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Junior, other big names not out of hunt
By Chris Jenkins, USA TODAY
Although the introduction of a playoff-style championship format has shortened the potential recovery time for teams that have been stuck in neutral for the first four races, there's still plenty of time for Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte and Kasey Kahne to climb back into the top 10.
After four races, all four big-name drivers are outside the top 20 in the Nextel Cup standings. And while 22 races remain before the cutoff point that determines eligibility for the sport's 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup postseason, being mired so low in the standings is still an uneasy feeling.
"I'd say it's a pretty big deal," says J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, the team that fields cars for Labonte. "You definitely don't want to be there. Is it insurmountable? No. ... But it's not going to be easy."
In 2002, Gibbs' other driver, Tony Stewart, finished last in the Daytona 500 but managed to outrun every other driver over the next 35 races to win the championship. In a sense, the new system, introduced last season, is harder on poor starts. If a driver isn't in the top 10 or within 400 points of the leader after 26 races, he won't be eligible to win the title.
But if any of the struggling drivers do recover to become Chase-eligible, it will be easier for them to win the championship than it was for Stewart. Under the new format, NASCAR officials dramatically tighten the points differential between the eligible teams before the final 10 races, making it easier for a 10th-place driver to win.
"It's much easier to get to that top 10 than it would be to overtake the leader," Gibbs says.
Idling in the middle
How many points four big-name drivers are behind leader Jimmie Johnson:
Driver Place Behind
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26th - 315
Kasey Kahne 28th - 331
Matt Kenseth 31st - 341
Bobby Labonte 37th - 430
Heading into Sunday's race in Bristol, Tenn., Earnhardt — often labeled the "new face of NASCAR" — is 26th in the standings, followed by Kahne, last year's top rookie, in 28th; Kenseth, the 2003 series champion, in 31st; and Labonte, the 2000 series champion, in 37th.
Points leader Jimmie Johnson hasn't discounted any of them as potential competitors for the title.
"I don't think they can have this bad luck last much longer," Johnson says. "But I think (they'll) be fine. It's a long season. Everybody is going to have trouble."
If any of those drivers are still languishing after 15 or 20 races, however, Johnson says concern will set in.
Earnhardt finished third in the Daytona 500. But at California, an unexplained series of flat tires relegated him to 32nd. He crashed and finished 42nd at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, then finished 24th at Atlanta Motor Speedway after two pit-road speeding penalties.
The Dale Earnhardt Inc. team had a major shake-up in the offseason, naming a new crew chief for Earnhardt and swapping cars and crewmembers between Earnhardt's No. 8 team and Michael Waltrip's No. 15 team. So far, Earnhardt has resisted the temptation to blame the swap for his slow start; publicly, he blames himself.
After the Atlanta race, he said, "We had a car that could've finished a lot better than it did, and that's my fault."
Kenseth, meanwhile, had an eighth-place finish at Las Vegas but finished 26th or worse in the other three races, including an engine failure at Daytona and a first-lap crash at Atlanta. His Roush Racing teammates occupy four of the top five spots in the standings.
"I don't know how much to elaborate on it, but it's been bad so far," Kenseth said after Atlanta. "A lot of things have been out of our control. We obviously have the equipment to get it done at Roush by what everybody else is doing."
Labonte and Kahne have failed to finish in a combined five races. Kahne was in accidents at California and Las Vegas but finished fifth at Atlanta to regain momentum.
Labonte was in accidents at Atlanta and Las Vegas and broke an engine at Daytona. Gibbs says it's easier for a team that is running well but runs into bad luck, to recover from a disappointing start.
But given that Labonte completed only 29 of a possible combined 470 laps of racing at Daytona and Las Vegas, Gibbs says, "We haven't even run — that's the problem."
Find this article at:
www.usatoday.com/sports/m...hase_x.htm
By Chris Jenkins, USA TODAY
Although the introduction of a playoff-style championship format has shortened the potential recovery time for teams that have been stuck in neutral for the first four races, there's still plenty of time for Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte and Kasey Kahne to climb back into the top 10.
After four races, all four big-name drivers are outside the top 20 in the Nextel Cup standings. And while 22 races remain before the cutoff point that determines eligibility for the sport's 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup postseason, being mired so low in the standings is still an uneasy feeling.
"I'd say it's a pretty big deal," says J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, the team that fields cars for Labonte. "You definitely don't want to be there. Is it insurmountable? No. ... But it's not going to be easy."
In 2002, Gibbs' other driver, Tony Stewart, finished last in the Daytona 500 but managed to outrun every other driver over the next 35 races to win the championship. In a sense, the new system, introduced last season, is harder on poor starts. If a driver isn't in the top 10 or within 400 points of the leader after 26 races, he won't be eligible to win the title.
But if any of the struggling drivers do recover to become Chase-eligible, it will be easier for them to win the championship than it was for Stewart. Under the new format, NASCAR officials dramatically tighten the points differential between the eligible teams before the final 10 races, making it easier for a 10th-place driver to win.
"It's much easier to get to that top 10 than it would be to overtake the leader," Gibbs says.
Idling in the middle
How many points four big-name drivers are behind leader Jimmie Johnson:
Driver Place Behind
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26th - 315
Kasey Kahne 28th - 331
Matt Kenseth 31st - 341
Bobby Labonte 37th - 430
Heading into Sunday's race in Bristol, Tenn., Earnhardt — often labeled the "new face of NASCAR" — is 26th in the standings, followed by Kahne, last year's top rookie, in 28th; Kenseth, the 2003 series champion, in 31st; and Labonte, the 2000 series champion, in 37th.
Points leader Jimmie Johnson hasn't discounted any of them as potential competitors for the title.
"I don't think they can have this bad luck last much longer," Johnson says. "But I think (they'll) be fine. It's a long season. Everybody is going to have trouble."
If any of those drivers are still languishing after 15 or 20 races, however, Johnson says concern will set in.
Earnhardt finished third in the Daytona 500. But at California, an unexplained series of flat tires relegated him to 32nd. He crashed and finished 42nd at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, then finished 24th at Atlanta Motor Speedway after two pit-road speeding penalties.
The Dale Earnhardt Inc. team had a major shake-up in the offseason, naming a new crew chief for Earnhardt and swapping cars and crewmembers between Earnhardt's No. 8 team and Michael Waltrip's No. 15 team. So far, Earnhardt has resisted the temptation to blame the swap for his slow start; publicly, he blames himself.
After the Atlanta race, he said, "We had a car that could've finished a lot better than it did, and that's my fault."
Kenseth, meanwhile, had an eighth-place finish at Las Vegas but finished 26th or worse in the other three races, including an engine failure at Daytona and a first-lap crash at Atlanta. His Roush Racing teammates occupy four of the top five spots in the standings.
"I don't know how much to elaborate on it, but it's been bad so far," Kenseth said after Atlanta. "A lot of things have been out of our control. We obviously have the equipment to get it done at Roush by what everybody else is doing."
Labonte and Kahne have failed to finish in a combined five races. Kahne was in accidents at California and Las Vegas but finished fifth at Atlanta to regain momentum.
Labonte was in accidents at Atlanta and Las Vegas and broke an engine at Daytona. Gibbs says it's easier for a team that is running well but runs into bad luck, to recover from a disappointing start.
But given that Labonte completed only 29 of a possible combined 470 laps of racing at Daytona and Las Vegas, Gibbs says, "We haven't even run — that's the problem."
Find this article at:
www.usatoday.com/sports/m...hase_x.htm