Chase Elliott could make history at Phoenix

Nationwide Series driver Chase Elliott could clinch the series title on Saturday after the race at Phoenix. This would make him the youngest NASCAR top series champion, at just under 19 years. Elliott is ahead of JR Motorsports driver Regan Smith by 48 points, and he is hoping to have a good race on Saturday. The son of former Cup champion Bill Elliott has had a great rookie season in the Nationwide series, considering just over a year ago he was a full-time K&N Pro Series East driver and had yet to make his first Camping World Truck Series start. But Elliott has shown that he is a fast learner in NASCAR's number two series by being one of the series' top drivers in 2014.

"Harvicking" gives NASCAR another Twitter moment

The aftermath of Sunday's big fight after the Cup race at Texas has led to the rise of a Twitter trend known as "Harvicking". This is defined as "the act of pushing someone from behind." It is named after Kevin Harvick, who pushed Brad Keselowski as Jeff Gordon was walking up to Keselowski's car to confront him. For this reason, many fans have credited Harvick with triggering the fight between Keselowski and Gordon, and this is how #Harvicking quickly became a trending hashtag on Twitter. Many NASCAR fans and figures, including most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., posted their own versions of Harvicking in tweets on Monday. Interestingly, it was Keselowski who helped make Twitter a prime social media outlet for NASCAR during the 2012 Daytona 500, when he posted a photo from his car of the fiery aftermath of Juan Pablo Montoya's crash into a jet dryer, a tweet that earned him thousands of followers in a few hours.


Some people believe that NASCAR is trying to make fighting seem like a good thing, and they are trying to use this as another thing to get their ratings up and create yet another side-story for the already dramatic Chase for the Sprint Cup. These people are upset because they think NASCAR should focus more on racing and less on what they see as manufactured drama. Nevertheless, Harvicking has already been immortalized on some websites that explicitly state "the 2014 AAA Texas 500" as its origin, and it has created another fine social media moment for NASCAR on Twitter.

Chase standings after 8 races

Here are the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings after Texas, the eighth of 10 races.

1. 22-Joey Logano - 4,072 points, 5 wins (2 in Chase)
2. 11-Denny Hamlin - 4,072 points, 1 win
3. 31-Ryan Newman - 4,070 points
4. 24-Jeff Gordon - 4,060 points, 4 wins (1 in Chase)
5. 20-Matt Kenseth - 4,059 points
6. 99-Carl Edwards - 4,059 points, 2 wins
7. 2-Brad Keselowski - 4,055 points, 6 wins (2 in Chase)
8. 4-Kevin Harvick - 4,054 points, 3 wins (1 in Chase)

Once again, the standings have changed a lot in the last week. Kenseth, Edwards, Keselowski and Harvick, the latter two being top contenders last week, are currently facing elimination at Phoenix.

Penalties given to Hendrick crews

NASCAR has penalized crew members of the #24 team of Jeff Gordon and the #5 team of Kasey Kahne at Hendrick Motorsports following Sunday's fight after the race at Texas, that involved Gordon, Brad Keselowski and to a lesser extent Kevin Harvick. Keselowski, the driver of the #2 Ford at Team Penske, and his crew did not receive any penalties probably because Gordon was considered to be the instigator in the fight.


Gordon's crew chief Alan Gustafson and Kahne's crew chief Kenny Francis have each been fined $50,000 and put on probation for the next six Sprint Cup points races. This means that in addition to Phoenix and Homestead in the final two weeks of this season, their probations will carry over to 2015 and continue at Daytona, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix in February and March. Also, Kahne crew member Jeremy Fuller and Gordon crew members Dwayne Doucette and Jason Ingle have been fined $25,000 and suspended through the Phoenix race in March, while another Gordon crew member, Dean Mozingo, has been fined $10,000 and suspended until after the Daytona 500 in February.


