Dickies 500 - The Chase Notes Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup – Week 8 at Texas Motor Speedway THE RACE: Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (Fort Worth, Texas)
WHEN: Sunday, November 4
TV: ABC
RADIO: MRN, Sirius Satellite Radio
DRIVERS QUALIFIED FOR THE CHASE: Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer.
DEFENDING SERIES CHAMPION: Jimmie Johnson
DEFENDING DICKIES 500 CHAMPION: Tony Stewart
CHASE FACTS: The last 10 races of the 36-race NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series season
12 drivers in the Chase field.
The top 12 drivers in the standings after the season’s 26th race (at Richmond on Sept.
qualified for the Chase. Those 12 had their point totals reset at 5,000; they then got 10 bonus points for each race victory prior to the Chase. The bonus points created the Chase “seedings.”
Jimmie Johnson started the Chase as the top seed with 5,060 points, via his six pre-Chase wins. Clint Bowyer, winless starting the Chase, was the 12th and final seed.
SOME STORYLINES: Three races remain in the 2007 Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup – with four-time champion Jeff Gordon leading his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson by merely nine points. Johnson won Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway to slice 44 points off Gordon’s lead.
Upstart Clint Bowyer – he started the Chase in the 12th and final position – continues to hang tough. He comes into Texas 111 points behind Gordon, in third place in the Chase standings.
Jeff Burton, Bowyer’s teammate at Richard Childress Racing, is eighth in the Chase standings and has to feel good about his chances of advancing; he won this season’s spring race at Texas.
Tony Stewart is the defending champion of the Dickies 500. His run at a third series title has diminished; he comes to Texas 322 points behind Gordon, a very-distant fifth in the Chase.
THE CHASE SCHEDULE (track sizes in parentheses)
Sept. 16—New Hampshire (1.058 miles); Sept. 23—Dover (1 mile); Sept. 30—Kansas (1.5 miles); Oct. 7—Talladega (2.66 miles); Oct. 13—Charlotte (1.5 miles); Oct. 21—Martinsville (.526 mile); Oct. 28—Atlanta (1.54 miles);
Nov. 4—Texas (1.5 miles); Nov. 11—Phoenix (1 mile); Nov. 18—Homestead (1.5 miles).
