Now’s the time to get really amped up, NASCAR fans, as the field of contenders in the Chase for the Sprint Cup has been whittled down to eight drivers heading into Martinsville Speedway.
Who will secure the first of three slots into the Championship 4 at Homestead? Let’s find out the key names worth considering before we places our stakes on all the rubber-burning action for this Sunday’s race.
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Having won already at Martinsville earlier this year, Kyle Busch will be the top threat heading into Sunday. He led 352 laps en route to his victory on the track this April, which is the most number of laps he has led in any race this season.
The reigning Sprint Cup Series champion even finished a solid fifth on Sunday’s course at around the same time last year, so things are looking good for him already in his bid to secure his spot into the Championship 4 as early as now. And while Busch is off an underwhelming 30th-place finish at Talladega this past week, he still had six-straight top-10 finishes in the prior races. Seems that he just phoned the last race in knowing that he’s a sure lock for the Round of 8 anyway.
Need we say more about the eternal Jimmie Johnson? He already has a whopping eight wins in Martinsville to go with 23 top-10 finishes in 29 career starts.
To put things in a broader perspective, Jimmie J typically excels in the Round-of-8 races in general. The future Hall-of-Famer has a total of 18 wins in the three tracks in this stage of the playoffs, meaning that he’ll definitely put out his A-game beginning this Sunday in hopes of winning his record-tying seventh Sprint Cup Series title.
Of course, let’s not forget that Kevin Harvick is still in the mix. The modern-day hero/anti-hero of NASCAR is having another outstanding season as the man with the best driver rating this season to date (107.0).
Not only that, but Harvick also leads all contenders in the Round of 8 in top-five finishes (15), top 10s (24), and tied with Kyle Busch for the most wins this season (four). By the way, he’s also won at least one race in each of the two playoff stages thus far, so winning his third such race this Sunday is a huge possibility indeed.
It’s been months since Kurt Busch won his last race at Pocono, but we should never count him out from title contention that easily. The Stewart-Haas Racing standout still has seven-straight top-15 finishes entering Martinsville, proving that his sheer consistency can get him this far into the postseason.
However, consistency may not simply be enough this time around considering that Busch had never secured a podium finish during the aforementioned seven-race stretch. Still, the 2004 Sprint Cup champion is in fine shape right now, making him a solid choice this week if you’re into siding with dark horses for your bets.
Welp, it’s official: Tony Stewart can just coast through the rest of the season without having to worry about contending for the Chase. He only has one top-10 finish over his last 10 starts, capped off with a lackluster 32nd-place finish last week at Talladega.
With basically nothing left to fight for, don’t count on the all-time NASCAR great to remain highly competitive this Sunday. Such a shame too, as he was in line to win his fourth Sprint Cup Series title this season at the ripe-old age of 45.
Writer’s Prediction
Harvick finds himself instantly qualifying for the Championship 4 once more.
