Moving on: The 12 drivers advancing to next round of the Chase
With Kevin Harvick’s dominating victory in Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway, the Challenger Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has officially been completed.
Sunday at the Monster Mile, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray were eliminated from championship contention.
The big shocker was Johnson, a six-time Sprint Cup champion and 10-time Dover winner, who had a broken rear-axle seal in his normally bulletproof No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Johnson pitted on Lap 105 and was in the garage for 36 laps for repairs, which doomed his chances at advancing. He had come into the race fifth in points.
Twelve drivers will advance to the Contender Round of the Chase, which begins Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, They are: Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman.
All 12 drivers who advanced will start the Contender Round tied with 3,000 points. The Contender Round will consist of the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte, the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway and the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. After Talladega, four more drivers will be knocked out and the remaining eight drivers will advance to the Eliminator Round.
The three races in the Eliminator Round are the Goody’s 500 at Martinsville Speedway, the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway and the Quicken Loans 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. The top four drivers after Phoenix will race for the championship in the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Here are the updated points standings after Dover, after being officially reset for the next round of the Chase.
