This Week in Auto Racing June 26 - 28

This Week in Auto Racing June 26 - 28

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - The "Race to the Chase" begins this weekend as the Sprint Cup Series heads to New Hampshire. The Nationwide Series will also be at the New England track, while the Camping World Truck Series will run at Memphis. The IndyCar Series will race under the lights at Richmond.

Sprint Cup Series

Lenox Industrials Tool 301 - New Hampshire Motor Speedway - Loudon, NH

New Hampshire kicks off the "Race to the Chase," a 10-race stretch that precedes the Sprint Cup Series playoffs. The top-12 drivers in points after the September 12 event at Richmond will qualify for the "Chase for the Sprint Cup."

Juan Pablo Montoya currently holds the coveted 12th spot, but Kasey Kahne moved to within three points of Montoya after winning last Sunday at Sonoma, CA.

Kahne held off Tony Stewart in several late-race restarts to win for the first time since June 2008 at Pocono and give team owner Richard Petty his first victory in a decade. Prior to Sonoma, he had finished no better than 14th in a Sprint Cup road-course event.

Earlier this season, Kahne was among the top-10 in points, but dropped as low as 17th in the rankings after Richmond last month. Since then, the No.9 Richard Petty Motorsports driver has climbed four positions after finishing in the top-10 in three of the last six races.

"We need to figure out how to make the Chase and just be consistent," Kahne said. "We've ran strong for the last six races."

Kahne has been in the Chase one time so far, finishing eighth in points in 2006.

Heading into New Hampshire, just 74 points separate 11th-place Mark Martin from 16th-place Clint Bowyer.

Martin dropped three positions after finishing 35th at Sonoma. He won his third race of the season last week at Michigan.

"This has been a great success this season, no matter what happens going forward," Martin said.

Martin and Kyle Busch currently lead the series with three victories each. The driver with the most victories after the fall race at Richmond will enter the Chase in the first seed. All 12 drivers who qualify for the playoffs - the last 10 races of the season - will have their point totals adjusted to 5,000. Each driver will then have 10 bonus points added for every race he won before the Chase.

Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson - the top-three drivers in points right now - appear to be a shoo-in for this year's Chase. Johnson will attempt to win an unprecedented fourth straight Sprint Cup championship.

Stewart's second place finish compared to a ninth-place run for Gordon at Sonoma allowed Stewart to stretch his lead to 84 points over Gordon. Johnson is 157 points back.

"After 26 races it's not a matter of where you are in the standings," Stewart said. "It's after 26 races where you stand after you receive those bonus points. You start square again."

Stewart won his first race as both driver and owner earlier this month at Pocono.

Kurt Busch, currently fourth in points (-280), won last year's rain-shortened race at New Hampshire.

Busch grabbed the lead when he elected not to pit during a late-race caution. He continued to run in front when rain began falling on the one-mile track. Busch was declared the winner after NASCAR called the race with 17 laps remaining in the scheduled 301-lap event.

Forty-six teams are on the preliminary entry list for this weekend's Lenox Industrial Tools 301.

Nationwide Series

Camping World RV Sales 200 - New Hampshire Motor Speedway - Loudon, NH

In the last two Nationwide races, Kyle Busch has finished second after leading the most laps.

Despite starting from the rear of the field at Milwaukee, Busch ran in front for 80 of 250 laps. He surrendered the lead to fellow Sprint Cup competitor Carl Edwards with 45 laps remaining. Edwards then held off Busch in two late- race restarts to claim his first victory of the season.

"It was definitely a great night for us," Edwards said. "Our team has been working hard, and it is nice to see the hard work payoff. I hope this is the beginning of something special for this team."

Edwards won his first race of the 2008 season at Milwaukee. He trailed leader Clint Bowyer by 225 points at this point last year, but went on to win seven of the remaining 19 races. Edwards lost the championship to Bowyer by just 21 points.

Busch, who currently holds a 127-point lead over Edwards, has led the most laps in the past eight races. He'll attempt to make it nine in a row this weekend at New Hampshire.

Edwards has one victory at New Hampshire, while Busch has yet to win there.

