The Chase Heads to Kansas This Weekend

The first two races of the Chase have been entered in the NASCAR annals as NASCAR heads to Kansas Speedway for this weekend’s competition. The drivers that are in front will be trying to put a little more distance between them and the racers behind them in the standings this weekend, while the drivers a little behind will be trying to draw a little closer to their dreams of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

The Chase heads to Kansas Speedway for the third round

The Price Chopper 400 is going to be a defining race that helps to determine who still has a chance to achieve their dreams and who is quickly becoming a could-have-been. After the Price Chopper 400 we could be seeing enough separation between some of the racers that we’ll be able to tell who still has a realistic chance of winning. This doesn’t mean that one racer couldn’t get hot and run the table on the other racers to win it all, but with every race we complete this becomes less and less of a possibility.

Kansas Speedway is going to be challenging for all the racers and their cars to win on. An intermediate oval that’s one of five currently used for the 10-race Chase, Kansas Speedway might be the track where the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season is for the most part determined.

Which drivers do we think will have good days at Kansas Speedway? Greg Biffle should have a good day, with one win and four top-five finishes during his last six visits to Kansas, this is a track he has enjoyed racing on. Jimmie Johnson is preparing to use Kansas as his launching pad for his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup Series championship. He has been on the pole for the last two races at Kansas and he knows how to use this track to position his car to make a run for the championship, having won here last year on his way to winning his third consecutive championship. Expect Mark Martin to throw his car into the ring, he’s as close as he has ever been to a Sprint Cup Series championship and you don’t always get a lot of chances to be in this position, so expect him to give his best. Jeff Gordon will certainly not give up despite being in a position that leaves him looking bad to win the championship. He does enter this weekend’s competition at Kansas Speedway on a two-race string of top-five finishes at Kansas and I expect him to finish in the top five once again.

“Image: Zuma Press”