Nascar Rules

[the H team]

Truex, Kurt & Joey are all racing for 2nd.

[the H team]

7 laps to go, Joey gets by Kurt for 3rd.

[the H team]

4 laps to go, Joey just passes Truex for 2nd.

[the H team]

Kyle takes the white fl&g.

[the H team]

Kyle wins at Atlanta! He locks in a place in the chase with this win.

[the H team]

The top 10

Kyle Busch
Joey Logano
Martin Truex Jr
Kurt Busch
Ryan Newman
Jeff Gordon
Juan Pablo Montoya
Dale Jr
Kevin Harvick
Brian Vickers

[the H team]

The top six in the point standings are locked in the chase, while the last 4 spots & 2 wild cards are up for grabs & will all be decided next Saturday night. The top six are, Jimmie, Clint, Kevin, Carl, Kyle & Matt. It's said that Kasey should clinched 1 of the wild cards spots with his 2 wins.

[the H team]

Chase clinching scenarios for Richmond



Six drivers already have clinched top-10 spots; Kahne has at least a Wild Card


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Below are the 2013 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series clinch scenarios for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, the final race before the Chase field is set. Six drivers have clinched top-10 spots in the Chase: Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth. Kasey Kahne, on the strength of two wins, has clinched at least a Wild Card spot.

Four drivers control their top-10 clinching destiny, regardless of the finishes of any other driver.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., currently seventh in points, will clinch a top-10 spot with a finish of 32nd or better, 33rd with at least one lap led or 34th with the most laps led.

Joey Logano, currently eighth in points, will clinch a top-10 spot with a finish of 11th or better, 12th and at least one lap led or 13th and the most laps led.

Greg Biffle, currently ninth in points, will clinch a top-10 spot with a finish of ninth or better, 10th and at least one lap led or 11th and the most laps led.

Kurt Busch, currently 10th in points, will clinch a top-10 spot by winning, finishing second with at least one lap led or finishing third with the most laps led.

The remaining mathematically eligible drivers need help to clinch a top-10 spot. Some, however, control their own Wild Card destiny (a win would guarantee at least a Wild Card spot).

Clinch scenarios for the remaining eligible drivers:

Jeff Gordon: Currently 11th in points, Gordon would clinch at least a Wild Card spot with a victory at Richmond. Gordon, currently six points outside the top 10, remains eligible for a top 10 spot.

Kasey Kahne: Kahne, currently 12th in points, has already clinched at least a Wild Card spot. Ten points outside the top 10, Kahne remains eligible for a top 10 spot.

Martin Truex Jr.: Currently 13th in points, Truex would clinch at least a Wild Card spot with a victory at Richmond. Fifteen points outside the top 10, Truex remains eligible for a top 10 spot. Truex, currently holding the provisional No. 2 Wild Card spot, could clinch a Wild Card spot without a victory.

Ryan Newman: Currently 14th in points, Newman would clinch at least a Wild Card spot with a victory at Richmond. Twenty points outside the top 10, Newman remains eligible for a top 10 spot. Newman could clinch a Wild Card spot without a win (Logano and Biffle must remain in the top 10 or be replaced by Kahne; Newman must out-point Truex by six points; Gordon must not win; and Brad Keselowski or Jamie McMurray cannot win and overtake Newman).

Brad Keselowski: Currently 28 points outside the top 10, Keselowski remains eligible for a top-10 spot. Currently winless, Keselowski must win to be in contention for a Wild Card spot. Mathematically there will be at least two drivers outside the top 10 with wins. To clinch, Keselowski would need to win and outpoint Truex by 13 and Newman by eight (and would only need to outpoint one of these drivers if Kahne would displace a winless driver from the top 10). If Truex or Newman displaces Kurt Busch from the top 10, he would need to outpoint the other one-win driver remaining outside the top 10 by the requisite amount.

Jamie McMurray: Currently 39 points outside the top 10, McMurray remains eligible for a top-10 spot. Currently winless, McMurray must win to be in contention for a Wild Card spot. To clinch, McMurray would need to win and outpoint either Truex by 25 and Newman by 19 (and would only need to outpoint one of these drivers if Kahne would displace a winless driver from the top 10). If Truex or Newman displace Kurt Busch from the top 10, he would need to outpoint the other one-win driver remaining outside the top 10 by the requisite amount.

Paul Menard: To clinch, Menard would need to win and outpoint Truex by 47 and Newman by 42 (and would only need to outpoint one of these drivers if Kahne would displace a winless driver from the top 10). If Truex or Newman displace Kurt Busch from the top 10, he would need to outpoint the other one-win driver remaining outside the top 10 by the requisite amount.

[the H team]

Burton steps aside at RCR, has no plans for 2014


Driver accelerates planned departure from Richard Childress


Related: RCR plans for four-car team on hold

Jeff Burton will not return to Richard Childress Racing in 2014, a move announced by the veteran driver and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series organization Wednesday.