Amazingly, there have been 22 different winners in as many races at New Hampshire. This year's event will feature seven previous winners - Kenny Wallace (1991), Joe Nemechek (1992), Derrike Cope (1994), Jason Keller (2001), Bobby Hamilton Jr. (2002), Edwards (2006) and Kevin Harvick (2007).

Harvick has plenty of experience at the tricky one-mile track, with seven top-10 finishes in eight starts.

"It's one of those places where you have to get through the center of the corner and get up off the corner wide open," he said. "That makes it really hard to get through the center of the corner and turn good like you need to. Getting up off the corner under full power without getting loose is really tricky. Passing is harder there than at most places, because it's so hard to make your car work getting up off the corner. That makes track position probably the most important thing at New Hampshire."

Forty-seven teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Camping World RV Sales 200.

Tony Stewart won at New Hampshire one year ago. He is not scheduled to compete in this year's race.

Camping World Truck Series

MemphisTravel.com 200 - Memphis Motorsports Park - Memphis, TN

Ron Hornaday Jr. received a huge birthday present last Saturday when he won at Milwaukee and reclaimed the top sot in the Camping World Truck Series point standings. Hornaday, who turned 51-year-old, picked up his second win of the season and extended his series record to 41 career victories. He took a 36- point lead over Matt Crafton, who finished 16th.

Hornaday enters Memphis as the defending race winner. He led a total of 139 laps, but a pair of late-race accidents gave Erik Darnell an opportunity to steal the win. Hornaday held off Darnell by 0.269 seconds in a green-white- checkered finish to capture the victory.

"During last year's race, I think we learned a lot of things we can use to make good adjustments to our truck this year," Hornaday said.

Hornaday also won the inaugural race at Memphis in 1998.

This will be the last year for the distinctive Elvis (Presley) trophy for the winner at Memphis, and Hornaday would sure like to add another one to his collection.

"I think it's cool when a track goes the extra mile to make a trophy special," he said. "I now have an Elvis trophy on my shelf. When I won here in 1998, they had not gotten him yet. (Wife) Lindy and I are big Elvis fans, so adding that to my collection last year was really cool."

Thirty-four teams are on the preliminary entry list for the MemphisTravel.com 200, two short of a full field.

INDYCAR SERIES

SunTrust Indy Challenge - Richmond International Raceway - Richmond, VA

The points battle remains tight in the IndyCar Series after seven of 17 races have been completed this season.

After winning last Sunday at Iowa, Dario Franchitti moved to within three points of leader Ryan Briscoe. Franchitti grabbed the lead after the last round of pit stops and kept it for the final 51 laps to claim his second victory of the season. He also won the inaugural race at Iowa during his championship season in 2007.

"I just went out, did my job and hung on, made some good moves in traffic and here we are," Franchitti said. "More than anywhere, (Sunday) is a team win because those pit stops moved us up in track position."

Briscoe has led the most laps in the last three races and therefore earned a total of six bonus points. He has finished second in each of those events.

"I don't think we're doing anything wrong," Briscoe said. "We're doing an extraordinary job as a whole team. It's going to be like this for the rest of the season. It's going to be very close. Every race we go to, it's going to be tough."

Briscoe has already led 509 laps this year. Scott Dixon set a new series record in 2008 when he led 899 laps for the season.

Dixon, the defending series champion, is currently 12 points behind Briscoe in third place.

Briscoe is looking to keep his momentum going in this weekend's race at Richmond. The second-year Penske Team driver won the season-opener at St. Petersburg, FL in April.

Tony Kanaan won at Richmond one year ago. Kanaan led the final 95 laps and finished nearly five seconds ahead of Helio Castroneves for his first victory of the season. He has not won since Richmond last year.

Kanaan's season has not gone as well as expected. The 2004 series champion crashed in the Indianapolis 500 and suffered mechanical problems at Milwaukee last month. He also wrecked at Iowa. Kanaan is now seventh in points (-76).

Franchitti dominated Richmond two years ago. He led a record-setting 242 laps, including the final 179, for the win.

Twenty teams are on the preliminary entry list for the SunTrust Indy Challenge.