Upsets and Circumstances Shuffle the Points in NASCAR and the NHRA!
By: Drew Hierwarter
The fight for the season title is on in two of the country’s major national race sanctioning bodies; NASCAR and the NHRA. In NASCAR it’s called the Chase for the Sprint Cup, while the NHRA calls theirs “The Countdown to One”.
The principle is the same in both; establish a cut-off after which only a set number of teams are eligible to run for the championship. The points for that group, (twelve teams in NASCAR, and ten teams in each of the three pro categories for the NHRA) are then reset so that, in effect, they are the only ones with a chance to win.
Both series had their respective opening rounds over the weekend. NASCAR was on the one mile oval in
As typically happens in the first race of the championship rounds, a lot of teams make big moves in the points. While Mark Martin’s win at Loudon kept his point lead intact, a few others were not so fortunate. Tony Stewart, who was the point leader through most of the first 26 races, and started the “Chase” in second, fell to 6th after his 14th place finish in the race caused by a lengthy 45 second pit stop to repair a rear axle problem.
Jeff Gordon’s 15th place finish in the race cost him four spots in the “Chase” points dropping him to tenth. But Kasey Kahne had the biggest fall as he finished the day last in “Chase” points down seven spots from where he was when “The Chase” started.
Things were just as tough in the NHRA points as four of the ten “Countdown” teams in both Top Fuel and Funny Car brackets lost in their respective first round match ups. In Funny Car, two more “Countdown” contenders, Bob Tasca and Jack Beckman, lost in the second round, while one more Top Fuel contender, Larry Dixon, went down in his second round.
By winning the event, funny car driver Robert Hight went from tenth and last in the points to third. He is now just behind teammate Ashley Force-Hood who is only one point out of first place, still held by Tony Pedregon.
Cory McClenathan’s win in Top Fuel pushed him past Antron Brown who came into the weekend in first place. Brown is now tied for second with Tony Schumacher.
Of course, this was only the first weekend and there is still a lot of racing to go. NASCAR has nine more races to decide the championship and there will be more big swings in the points before they are done. The NHRA has five more events including the season ending Winternationals in
And the possibility of more upsets is always there, as we saw in the NHRA this weekend, as the rest of the competitors are still out there and would love nothing better than to take some wins away from the championship contenders.