Burton, 46, is a 21-time winner at the Cup level. He joined RCR late in the 2004 season.

He is 22nd in the points standings heading into Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, with five top-10s. His best finish, a third-place result, came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July.

Sponsorship concerns, as well as his decision to cut back on competing full time in 2015, led to the move to step aside, Burton said during a national teleconference.

• RCR puts plans for four-car team on hold RCR PUTS PLANS FOR FOUR-CAR TEAM ON HOLD
  
  
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“Richard (Childress, team owner) and I have worked exceptionally hard to build a race team that could be competitive and honestly I’m real excited about what we’ve done this year,” the South Boston, Va., native said.

“But the harsh reality is, going into next year … there’s a lot of funding that wasn’t in place. I had gone to Richard and told him that at the end of 2014 I was going to step back and probably not run a full schedule anymore.

“We’re just accelerating it a year early … to give the team a chance to … continue to move forward.”

Burton said he has no plans for next season, although he has often been mentioned as a candidate for the broadcast booth. NBC and FOX will begin new extended television deals with NASCAR beginning in 2015.

“It’s a very difficult situation, no doubt about that,” Burton said. “Everybody knows that sponsorship is a tough game right now; we’ve had a tremendous amount of support from a lot of companies, mainly Caterpillar. … We didn’t have it all in place for next year so it just makes sense.

“It’s a tough time for me because I truly believe in what we’re doing. I’m a big, big fan of Luke (Lambert, crew chief) and our engineers …. Got really, really good people on that team and we’re starting to perform. Truly I’m walking away from it when I believe we’re about to blossom. “

RCR fields three Cup teams with drivers Burton, Kevin Harvick and Paul Menard. It has already been announced that Harvick will depart at season’s end to join Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.

[the H team]

Allmendinger will run No. 47 car at Richmond

AJ Allmendinger will take Bobby Labonte's place in the No. 47 BUSH's Beans Toyota this weekend in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

Labonte also missed last week's AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway after suffering three broken ribs in a cycling accident near his home in Trinty, N.C. last week.





Labonte hopes to return for next week's race at Chicagoland Speedway.


“I am feeling a lot better, but I don’t want to put the race team in any compromising position this weekend,” Labonte said in a press release from JTG Daugherty Racing. “It just makes more sense to focus on my rehab one more week to ensure that I’m ready to go at Chicago (Chicagoland Speedway) with no issues. I plan to be back with the team then and back behind the wheel.”


Just last weekend at Atlanta, it was announced that Allmendinger would replace Labonte in the No. 47 car and drive full-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for JTG Daugherty Racing in the 2014 season.


In 12 career starts in Richmond, Allmendinger has two top-10 finishes.

[the H team]

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. -- Tony Stewart’s right leg may be fractured, but the relationship between the two owners of Stewart-Haas Racing isn’t.

That was the message from the three-time champion of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, who is out for the remainder of this season with two broken bones in his right leg suffered in a sprint car crash Aug. 5. Stewart met the media Tuesday in his first public appearance since the accident, and said there’s no rupture between him and Gene Haas over his co-owner’s move to bring in Kurt Busch as the driver of a fourth car beginning next season.

“Gene had made the decision that he wanted to make a change. We’re partners in this, and Gene wanted to make a change, and I’ve got to go with that,” Stewart said. “His choice to add Kurt to the organization, I really and truly was 100 percent behind it. I was just concerned about the time frame. The rest of it, everybody’s perception that we’re fighting and arguing -- there was never one argument between us. I just expressed my concern about the timing of it, and it was no more elevated than the conversation (we’re) having right here.”

During the race weekend at New Hampshire in mid-July, Stewart formally introduced Kevin Harvick as the driver of a third car at SHR for 2014. As part of that announcement, Stewart said Ryan Newman would not be returning because the organization was unable to accommodate a fourth car. Two weeks later at a dinner in Indianapolis, Haas spoke with Busch and learned the current driver for Furniture Row Racing did not have a deal in place for next season.

A week later, Stewart suffered compound fractures of his right tibia and fibula in a sprint car crash at Oskaloosa, Iowa. While Stewart was in the early stages of recovering from an injury that would require two surgeries, Haas moved forward with the effort to bring in Busch. By the time Stewart was in a position to voice an objection over the logistical hurdles involved in such a rapid expansion project, his partner had already extended an offer to the team’s newest addition.

• Martin puts future on hold for Stewart-Haas MARTIN PUTS FUTURE ON HOLD FOR STEWART-HAAS
  
  
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In the media conference a week ago to introduce Busch, Haas conceded that Stewart “was a little upset” over the move, particularly since it would require the hiring of more personnel and lead to crowded quarters in the existing SHR shop until an addition is completed sometime next summer.

