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Stewart Is Back After First Chase Race

All it took was the re-rack of points after the regular season and the first NASCAR Chase for the Championship to be run at Chicagoland Speedway. Tony Stewart is right in the hunt for another NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship trophy.

It was only a month ago when Stewart said, “It really doesn’t matter whether we make the Chase or not. We’re wasting one of those top twelve spots right now.”

Stewart’s statement may have been one of those made out of frustration after just getting out of the car or could have been a message to his team. Either way, Stewart finally picked up his first win of the season last weekend at Chicagoland and now finds himself second in the point standings, only seven points behind leader Kevin Harvick.

This week Stewart and the rest of the Cup drivers head to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Sylvania 300, a track that he and teammate Ryan Newman led over half the laps on their way to a one-two finish back in July. Newman took the win as he and Stewart were the class of the field from practice to the checkered flag.

Fuel mileage was the factor that shuffled up the Chase field in the final lap of the GEICO 400 at Chacagoland. While Stewart was able to save fuel and make it to the checkers with Harvick chasing him, front runners Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth ran out of fuel on the last lap along with other Chasers Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon. Those drivers finishes shook up the standings with Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon dropping eight spots, Kenseth dropping six and Stewart jumping up seven spots to second.

Chase drivers finish in the July 17th Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway:
1. Kevin Harvick (29) 21st
2. Tony Stewart (14) 2nd
3. Carl Edwards (99) 13th
4. Kurt Busch (22) 10th
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) 15th
6. Brad Keselowski (2) 35th
6. Ryan Newman (39) 1st
8. Jimmie Johnson (48) 5th
9. Kyle Busch (18) 36th (blown tire put Kyle behind the wall)
10. Matt Kenseth (17) 20th
11. Jeff Gordon (24) 11th
12. Denny Hamlin (11) 3rd

With nine races left in the Chase there still is a long way to go and the standings after Chicagoland will surely be different than the end of the season standings. One driver, Kurt Busch in 2004, went on to win the Championship after winning the opening race. Also, Johnson finished 25th in the first race of the Chase last year and we all know where he was at the end of the season, holding the trophy. Still, Harvick has the lead right now and team owner Richard Childress all but guaranteed a championship this year at the media tour prior to the season.

The problem with being at the bottom of the standings is that you have to be better than all your competitors. Most of the time you can check out the top ten at any point of a Chase race and it will be filled with Chase drivers. Another bad race for anyone low in the standings will pretty much signal the end of their Championship run.

On to New Hampshire for race number two where winners of the last four fall events include Clint Bowyer (twice), Mark Martin and Greg Biffle. Neither of those drivers are in the Chase this year.

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