This Week in Auto Racing October 2 - 4

This Week in Auto Racing October 2 - 4

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Round three in the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship moves through the heartland of America to Kansas Speedway. The Nationwide Series also will be at Kansas, while Formula One travels to the "Land of the Rising Sun" for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Sprint Cup Series

Price Chopper 400 - Kansas Speedway - Kansas City, KS

After winning the first Chase race at New Hampshire and finishing second at Dover, Mark Martin holds a slim 10-point lead over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, as the Sprint Cup Series heads to Kansas.

Martin started the Chase in the top seed by virtue of his four victories during the regular season. He padded his lead to 35 points after New Hampshire, but Johnson reduced the deficit after he won at Dover.

With eight races remaining in the season, 189 points separate Martin from 12th-place Kasey Kahne.

"I still say that there's 12 in it, and 12 can win," Martin said. "It might be a challenge for a couple of the teams that are toward the back right now, but you just don't have any concept, I guess, of how much racing eight races is. It's a lot of racing. A lot of things can happen."

Martin began his first season with Hendrick this year with perhaps his biggest aspiration of winning a Sprint Cup Series championship. The 50-year-old driver has yet to win a series title, but has finished runner-up four times, most recently to champion Tony Stewart in 2002. He has one victory at Kansas, which came in 2005 when he drove for Roush Fenway Racing.

Johnson is the defending race winner at Kansas. Johnson held off Carl Edwards in a thrilling last-lap battle in last year's 400-mile race there.

"I think Carl and I showed last year that you can run all around the race track and put on a good show, and I think we'll put on a good show when we go back," Johnson said.

Edwards dove underneath Johnson to take the lead on the final lap, but Edwards then ran wide up the track and made slight contact with the wall, allowing Johnson to make the winning move.

"Last year was such an amazing race," Edwards said. "I thought we were going to get it. It was so close."

Edwards led the series with nine victories in 2008, but has yet to win so far this year. The Columbia, MO native is hoping his winless streak will come to an end this weekend at his home track.

"If I can win at Kansas, that would be the biggest win on the schedule for me," said Edwards, who is currently 11th in points (-153).

Edwards won a Truck Series race at Kansas in 2004.

Juan Pablo Montoya continues to be a strong championship contender. Montoya, in his first Chase, finished third at New Hampshire and fourth at Dover. He trails Martin by 65 points. The Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing driver has finished 20th and 28th in his first two races at Kansas.

Kurt Busch, the inaugural Chase champion in 2004, moved up one spot to fourth in points (-75) after finishing fifth at Dover. If Busch intends to stay close in the points battle, he'll need to improve his track record at Kansas, where he has posted only one top-10 finish in the last seven races there.

Tony Stewart ended the regular season as the points leader. But finishes of ninth and 14th in the last two races have put Stewart 106 points behind. He won at Kansas in 2006, but has finished 39th and 40th in the last two races there.

Jeff Gordon, currently eighth in points (-122), is the only driver with multiple victories at Kansas. Gordon won the inaugural race there in 2001, the same year he captured his fourth series title. He won at Kansas again the following year.

"We haven't had the best start especially compared to our [Hendrick] teammates," Gordon said. "But this last week in Dover was certainly a good performance. We didn't get the finish we were hoping for, but I feel in Kansas, we are very capable of getting that win that we need to really move ourselves up to where we need to be to battle for this championship."

Gordon has one victory so far this season, which came in April at Texas, a track equal in size to Kansas (1.5 miles).

Forty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Price Chopper 400.

Nationwide Series

Kansas Lottery 300 - Kansas Speedway - Kansas City, KS

Clint Bowyer comes home to Kansas after winning last Saturday's Dover 200. Bowyer, the 2008 Nationwide Series champion, picked up his second victory in just nine starts this season. He also won in July at Daytona.

Growing up in nearby Emporia, KS, Bowyer looks forward to his annual trip home.

"That's your hometown, and everybody wants a little piece of you whether it be family, friends or sponsors that have helped me through the years," Bowyer said. "It's a fun and exciting weekend. It's a long weekend, too. When the weekend is over, I'm worn out, but I've always had a good time."

Bowyer, running a limited Nationwide schedule for Richard Childress Racing in 2009, has yet to win at Kansas, but has finished second, fourth and fifth in his last three races there.

Two drivers have won a NASCAR national touring race at their home tracks so far this year, with Brad Keselowski taking the checkered flag for the Nationwide event at Michigan and Denny Hamlin driving into Victory Lane for the Sprint Cup race at Richmond.

Bowyer has never recorded consecutive wins in Nationwide competition.

Kyle Busch enters Kansas with a 211-point lead over Carl Edwards. Busch had the dominant car for the first half of the 200-lap race at Dover, but Bowyer came on strong shortly after the midway point and took over from there. Bowyer held off Mike Bliss and Brad Keselowski in a seven-lap shootout to the finish.

Busch finished fourth, while Edwards came in fifth. Busch became the second driver in NASCAR's second-tier series to lead more than 2,000 laps for the year. Sam Ard led a total of 2,099 laps during his 28-race championship season in 1984.

Last year, Denny Hamlin became the eighth different winner in as many Nationwide races at Kansas. Hamlin is not competing in Saturday's 300-mile event.

Fifty-two teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Kansas Lottery 300, including three former Kansas winners -- Joe Nemechek (2004), Kevin Harvick (2006) and Busch (2007).

FORMULA ONE

Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka Circuit - Suzuka City, Japan

The Japanese Grand Prix returns to Suzuka Circuit this year after Fuji Speedway hosted the Formula One event in 2007 and '08.

With three races remaining this season, Jenson Button holds a 15-point lead over his Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello. Button finished fifth, while Barrichello came in sixth in last Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel kept his slim title hopes alive with a fourth-place run at Singapore. Vettel was in contention to win early in the race, but was slapped with a pass-through penalty for speeding off of pit road. The Red Bull Racing driver is now 25 points behind Button.

Mark Webber was eliminated from the title hunt after finishing 17th. Webber's brakes failed in his Red Bull car, causing him to spin and slam into the wall midway through the event.

Lewis Hamilton put on a dominating performance at Singapore. Hamilton, the 2008 F1 world champion, started on the pole and relinquished the lead only once when he pitted for the second time during the 61-lap race. The Briton recorded his second victory of the season.

Hamilton won the Japanese GP at Fuji during his sensational rookie season with McLaren in 2007, but finished a disappointing 12th after starting on the pole in last year's event. He collided with Ferrari's Felipe Massa on the second lap. Hamilton will run at Suzuka for the first time this weekend.

"It feels like I've been waiting my whole life to race at Suzuka," Hamilton said. "As you can imagine, I'll be really excited when practice starts there on Friday morning. Ever since I was a kid, I've raced Suzuka on computer games, and while it kind of gives you an idea of how the circuit goes, nothing can beat the real thing."

Fernando Alonso won last year's Japanese GP. Alonso also won the race in 2006, the same year he won his second straight F1 championship.

"I'm really excited to be returning to this amazing track, which is one of my favorites," Alonso said. "I have some great memories from Suzuka, as I won the race there in 2006, which was a very important result for the championship."

According to several reports, Ferrari is expected to announce later this week in Japan that Alonso has signed a five-year contract with the Italian team. Alonso will replace Kimi Raikkonen in 2010, with Raikkonen reportedly moving over to McLaren to team with Hamilton.

Alonso is under contract with Renault until 2010 but has the option of leaving the French team after this year. Raikkonen's contract with Ferrari also expires next year.