No Guarantees Heading to Eliminator Round Finale at Phoenix
It’s officially crunch time. Just six points separate the fourth and eighth-place drivers in the 2014 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship standings. At the conclusion of this Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race For Heroes 500, four will advance to the winner-take-all race at Homestead Nov. 16.
Ten points separate the top three drivers (Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman) from the rest of the Chase contenders. However, all eight remaining Chase-eligible drivers lack a victory in the Eliminator Round, meaning nothing, at this point, is a guarantee. Obviously a win by any of these drivers this Sunday is the only way to secure a spot in NASCAR’s “final four”.
If you think the action on (and off the racetrack) has been intense over the last few weeks, you won’t want to miss Sunday’s race at Phoenix International Raceway. I’m not endorsing or predicting anything like what we saw post-race at Charlotte or Texas. But these guys race for a living. And so it’s highly understandable when emotions boil over.
However, any type of retaliation by any of the contending drivers carries notable risk. Which is why I expect we will see a hard-nosed, but clean race. And at the end of the day, four drivers will head to Homestead with a chance at a Series title.
