One driver can clinch a spot in the Chase this Sunday. No guessing allowed

  One championship contender – Jimmie Johnson – can clinch a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup on Sunday at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.

    The five-time Cup champion is the only driver holding a clinch scenario this weekend. Johnson has to leave The Glen with a 193-point lead over the 11th place driver. Currently, he holds a 178-point lead over 11th, which is occupied by Tony Stewart.

   Stewart will miss Sunday’s race after breaking a leg in a sprint car race on Monday night, and will be replaced by Max Papis in his No. 14 Chevrolet on Sunday. Reigning Cup champion Brad Keselowski is 12th, 180 points behind Johnson. Johnson is the only competitor to have qualified for the Chase field in all nine seasons.

   A win at The Glen will guarantee Johnson at least a wild card entry. 

Is Tony Stewart's injury the 'straw that broke the camel's back'?

   Former NASCAR Cup champion and Speed TV analyst Darrell Waltrip was asked Tuesday whether Tony Stewart’s injury will cause more NASCAR Sprint Cup owners to prohibit their drivers from competing outside their fulltime rides.

   Here is Waltrip's response:

   “When an injury happens to a driver of Tony’s magnitude -- one of the sport’s most visible superstars -- such as when Dale Earnhardt’s death spawned safety innovations, everyone takes a closer look.  We already were questioning the wisdom of racing in other series, especially sprint cars.  But I think Tony’s injury probably is the straw that broke the camel’s back," he said. 

   "Some owners and drivers now might decide it’s too risky and curtail this.  When Tony has time to evaluate everything, he might come up with some safety innovations that could make sprint-car racing safer.  Anytime something like this happens to someone like Tony, everyone will benefit down the road.”

Tony Stewart's 2013 NASCAR season could be cut short with leg injury

   Tony Stewart’s 2013 NASCAR season may be cut short after the three-time champion suffered a broken leg following a serious accident Monday night in a Sprint car race in Iowa.

   Stewart sustained a broken right tibia and fibula in a violent wreck Monday night at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa, team officials confirmed.

   Stewart was transported by ambulance to a local hospital then airlifted to another facility in Des Moines, where he underwent surgery early Tuesday morning.

   The wreck is Stewart’s third in a Sprint car in as many weeks.

   According to a team release, Stewart’s planned test Tuesday at Atlanta Motor Speedway has been canceled.

   Stewart will also miss Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International but a replacement driver has not been immediately named.

   Additional information is expected Tuesday afternoon, the statement said.

   Compound lower leg fractures with cast immobilization typically require 12 to 16 weeks of healing time. A period of rehabilitation is generally required as well.

   There are 15 races left in the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season. After his ninth place finish in Sunday’s race at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Stewart was 11th in the series standings.

   There are five races remaining before the 12-driver Chase for the Cup field is set. As of now, Stewart would have qualified for one of the two wild card spots.

   Once Stewart sits out a race, he’ll lose likely any chance at making the Chase this season.

   Just this past weekend, Stewart offered a vigorous defense of his frequent visits to dirt tracks across the country in addition to his NASCAR obligations.

   Stewart barrel-rolled his car several times last week in wreck in a Sprint car race in Ontario, Canada.

   “You guys need to watch more sprint car videos and stuff. It was not a big deal,” Stewart said at Pocono. “It's starting to get annoying this week about that, so that was just an average sprint car wreck. When they wreck they get upside down like that. That was not a big deal.”

What Kyle Petty said Sunday that Denny Hamlin didn't like

   What Speed TV analyst Kyle Petty said about NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin before Sunday's race
                                               
   Kyle Petty:

   “I think Denny’s a good race car driver -- really solid race car driver -- and he’s been banged up numerous times this year. We go to California. We can go to a lot of race tracks --Dover -- that hit he took up there. Honest to gosh, though, he didn’t have a shot at making the Chase, though. I’m sorry. He just didn’t. He was so far out. You can’t compete with teams like Jimmie Johnson and those guys and sit out five or six weeks. I think since that time now, he’s started to talk a lot. He’s talked about being the face of Joe Gibbs Racing. I think he’s got a little bit of the ‘BK (Brad Keselowski) syndrome’ in him right now. He’s not relevant to the sport right now as far as the Chase and what’s going on in the Chase and winning the championship. He can win the next four or five races, but it’s not going to change the championship this year, and it’s not going to change the Chase. It is what it is and he needs to focus on next year, get his body back together and come back and have a shot at winning next year.”

