After eight races, three of the top five drivers in the series standings are winless – #24-Jeff Gordon, #20-Matt Kenseth and #48-Jimmie Johnson. Those three drivers have won 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships (and 185 wins) collectively.
Two drivers with race victories aren’t even in the top 16 in points, starting with #4-Kevin Harvick who is ‘mired’ – talk about another outdated term due to the new format – in 22nd. Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate #41-Kurt Busch is 26th but he has a Martinsville victory and a likely Chase berth.
#88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Daytona 500, has three runner-up finishes plus one third. He has been running near the front seemingly all season – with the exception of Texas, when he ran into the grass early in the race.
#14-Tony Stewart, coming back from being sidelined for much of last year by injury, is winless but has four top-10 finishes in the last five races, including an incredibly strong Texas run where he was the Coors Light Pole Award winner.
Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 GoDaddy Chevy, was never a factor at the Daytona 500 but had her second-best finish of the year thus far at Bristol’s half-mile.
Team Penske has both of its drivers in the victory column, with #2-Brad Keselowski winning at Las Vegas and #22-Joey Logano at Texas. That’s two wins on 1.5-mile tracks. There are five 1.5-mile tracks in the Chase lineup.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule resumes Saturday night April 26 at three-quarters mile Richmond International Raceway.(NASCAR)(4-21-2014)
