Looking to move from Challengers to Contenders

LOUDON, N.H. – For the second consecutive week, Hendrick Motorsports had a driver in the top five of a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

This week, it was Jimmie Johnson in fifth, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. added a 10th-place finish.

Still, with one race remaining in the Challenger Round of the Chase, none of the four drivers are officially in to the Contender Round.

"I wonder that the last race in each round may be quite eventful," Earnhardt said following Sunday's race.

Currently, Johnson is in fourth in the standings, followed by Earnhardt in sixth, Jeff Gordon in seventh and Kasey Kahne in 11th.

The top 12 advance, and the last race in the round – Dover International Speedway – happens to be one of Hendrick Motorsports’ best.

The track has provided 16 wins for the organization, its fourth-highest total, trailing only Martinsville (21), Charlotte (18) and Pocono (17). Martinsville and Charlotte are tracks that remain in the Chase schedule, as well.

Johnson has won at Dover nine times -- the most of any driver all-time at the track -- including earlier this season. In fact, he called it “my favorite race track and probably my best track on the circuit.”

Gordon is next among active drivers with four wins at the track, and Earnhardt won there in 2001 and currently has a streak of three consecutive top-10 finishes at Dover.

Though Kahne has yet to earn a win at the Delaware track, he has earned a top-five finish and five top-10s.

In the new Chase format, wins aren’t a necessity to advance – though all four drivers wouldn’t mind a trip to Victory Lane.

“What’s different now is that you’ve just got to make it through to the next round, right?” Gordon said. “Somebody could win all three of these first races and as long as you go through the next round, it’s looking at different tracks that, as you get closer and closer to Homestead, that’s where you’ve got to perform.

“And then if you make it to Homestead, it doesn’t matter if somebody won the first nine races in the Chase. If you beat them in that final one, you win the championship. But you’ve got to be there and it’s not going to be easy to be there.”

The first step is advancing from the Challenger Round to the Contender Round, and next week provides the final chance to do that.

“If you come out of the first two races of any block with trouble, it makes it very easy to look at the third race,” Johnson said. “You’ve got to be aggressive on strategy, especially if you’re out of the points. You’ve got to do something different. So, that element will start next week and we’ll see how it’s played and who is in that position.”