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How to qualify for the Chase

Sporting News, The, Feb 25, 2005 by Lee Spencer

It doesn't take Karl Rove to devise a strategy for winning the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.

Every fan knows that after the first 26 races, a driver has to be in the top 10 in points or within 400 points of the leader to qualify for the Chase. But how do teams position themselves so they're in the mix after race No. 26 at Richmond?

Many teams are breaking the season into three segments: first 13 races, second 13 races and the Chase. However, if a team doesn't make the Chase, the final 10 races are futile.

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How futile? Does anyone other than the No. 16 crew remember that Greg Biffle won the season finale? To ensure Biffle isn't an afterthought this year once the series rolls into Homestead, crew chief Doug Richert says the key is "improving the team's consistency over the first part of the season." He has made sure his equipment is ready and has replaced the rear tire changer, gasman and catch can man on the pit crew. Like most teams in the garage, Biffle has tested at Daytona, Las Vegas and California to get a jump-start on the season.

"Looking at the upcoming tracks, I think we need to get into it and see where our weaknesses are going to be before we commit to a testing schedule," Richert says. "We already know at short, flat tracks we haven't been a dominant leading car."

Come May, it will be easy to smell the desperation in the garage from those teams that are clearly off the pace. Mark Martin, who finished last in the Daytona 500, was 15th in points last year after the first 12 races, and no one behind him in points was able to climb into the Chase. Those teams planned to save tests will not have that option. It will be imperative to improve both equipment and the driver's performance.

Defending champ Kurt Busch isn't being flippant when he says his team knows what to expect along the way.

"We definitely had a superior group of 10 races vs. the other competitors," Busch says. "One thing I think we can do better is to test maybe once or twice in the summer run just so that we don't go into the final Chase seventh in points.

"Otherwise, you just have to adjust for what each track gives you each day and get the best points finish you can. We definitely set the template or the outline of what it takes to win the new points format, but I think we can adjust on it to make it better."

Busch easily made the Chase, but having momentum going into the final 10 races would have made the end game easier. Teams that get off to a strong start early in the season will be able to rest personnel over the summer so the crews are fresh for the finish. That's the best strategy of all.

One legend takes on three

Two-time NASCAR champ Ned Jarrett raced against Ralph Earnhardt, did color commentary for CBS during Dale Earnhardt's incredible career and now enjoys observing Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the track and from home in Hickory, N.C. Here's how Jarrett described the three Earnhardt styles:

Ralph: "Ralph would knock you off the track. He did me a number of times. We were friends, good friends, but he would not hesitate for a moment to put that bumper to you. Ralph would wait until the last lap or two. He would follow you, and you would think you had him whipped tonight or today or whatever the case would be, but here would come that bumper on the white flag lap or the next-to-the-last lap and knock you out of the way to get by, and it would be too late for you to retaliate. Then he would come up to you afterward, put his arm around you and say, 'Buddy, I didn't mean to do that; my brakes gave way,' or something like that, and it would be hard to stay mad at him."

Dale Sr.: "I've said many times if ever there was a natural-born racer, it was Dale Earnhardt. We hear chip off the old block, and I thought that Dale was a true chip off the old block as far as his dad was concerned."

Dale Jr.: "Dale Jr. has some qualities of both, but I haven't seen him be as aggressive--certainly not as (much as) his dad and not even as aggressive as his grand-dad.

"He's smoother in his early years than Dale Sr. was in his early years. He has enough of the qualities, the killer instinct to want to go out there and win and beat everybody, but I also think he wants to do it in a fair way, and I personally appreciate that trait because he does have the talent, he does have the equipment to do it, and he doesn't have to do those things to win.

speed reads

One lesson learned from the shorter spoilers at the recent Las Vegas/California tests is that drivers will actually need to drive the racecars. A novel thought, right? The drivers who have a lot of USAC experience--Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne and Jason Leffler--will acclimate faster to the new feel. For the others, pray NASCAR changes the rules by mid-March.

With Dale Jarrett's three wins in the Daytona 500, betting on him to win a fourth is no risky gamble. Yates engines are as competitive as any in the garage.

How to qualify for the Chase

Sporting News, The, Feb 25, 2005 by Lee Spencer

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