Hello readers,Brad Keselowski took most of the drama out of Richmond, leading all but 17 of the 400 laps in route to an easy win. With the win, Keselowski picked up his series-high fourth win of the season and will enter the Chase as the top seed. This season the Chase will be different. After the first three races, the four lowest drivers will be eliminated from title contention. After another three races another four will be eliminated and so on and so forth until we have the final four drivers determined for Homestead-Miami. There, those four drivers will have one race to decide the championship and the highest finishing driver of those four will be the champion. If a Chase driver that hasn’t been eliminated from title contention wins a race, he will automatically advance to the next round.
This is the tenth season of the Chase so for the next ten weeks we will be taking a look back at one race from each track each year that helped play a pivotal role in deciding the champion that year. For Chicagoland, we will return to the Chase opener in 2012 that saw a surprise victor come out of nowhere to stake his claim that he would be a force to be reckoned with for the remainder of that Chase.
In 2012, Brad Keselowski made the Chase for the second time in his career. He made it in 2011 after scoring wins at Kansas, Pocono, and Bristol. Keselowski finished fifth in the final standings in 2011 and would return for more in 2012. In the 2012 Chase opener at Chicagoland, Keselowski started 13th but didn’t stay there for long. He spent a good portion of the day out front and his pit crew kept him there as they got him out front of Jimmie Johnson after a late-race green flag pit stop. Keselowski held Johnson off for the win and with it, Keselowski took over the points lead. Keselowski and Johnson would continue to go toe to toe down the stretch with Keselowski ultimately triumphing for his first title. That title run was all started with a win at Chicagoland. Will we see a repeat of that this year? Tune in on Sunday to find out.
Most Wins among Active Drivers: Tony Stewart (3).
Defending Winner: Matt Kenseth continued his hot streak by winning the 2013 Chase opener and picking up his sixth win of the season.
Prediction: This driver has had a breakout season this year, earning three wins this year. One of those wins came at another 1.5-mile track at Texas earlier this year. He’s driving for an organization that is favored to bring home the championship this year. I’m taking Joey Logano this week. It was hard to not go with his teammate Brad Keselowski, but I think Logano gets the job done this week and forces Keselowski to wait one more week before he can advance to the next round and join his teammate.
David Barr is a graduate of Daniel Boone High School and Mansfield University, where he received a degree in Communications.
