Image details: LifeLock.com 400 Practice served by picapp.com

There’s only 6 races to go before we make it to Richmond, and then, after that 7th race is over, we’ll know once and for all who’s in and who’s out of the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship. Historically speaking - since they first turned to the Chase format a few years ago - those who were in at this point in the season have typically stayed in, and those who were out have typically stayed out ….. but, this season could be one that breaks all the rules. While I think it’s safe to assume that Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon - the top-six in points - are all in, I can’t speak of spots 7 through 12 with the same level of certainty. Only 133 points separates 7th place Greg Biffle from 15th place David Ragan, and only 245 points separates 12th place Denny Hamlin to 18th place Kurt Busch.

That means that there’s six teams currently sitting outside of the Chase that I still believe it’s too early to count out of it, and that gives you 12 teams vying for those final 6 spots. That, of course, is the inspiration for this week’s “List of the Week”. Here’s who I say makes in 7th through 12th by the end of Richmond:

(*Note - I’m not going to move anyone out of the top-six any higher than sixth heading into the Chase, though I think they will be)

7th - Matt Kenseth
8th - Tony Stewart
9th - Greg Biffle
10th - Kevin Harvick
11th - Brian Vickers
12th - Clint Bowyer

This puts both Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin out of the top-12 where both currently sit, and also shuts the door on David Ragan, Ryan Newman, Martin Truex Jr, and Kurt Busch.

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It took 15 races with Hendrick Motorsports, and 76 races since Richmond in 2006, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. has finally once again reached Victory Lane - silencing his critics and giving Junior Nation something to cheer about. Earnhardt led five times on the day, last taking the lead from Jamie McMurray on lap 195. With the majority of the field making green flag stops for fuel in the last 20 laps of the race, Earnhardt fans watched nervously as the no. 88 team decided to stretch their fuel. Originally guesstimating themselves to be 2 laps short of the pit window, they were hoping that Dale had saved enough fuel during the last run to make the tank last … and then the caution flag waived on lap 197 when Sam Hornish Jr. spun through the infield, sending the race into overtime for a green-white-checkered finish.

Lining up for the restart for the 2-lap shootout, Earnhardt led the field to the green flag followed by Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin (both of whom were also gambling on fuel mileage), and then Brian Vickers and Matt Kenseth. Junior was able to get a monster restart, putting some distance between he and the no. 9 car of Kasey Kahne. Mark Martin ran out of fuel on the first lap of the restart, making Earnhardt fans even that much more nervous. Then, on the final lap, contact between some cars a little deeper in the field sent Michael Waltrip and Patrick Carpentier spinning. The caution came out, and just like that, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had finally snapped his winless streak. He coasted to the finish, and then ran out of fuel heading down pit road.

The win is very symbolic for Earnhardt Jr, being that it came on Father’s Day. As car owner, Rick Hendrick, joined him in Winner’s Circle to celebrate the win, and the two hugged, Dale took the time to wish a Happy Father’s Day to everyone. This is now the 8th Father’s Day since the passing of Junior’s father, the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Last week’s race winner, Kasey Kahne, went onto finish 2nd as he was hooked up on the same fuel strategy as Earnhardt Jr. Matt Kenseth was perhaps the most dominant car in the second half of the race, but was forced to settle for 3rd. Brian Vickers started the race in 18th, but moved up inside the top-five by lap 15, and then took the lead for the first time on lap 34. The strategies, however, did not work in his favor, and he finished fourth, giving the team their second consecutive top-five finish. Tony Stewart had a very quiet day and led only 1 lap during the race, but he grabbed a much needed 5th place finish.

Jimmie Johnson led the most laps on the day, but a bad pit stop on lap 182 forced him into a 6th place finish. 7th place went to Carl Edwards who run up in the top-five for almost the entire day. David Ragan ran outside of the top-ten for most of the day, but as things shuffled out in the end, he found himself in 8th and just 10 points out of the Chase field. Elliott Sadler had a quiet and solid day. After starting in 27th, he went onto finish in 9th, giving the no. 19 team only their third top-ten finish of the season. And, Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-ten after looking as though he could finish 1st or 2nd until the lap 197 caution forced him to pit for fuel.

Points leader, Kyle Busch, got lost in the shuffle of things. After starting the race from the pole position and running near the front in the final segment of the race, he found himself in 13th when the checkers waived in the air. It was still enough to add to his points lead, however, as Jeff Burton finished in 15th. The run was a disappointing one for Burton, who started the race in 2nd, but it did keep his streak alive as he is still the only driver in the series to finish every race running inside the top-15. Busch now leads Burton in the standings by 32 points, while 3rd place, Dale Earnhardt Jr, has closed the gap between he and the leader to just 84 points.

Late race mishaps cost the cars of AJ Allmendinger, Greg Biffle, and Sam Hornish Jr. some very valuable track position. After climbing into the top-ten, Allmendinger overshot his pit entrance during the last round of stops and wound up finishing 19th. For Biffle, it was another costly penalty late in the race. After running inside the top-ten all day long, Biffle made his final stop with just 15 laps to go. Greg received the command to go as soon as the jack dropped, so he did just that, but he ran over the air hose, and NASCAR penalized him with a drive thru penalty. He finished 20th. Sam Hornish Jr. led the first laps in his Cup career and was running inside the top-ten until he spun on lap 197 to bring out the sixth caution of the day, resulting in a 22nd place finish.