“It wasn’t as dramatic as he made it sound,” Stewart said. “When Gene came to me about the fourth team, he told me on a Monday, and then on a Thursday I was told they already had a contract ready. It definitely moved a lot faster in that time frame, and there were a lot of meetings in those three days. The biggest thing was having Greg Zipadelli sit there and say, ‘We can do this, and we can get it done in that time frame.’ And that was my concern. It wasn’t that I was against what Gene had in mind.”

Zipadelli is SHR’s competition director, and a confidant of Stewart going back to his days as the driver’s crew chief at Joe Gibbs Racing, where the pair won two championships together. Stewart said Zipadelli’s belief that that the new team could be integrated properly before next season -- creating a four-car organization also featuring Stewart, Harvick and Danica Patrick -- was the deciding factor in his mind.

“Gene was so excited about doing this and about having his hand involved in it, and that’s great,” Stewart said. “For me as his partner, I love seeing him this engaged, and I’m really proud of him for being as active in this process as he was. I was just worried about the time frame, and that’s what he hired me for. My job is to protect this company and look out for it and make sure what we do, we do with the right timing. And Greg was the big factor in that we could do it in the right time frame and not hurt the effort that we’ve got with Ryan trying to make the Chase and running for a championship this year.”

Newman is in contention for a Wild Card berth to the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and the 12 drivers who qualify for the playoff will be decided Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. Although some have alleged that Newman was deceived in this process, Stewart was adamant that a three-car organization for 2014 was indeed the plan when said in New Hampshire that Newman would not be returning for next year.

“When we had the press conference, where we were at is what we said, and that was 100 percent on the mark,” Stewart said. Adding Busch “literally came up while (Busch and Haas) were at Brickyard in Indy and were at a Chevy dinner. The conversation of doing a fourth team for next year, that’s when it started. You know, Gene’s not used to having partners. Gene’s a self-made success story in the CNC industry, and he’s pretty much been a one-man show doing it. This is the first time he’s really had a partner. Going through that process, he just didn’t think about talking to me about it until it got further along.”

When Haas eventually did broach the subject with Stewart, it came at “really the first opportunity he had,” the driver said. Stewart added he had no issues with the addition of Busch, whom he called “a huge asset” to the race team.

“He’s a guy that you know can go to every race track, and has the capability of going out and being fast, and can possibility win the race every week, at every discipline,” Stewart said of Busch. “… I knew that Gene wanted this to be a four-car team eventually. I had no dream that he had it in mind for 2014 until three Mondays ago.”

The team now known as SHR was founded by Haas as Haas CNC Racing in 2002, fielding a vehicle for Jack Sprague for three races. The organization eventually expanded to two cars, but it was only marginally competitive until Stewart was lured in with half ownership prior to the 2009 campaign. Two years later the team won its first Sprint Cup title with Stewart, who technically became the first driver/owner champion since Alan Kulwicki in 1992.

But although Stewart’s name comes first in the team label, the street which the shop sits on remains Haas Way. And as the events of the past week have shown, Haas and his personal fortune clearly still control the organization’s purse strings. Asked if he would have been able to block Haas’ proposed expansion plan had he been in a position to, Stewart isn’t certain.

“He’s definitely the guy who writes the checks,” Stewart said, “and if he decides he wants to do something, I’m pretty sure with the fact that he holds the checkbook that he gets kind the final say of it. But I think he values our opinions now, and understands why I was asking questions and why I was cautious about the time frame. I think he respects that a lot more since last week.”

The past week seems to have been a learning process for Haas, who lives much of the year in California.

“I think he really understands this a lot more, and that there’s a lot more involved with it,” Stewart said. It’s also shown a different side of Stewart, who has essentially run SHR for the past five years, sealing the deal with sponsors and making the final calls on drivers and personnel. He may be a rambunctious racer at heart, but behind a desk he’s a cautious executive well aware of the risks involved in any decision.

“The part that scared me when Gene and I spoke about all this is that for a split second was, I was actually the adult in the conversation,” Stewart said. “That probably scared me more than anything through the process, that I was the one who used common sense and said, ‘Wait, let’s take a step back and think about this.’ Normally I’m the guy who’s throwing the dart at the board and saying, ‘If it hits yes, I’m full throttle and I’m out the door.’

“But I think that’s something that gained my respect with Gene a little bit. He’s wanting to spend a lot of money on this project, and it would be very easy for me to say heck yes, and give me the blank checks and let me go run with it. For five years we’ve run this like a business, and that’s what he hired me for. He hired me to go out and win races, but also to help this business along.”

[the H team]

This is it, race fans. Tonight will decide who the final 4 in the top 10 will be & who will be in the wild card spot. The top 10 starters are: Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson.

[the H team]

Jimmie will start at the back due to a driver change, he missed qualifying to be at the birth of his 2nd child, another daughter.

[the H team]

400 laps, with a fuel window of 115 laps.

[rockit]

How you doing tonight H?