an effigy of the creator of The Chase. After all, if not for him, he’d have five, maybe six Championships.

*9.* Kyle Busch: Something different than he had been doing before the Chase, obviously.

*8.* Martin Truex, Jr.: Nothing really as he keeps forgetting that he’s actually IN the Chase.

Mirror Driving: Who Can Rebound, On And Off The Track In NASCAR

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*Jeff Gordon’s Chicagoland race was cut short when he hit the wall after the throttle stuck on the No. 24. Is Gordon’s Chase bid over already, or is it too early to count anyone out?*

Kevin: It’s too early to count anyone out completely, I think. But it’s not looking good for him. Another race like this, say this week or next… then I’ll be more likely to count him out.
Mike N.: He’s done. I know it seems ludicrous to say that but Gordon’s already a full race behind with 11 drivers in front of him. The odds of overcoming that are ridiculous.

Reinstated Allmendinger Faces Uphill Battle

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As fast as the news came of AJ Allmendinger’s suspension for a failed drug test, it seems only fitting that the news that suspension is already lifted was equally as quick.

No, seriously. Not two months after the news broke in July, Allmendinger, the former driver of Penske Racing’s No. 22 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, is already “back,” or at least could be back, in theory. The news comes as a shock not in the sense that Allmendinger completed NASCAR’s Road to Recovery Program; I don’t think anyone who knew the driver on even the most basic of levels would peg him as a bad guy whose problems were only going to worsen.

Beth’s Brief

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The last two weeks have brought major shakeups to the JR Motorsports Nationwide Series team. It all started with the organization’s release of competition director …

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Five Points to Ponder: The Chase is Here…and In Like a Lamb

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*ONE: They Lied…Neither Keselowski, Johnson “Showing their Hands” After Round 1*

OK, it’s taking the statement a bit out of context. When Brad Keselowski was asked immediately after winning at Chicago whether or not he and Johnson were showing their hands, the question was posed as to whether either of them were sandbagging during the race’s final green-flag run. But in a larger sense, despite Keselowski’s insistence that both he and Johnson were giving it all they had (Johnson’s own post-race comments were in concurrence, as he noted the No. 2 simply outran them to the checkers) both drivers weren’t telling the whole story. They were both rather… subdued.

Tech Talk: Trying to Recapture the Magic at Loudon for Tony Stewart

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_Tony Stewart started off his championship run last season with back-to-back wins at Chicago and Loudon. While his sixth-place finish on Sunday didn’t replicate his win from 2011, the nine bonus points he carried into the Chase this year have him sitting in basically the same position — on the cusp of being a contender. The attention now turns to Loudon, where Stewart and his teammate Ryan Newman were dominant in 2011. This Spring, they finished 12th and 10th respectively, but are poised to made another run at the top two spots this coming weekend after a successful test at Milwaukee._

_Frontstretch caught up with Steve Addington after the Milwaukee test to get his take on heading to the Magic Mile, cars in line for the Chase races, working with Hendrick Motorsports and how much they pay attention to the competition when they’re at the race track._

Who’s Hot/Who’s Not in NASCAR: Chicago/New Hampshire Edition

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Jimmie Johnson made it clear in the mid-part of 2012 that he would be the driver to beat in the Chase because of his consistency. From the May 12 race at Darlington to the June 30 race at Kentucky — a seven-race span — Johnson won twice while finishing inside the top six all but once.

The only other driver that displayed consistency even remotely matching that this season is Brad Keselowski. What Keselowski has done might even be more impressive. Nobody has scored more points in the last 11 races; during that span, Keselowski has two wins, seven top 5s and 10 top 10s.

Opening Day for NASCAR’s Chase Sets the Tone on ESPN

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*MavTV American Real 500*

On Saturday night under blinding sunshine (literally), the IZOD IndyCar Series held their 500-mile season finale at Auto Club Speedway. On this night, there was really but one big story for the race, that being the championship. However, more was at play here than just the title chase.

IndyCar Central started out with a look back at the craziness that was the Baltimore Grand Prix presented by SRT before getting into the pre-race interviews. The primary feature of the show was a one-on-one interview that Marty Snider conducted with Will Power. The main topic of discussion included the upcoming championship battle with Ryan Hunter-Reay and how Power has been unable to finish in recent years.