Who’s Hot and Cold at the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup

Once the Chase for the Sprint Cup starts, only two tracks remain on the schedule that teams haven’t competed at yet – Chicagoland Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Homestead closes out the postseason while Chicagoland has kicked off the Chase since 2011.

At Chicagoland, one of five 1.5-mile tracks in the Chase, qualifying has had little bearing on who finishes the day in victory lane.

Fifteen race have been held at Chicagoland since 2001. Only once has a winner started in the top five (Kyle Busch, 2008). That year, qualifying was canceled. Just five Chicagoland winners have come from the top 10 and there’s only been one (Matt Kenseth, 10th in 2013) in the last five races.

In 2015, Denny Hamlin won from 29th. Brad Keselowski‘s two wins, in 2014 and 2012, came from 25th and 13th. Qualifying has been canceled the last two years.

Of the 16 drivers in the Chase, six have won at Chicagoland and two have won twice (Kevin Harvick and Keselowski). Tony Stewart is the all-time leader with three wins.

Here’s a look at who is hot and cold going into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400.

Who’s Hot

Denny Hamlin: Won at Richmond, third win of season (second in the last five races). Eighth straight top-10 finishes, the longest streak of his career. Won this race last year after leading just nine laps. Only two top fives in 10 Chicago starts.

Kevin Harvick: Finished fifth at Richmond, fourth consecutive top-five finish (matches longest streak of top-five finishes by a driver this season). Finished top 10 in 12 of the last 14 races. Has  21 top-10 finishes in 2016, most by three. Only three finishes in 2016 worst than 15th. Two-time Chicago winner (2001-2002). Top fives in two of the last three races at Chicago.

Brad Keselowski: Finished fourth at Richmond, finished in the top 10 in 13 of the last 17 races, including three wins. Top 10s in the last five races at Chicago, including two wins (2012 and 2014). Finished top 10 in 18 of the last 19 races on 1.5-mile tracks, including wins in two of the last five.

Kyle Larson: Finished second at Richmond, top-three three finishes in the last three races (longest streak of career), including a win at Michigan. Finished top six in five of the last seven races. Two starts at Chicago, finished third and seventh.

Who’s Cold

Matt Kenseth: Finished 38th, DNF accident while running in top five at Richmond last week. Has only five top-10 finishes in last 12 races. Two wins this season, Dover and New Hampshire (two of the three races in round one). Top-10 finishes including a win in three races at Chicago with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Carl Edwards: Finished in top 10 in only seven of the last 17 races after having eight top 10s and two wins in the first nine races of 2016. Five poles this season, most of 2016 and his most ever in a season. Last top-five finish was second at Kentucky in the lower downforce package for 2017. Best finish at Chicago in 11 starts is second, twice, including last year.

Tony Stewart: Finished 21st or worse in the last four races. Five top-five finishes this season, only had three total in the previous two seasons combined. Three-time Chicago winner with top-10 finishes in 10 of his 14 starts. Finished 18th and 25th in the last two Chicago races.

Kurt Busch: Finished eighth at Richmond, only third top-10 finish in the last 10 races; finished top 10 in 14 of the first 16 races of 2016. Top-10 finishes in the last three races at Chicago, including his best finish of third last year.

Other notes of interesting entering Sunday’s races

The driver leading the most laps won only one of the last six races at Chicagoland (Matt Kenseth in 2013).
Chicagoland is one of three active tracks that Roush Fenway Racing has not won at (Indianapolis and Kentucky are the other two).
Four drivers have won the six races on 1.5-mile tracks in 2016: Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski have two wins
each; Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr have one win each.
Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick are the only drivers that have finished in the top 10 in all six races at 1.5-mile tracks in 2016.
Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher are only Chase drivers without a top-10 finish at a 1.5-mile track this season.

Richard Petty Motorsports changes crew chiefs on Aric Almirola’s No. 43 Ford

After missing the Sprint Cup playoffs, Aric Almirola will have a new crew chief for the final 10 races of the season.

Richard Petty Motorsports replaced Trent Owens with Drew Blickensderfer to lead the team for Almirola’s No. 43 Ford. RPM will reassign Owens within the company.

“We are continuing to analyze every part of our organizations and make adjustments where needed,” RPM CEO Brian Moffitt said in a release. “We’ve made significant investments in both teams, and the results for the No. 43 team have not been what we expected. By making this change now, we hope that Drew (Blickensderfer) can begin momentum to improving on-track performance and get the team in a good place for the 2017 season. Trent Owens has been a valued member of our organization and will continue to play a significant role with Richard Petty Motorsports.”

Owens was in his third season as Almirola’s crew chief, guiding the team to the 2014 playoffs with a July victory at Daytona International Speedway.

Blickensderfer, who had served as RPM’s director of R&D, has three victories as a Sprint Cup crew chief, including the 2009 Daytona 500 with Matt Kenseth. He most recently was the crew chief for Sam Hornish Jr. in 10 races last year. Between the Xfinity and Sprint Cup series, Blickensderfer has worked with 13 drivers  and tallied 15 wins, 16 top fives and 104 top 10s.

