Saturday's Sprint Cup Series race at Richmond will be the last before the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins. This year will mark a new format for the Chase. People are hoping for a competitive regular season finale, but also for the final Chase grid to be decided fairly, unlike the manipulation that took place late in the race last year to try to change the outcome.
Last year, Michael Waltrip Racing driver Clint Bowyer spun, apparently to try to get his teammate Martin Truex Jr. in the Chase. This set up a late-race restart which shook up some of the Chase spots. NASCAR soon realized what had happened, and replaced Truex with Newman as part of the team's penalties, then added Jeff Gordon to the lineup during the next race weekend at Chicagoland. The situation upset Truex's sponsor NAPA Auto Parts, who pulled their sponsorship from the #56 Toyota, reducing Michael Waltrip's team from three full-time cars to two when the season ended.
Truex now drives the #78 Chevrolet of Furniture Row Racing, and he appears to have rebounded from last year's incident. Waltrip, Bowyer and the team's crew members have probably learned from it as well, and will try to play by the rules on Saturday evening, especially since Bowyer and his teammate Brian Vickers have been all but eliminated from the Chase. Hopefully, the all-new Chase will be decided fairly the first time around.
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