Yes, Brad Keselowski's team is focused on the No. 48. There's a reason, too

   Former Cup series champion Dale Jarrett recently said on ESPN that he thought reigning champion Brad Keselowski and his team might be focused too much this season on Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 team, which could be distracting them.

 

   Keselowski's crew chief, Paul Wolfe, was asked about the issue on Saturday and basically agreed but with an important caveat.

 

   Here was his response:

 

   "Whether or not that is a problem, I don’t know. I think the reason you look at them is because, let’s face it, over the last five or six years they have been the team to beat. So when you are trying to reach a goal, you need to pay attention to what is going on around you. We definitely have focused on them," Wolfe said.

 

   "Now obviously, we were able to beat them fair and square in the Chase last year so that definitely gives us confidence and I think that is why we’ve set the bar higher for ourselves and we know that is the team we need to beat to be able to win another championship. I think that is where some of that focus was but as I said, now we are at a point where we need to get the best we can out of what we have to work with right now and that is what we are going to do for the next six weeks.”

Crew member dies at Southern National Motorsports Park near Raleigh

   Mike Sabiston, a crew member of New Day Motorsports, died Friday, Aug. 2, after falling from the lift gate of his team's hauler in the infield at Southern National Motorsports Park near Kenly, N.C., about 40 miles southeast of Raleigh.

   According to speedway officials, the remainder of the day's activities at the track were canceled after the incident. Saturday night's Pro All Stars Series South race remains on schedule.

   "We at Southern National Motorsports Park are saddened to report a member of our racing family was in a tragic accident while working with his team unloading their car. The owners, staff and all racing teams at Southern National would like to send our prayers and deepest sympathy to his family," said a statement posted on the track's Web site.

   New Day Motorsports, which fields a car for driver Brandon Ward, withdrew from the event.

   "Mike was a longtime friend and supporter of New Day Motorsports and was an integral part of our racing family. He was certainly loved by us all and deeply appreciated," said a statement released by the team.

   Ross Kenseth, son of NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Matt Kenseth, and Harrison Burton, son of Cup driver Jeff Burton, are among the drivers scheduled to compete in Saturday night's race at Southern National.

   The team's statement said funeral arrangements were incomplete.

  

What Jeff Burton means when he says, "Some drivers aren't race fans"

   Friday morning, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jeff Burton was asked about the different perspectives in what makes good racing - from the driver's seat and from fans watching on TV - and how they don't always mesh.

 

   Burton was asked if there was any way fans can appreciate what the driver's perspective and vice versa. Burton's answer may surprise you.

 

   “Not completely. Some drivers aren’t race fans. They race because it’s about them which is fine, there’s nothing wrong with that. We have other drivers that are big race fans. If a driver is a race fan, I think he can understand what the race fans are thinking and what they are saying but not in the extent that you pay however much money as you pay to sit in your seat and you watch a raced that wasn’t satisfying to you. The driver, no matter what the quality of the race is for the fan, his effort and his dedication it might be racing for 15^th but he’s doing is best all day to find a way to go to 14th," Burton said.

 

   "I go up in the (race control) tower a few times a year, go up on the spotters stand or whatever and watch a race. Man, it’s a different perspective. It looks like everybody is just riding around. I’ll be honest, I’ve driven these things for a long time, there’s times I’m up there thinking, 'Man, just drive it in the corner', but it’s just not that easy. It’s hard for both sides to see the other side, but I think drivers understand the fans want to see exciting racing. I think the fans know that the drivers want to be involved in exciting racing. It’s way more fun to run side by side and be in the middle of a real tight battle than it is to be nose to tail trying to find your way around one guy. It just is, so we want to be part of that, too."