NASCAR Heat Evolution PC Challenger Mode Matt DiBenedetto 3

NASCAR Heat Evolution PC Challenger Mode Matt DiBenedetto

2016 Fall Richmond Scanner Sounds

NASCAR's best in-car audio from Richmond. (September 2016)

Nascar Heat Evolution - All Drivers And Paint Schemes

All paint schemes in the base game as well as all paint schemes included in the pit pass 1 dlc.

Road Block: Pit road speeding could keep Chase drivers from advancing

In a playoff format where a bad finish can keep a driver from advancing and cost them a championship, NASCAR’s increased enforcement of pit road speeding could play a significant role in the Chase.

NASCAR has enforced the additional timing lines on pit road in the past seven races — since the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in late July. Speeding penalties are up 86 percent compared to the seven races before the change was made.

Drivers can recover from speeding penalties — provided they happen early enough in a race. Chris Buescher won the shortened Pocono race after he was penalized for speeding. A speeding penalty late, though, can cost a driver several spots and that could be the difference in advancing to the next round of the Chase.

With the playoffs beginning this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, here’s a look at drivers who have had the most speeding penalties on pit road this year.

Speeding penalties for all drivers with five or more infractions in 2016

(CHASE DRIVERS IN ALL CAPS)

8 – Denny Hamlin

7 – Kyle Larson

7 – Ryan Newman

6 – Austin Dillon

6 – Regan Smith

6 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

5 – Chase Elliott

5 – Jimmie Johnson

5 – Greg Biffle

5 – Michael McDowell

5 – Paul Menard

Speeding Penalties for all Chase Drivers this season

8 – Denny Hamlin

7 – Kyle Larson

6 – Austin Dillon

5 – Chase Elliott

5 – Jimmie Johnson

4 – Brad Keselowski

4 – Jamie McMurray

4 – Martin Truex Jr.

3 – Carl Edwards

3 – Kevin Harvick

3 – Tony Stewart

2 – Chris Buescher

2 – Kyle Busch

1 – Kurt Busch

1 – Matt Kenseth

1 – Joey Logano

Speeding Penalties in Last 7 races by Chase Drivers

(Since additional timing lines added on pit road)

3 – Jimmie Johnson

2 – Chase Elliott

2 – Denny Hamlin

2 – Jamie McMurray

2 – Martin Truex Jr.

1 – Chris Buescher

1 – Austin Dillon

1 – Kevin Harvick

1 – Brad Keselowski

1- Kyle Larson

1 – Joey Logano

1 – Tony Stewart

0 – Kurt Busch

0 – Kyle Busch

0 – Carl Edwards

0 – Matt Kenseth

The struggle was real — virtually — for Joey Logano in new video game

The struggle was real in a virtual way for Joey Logano, which was exactly what the Sprint Cup veteran was seeking.

In a recent night of playing NASCAR Heat Evolution, the video game released today, Logano couldn’t win as much as he tried at Martinsville Speedway in the game’s career mode.

Logano had a limited budget to optimize the parts on his car to go faster, and the game adapted to his ability, limiting him to a best of 10th at the 0.526-mile oval.

“I had a hell of a time,” Logano said with a laugh. “You had to make money to buy stuff to make the car better, and I didn’t have any money, so my car wasn’t very good. It was hard, and things like that are kind of fun to play.”

It was much different from the racing games Logano played (then in the guise of Jeff Gordon’s No. 24) as a whiz kid many years ago.

“I would stop for a lap and try to get them all ahead,” he said. “You don’t have to do that to make it a challenge.”

The key to making NASCAR Heat Evolution challenging without completely curtailing success is its adaptive AI feature, which allows the game to react to a player’s performance and customize the experience.

“As you get better at the game, it realizes that, and it adjusts automatically the strength of the competition, so that’s pretty cool,” Logano said. “Because you don’t want to finish 40th every time, but you also don’t want to win every time, too.”

Players also will have the option to customize setups and modify their cars with upgrades.

Logano is an investor in the game along with teammate Brad Keselowski, and they provided input on the development with a goal of balancing realism with rewarding entertainment value.

“It’s a fine line because you want the game to be fun, but you also want it to be challenging,” Logano said. “If you make it drive too much like a race car, not many people are going to be able to do it. You want it to be enjoyable but not so complicated that you have to be setting up your car and play it all the time to win. You want it to be challenging enough that people come back and get better, but you don’t want people to have to live it to be decent at it.”

The game, which is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, also will have an online playing feature that will permit a full field of 40 players remotely racing each other. Players can host private races or join existing events and control various factors such as laps, fuel, tire wear and number of entrants.

“I look at a video game like it’s the only way our fans are able to understand a little of what we feel because you can’t just go to your local sporting goods store and buy a race car like a baseball bat,” he said. “So the only way you can kind of get a feel for it is through video games. That’s still very different from what we do, but it’s kind of the closest thing to it.

“You can’t go drive your car down the highway at 150, or at least you’re not supposed to, so this is the best way to let fans try to experience what we feel.”