Earnhardt Jr’s victory gives Hendrick Motorsports only their second victory of the season - both of which were won on fuel mileage (the other being Johnson’s win at Phoenix). As previously mentioned, it also snaps a 75 race winless streak for Earnhardt and gives him his first points victory since making the move to HMS at the beginning of this year.

Michigan Grades:
the Race: 85%
the Drama: 99%
Coverage: 85%
Pre-Race: 84%

Overall Grade: 87.7%

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

Sprint Cup Series Standings (from nascar.com):

NASCAR’s Worst Tracks:
5. Pocono Raceway
4. New Hampshire International Raceway
3. Auto Club Speedway
2. Michigan International Speedway
1. Texas Motor Speedway

NASCAR’s Best Tracks:
5. Richmond International Raceway
4. Daytona International Speedway
3. Lowe’s Motor Speedway
2. Chicagoland Speedway
1. Bristol Motor Speedway

Image details: The Dan Lowry 400 Practice served by picapp.com

Richard Childress Racing has announced that their brand new number 33 team - not scheduled to go full-time until the 2009 season - will be fielded in the running of the Coca Cola 600 two weeks from now at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and that NASCAR veteran driver, Ken Schrader, will attempt to qualify the car for the event.

Schrader was left without a full-time ride when, earlier in the season, BAM Racing announced that they would be taking a sabattical from the sport until the Fall due to sponsorship woes. Since then, Schrader ran the no. 70 Chevrolet for Haas CNC Racing to a 42nd place finish at Talladega, and failed to qualify the no. 40 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing two weeks ago at Richmond.

Schrader has run in four races this year, with a season-best finish of 21st back in March at Las Vegas and currently sits 47th in points. In his 44 career starts at Lowe’s, he has accumulated a win, 6 top-five’s, and 13 top-ten finishes. The most recent top-ten finish in Schrader’s career was a 7th place finish in the Fall of 2006 at Richmond.

One has to wonder if: a) There could be a potential matchup between Schrader and RCR for Childress’ fourth team in 2009, and b) Schrader can piece together some decent runs with solid equipment beneath him.

The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season officially got underway with the drop of the green flag Saturday night for the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. Finally, after months of talking about whether or not Dale Earnhardt Jr would find success driving for Hendrick Motorsports. All the debate about if the Toyotas would be able to compete with the competition after adding Joe Gibbs Racing to the mix. And, all the doubts about the Car of Tomorrow being able to handle the monster speedway that is Daytona. Many question marks still linger, no doubt about it, but Saturday night’s Shootout gave us a small glimpse of what we might be able to expect in the highly anticipated 2008 NASCAR season, and the excitement level has raised to a whole new level as we gear up for the 50th running of the Daytona 500.

After an absolutely catastrophic weekend of practice heading into the Budweiser Shootout, the race itself actually had somewhat of a calm atmosphere to it. I spent the entire race just waiting to see if Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch would continue their Daytona feud and get into each other. I waited to see some of the guys that had to turn to backup cars completely lose the handling of their race cars. And, I waited to see if one of the Shootout virgins would make a bold move to get out front and cause a pileup behind him in the process. None of that happened. In fact, the only accident that occurred during the race as a result of actual contact between cars was when Jamie McMurray got into Denny Hamlin with 46 laps left on the ticker. Everything else that happened was the result of cut tires by Bill Elliot and David Gilliland.

So, now that you know what we didn’t see, here’s what did happen. The Toyotas of Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, and Dave Blaney looked very strong throughout the race, and even Michael Waltrip’s car early on. In fact, the only cars that ever looked like they may be faster than the trio of Camri’s were the cars belonging to Rick Hendrick, who had all four of his teams in the race. With 38 laps to go, the restrictor plate duo of Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr finally hooked up and took control of the race. Earnhardt had actually been up at the front of the pack since he led his first lap in a Hendrick car back on lap 6, but Stewart had to work his way up all the way from the back where started the race as a result of Friday’s incident with Kurt Busch, and it took him quite some time to work his way to the front of the field. Meanwhile, Junior’s new teammates – Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson – had lagged toward the back of the field all night long. After being collected up in the big accident that took place during the practice runs, both drivers had to turn to backup cars to run in the Shootout. The problem was that their backup cars were actually cars that were used to run at Darlington and Richmond in 2007. After making significant changes to the car at the end of the first race session and during the first caution in the second session, though, the numbers 24 and 48 quickly started moving toward the front.

With 32 laps left - just six laps after Stewart and Junior initially hooked up – Gordon and Johnson caught up to the two race leaders and Junior pulled away from Stewart to run with his new teammates. Dave Blaney and Reed Sorenson fell in line behind Stewart, and we spent the next several laps watching Smoke try and lead a charge to pass the Hendrick dynasty, which he finally did.

After a late-race caution, the green flag dropped once more and it was a shootout to the end with only a few laps remaining. Junior and Stewart ran neck and neck with Johnson pushing the 88 car and Gordon pushing the 20. When Gordon pulled to the middle of the track and started to drop back in the field, Junior appeared to have the advantage over Stewart, who was now being pushed by Denny Hamlin … and, it stayed that way as Junior brought home the checkered flag – leading a record 47 of the 70 laps - and Stewart came home in second. Though there were no points involved and it won’t go down as an “official” race win for Earnhardt, he gave Junior Nation plenty to rejoice about and plenty to hope for in 2008.

Race Results (from nascar.com):