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Edwards, Stewart Showdown As Chase Visits Texas

With three races left in the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, it is looking like the title fight will come down to Carl Edwards vs Tony Stewart.

Martinsville served as the biggest wild-card race of the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup as drivers positions in the “if the race ended now” point standings swapped frantically as each lap was run. After running around twentieth place, Edwards climbed through the standings in the final hundred laps to pitting thinking he had a tire going down. Stewart’s charge culminated with passing Jimmie Johnson on the outside groove during the final restart of the race to take the checkers for his third win in the Chase.

Even with those three wins, Stewart finds himself eight points behind the Chase’s most consistent driver Edwards whose worst Chase finish has been an 11th place in the Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Qualifying has been a boon for Edwards as well only starting one race out of the top ten during the Chase.

Martinsville was extremely cruel to Brad Keselowski who was running in eighth with two laps remaining in the race. Keselowski got caught up in a chain reaction of drivers trying for track position and was left spinning in turn two. Without the caution flag flying, Keselowski recovered to finish in the seventeenth position. Instead of picking up at least a point on the series leader, Keselowski is now twenty-seven points behind.

Matt Kenseth also saw his championship hopes diminish after a war with Brian Vickers and cutting a tire during contact with Kevin Harvick while exiting the pits. Kenseth finished 31st in the TUMS Fast Relief 500 at the Martinsville Speedway dropping to thirty-six points behind Edwards.

Kevin Harvick finished fourth at Martsville and picked up five points on Edwards, he remains twenty-one points out of the top spot with three races to go.

Heading into the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway the top five drivers in the standings have had varied recent success at the 1.5 mile D shaped oval. Edwards finished third in the spring race with finishes of 19th and 33rd in 2010. Stewart has finishes of 12th, 11th and 32nd in the last three Texas events. Harvick (20th, 6th and 7th), Keselowski (18th, 33rd, 14th) and most recent winner Kenseth (1st, 2nd, 20th) show that there isn’t a clear cut choice as to who will be in the lead pack at the end of Sunday’s race.

Coach Or Fighting Words.
Heading into the Chase portion of the season, there was a question whether Tony Stewart would be one of the twelve drivers competing for the championship. Following the race at Michigan Stewart made the statement, “It really doesn’t matter whether we make the Chase or not. We’re wasting one of those top twelve spots right now.” Then, following wins in the first two Chase races, Stewart commented that, “We got eight long weeks still, man, it’s way too early to be counting chickens right now.” Now, following his win at Martinsville, Stewart has decided that it is go time, ” We’re hungry for this. I feel like our mindset into these next three weeks, we’ve been nice all year to a lot of guys, given guys a lot of breaks. We’re cashing tickets in these next three weeks.”

It could be mind games or a pep talk. Whether Stewart is addressing his team or his competitors, he is putting his message out there and so far it has been working. Stewart is either being a cagey intimidator or the head coach of his team. I’m guessing it is a little of both after learning a few things along the way from both Joe Gibbs and the late Dale Earnhardt.

Good News.
Congratulations to Stewart-Haas Racing for bringing a new sponsor into the sport. Quicken Loans, Inc. will serve as the primary sponsor for Ryan Newman’s #39 Chevrolet for nine races in 2012 as well as an associate sponsor during the rest of the season. The online retail mortgage lender will also be seen on Tony Stewart’s #14 Chevrolet as an associate sponsor throughout the 2012 season.

Bad News.
The current economy and companies not wanting to spend money will be hitting NASCAR the hardest in 2012. By my count, there are currently twenty-five solid teams that will be running in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2012 season. Good drivers such as David Ragan, Brian Vickers (I know he had a rough run at Martinsville) and David Reutimann are now without rides for next season. Another commonality for those drivers is that they are all Sprint Cup Series race winners. There will be approximately ten spots available for part time teams and start and park drivers to fill up just the top 35 guaranteed race starting positions for each weekend on the series schedule. There is a possibility that forty percent of each race field will be filled with part time teams.

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