Gordon was previously in a fight with Jeff Burton in the 2010 fall race at Texas, and in a bigger fight with Clint Bowyer in the fall Phoenix race in 2012, both following crashes. This is why many people will be thinking of the Gordon-Bowyer incident at Phoenix next week, and expecting a crazy race in general since along with the aftermath of the Gordon-Keselowski fight, four drivers will be eliminated and the last four will make one last run for the championship at Homestead the following week.

Gordon has history of bad luck at Texas

Jeff Gordon's fight with Brad Keselowski following Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Texas, brought on by his spin after Keselowski's faster car got into him late in the race, was another in a series of misfortunes he has endured at the 1.5-mile track. While Gordon did win the spring race there in 2009 - his only win between Charlotte in October of 2007 and Phoenix in February of 2011 - other races at the Fort Worth speedway have not been kind to the four-time series champion.

Gordon crashed in the first four Cup races at Texas. In 1997, Gordon was caught up in a crash after starting on the outside front row and finished 30th. In 1998 he was in a big wreck on the first lap and finished 31st. In 1999 he crashed yet again and finished dead last, and in 2000 he finished 14 laps down. After that, Gordon had good races at Texas for the next few years. In 2005 a second race weekend was given to Texas in the fall. In 2010, Gordon was caught up in a big wreck in the spring race, and in the fall race he wrecked with Jeff Burton under caution and then got in a fight with him on the track. Burton, who got his first series win in the inaugural race in 1997 and won at the track again in 2007, reminded fans about Gordon's short temper at Texas on Twitter a few minutes before the scuffle on Sunday. Finally, in the spring race this year Gordon led on a green-white-checkered restart, but dominant driver Joey Logano took the lead back from Gordon and won.

So it's fitting that Gordon's latest moment of bad luck and anger came at Texas, where he's had many forgettable races in the past. This one is definitely one to remember, since it had a big effect on the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings. But now he and the other seven Chase drivers can look forward to Phoenix for one last shot to get into the Championship round.

Johnson pulls another Chase spoiler; Gordon, Keselowski fight

Jimmie Johnson snapped an 18-race winless streak by going to victory lane at Texas on Sunday, race 8 of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. Johnson was eliminated from the Chase at Talladega two weeks ago despite leading the most laps in that race. This means there is still no one locked into the four Championship round spots. This was Johnson's third straight win in the fall Texas race, and he did it with a special red car honoring the red-vested employees of Lowe's stores.

The big story after the race was a fight between contenders Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski on pit road in front of Paul Menard's stall, with Kevin Harvick also apparently getting in the mix. Gordon briefly led before a late caution that set up a green-white-checkered finish, and on the restart Keselowski made contact with Gordon's car. Gordon then spun to prompt a second attempt at a green-white checkered, and wound up 29th while Keselowski finished third. Gordon dropped from first to fourth in the standings, and called Keselowski a "dipshit" on live television following the brawl. The current points leader is Keselowski's teammate Joey Logano, who spun during the race but made up some ground. Just like after Charlotte, which also saw drivers go after Keselowski, Chase drivers who weren't thought to have a chance are now being looked at as possible upsets after this race.

Other current and eliminated Chase drivers like Ryan Newman, polesitter Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch and last week's winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. spent most of the day in the top ten, but were not talked about during much of the race as Johnson had the dominant car. Next week the series makes one last trip out west to Phoenix, in a much-anticipated race that will determine the final four Chase drivers for the finale at Homestead.

Jimmie Johnson gets a red car, Truck points shuffled at Texas

The Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck series at Texas this weekend have some big stories. On the Cup side, Jimmie Johnson's #48 Chevrolet, instead of the familiar blue, is red. This is in honor of the red vests that employees at Lowe's stores wear, and Johnson and his crew are thanking them for their sponsorship since his series debut in October of 2001. The Johnson-Lowe's partnership is still going strong despite a decline in performance this year for the six-time and defending champion, who was eliminated from the Chase at Talladega two weeks ago.

Friday night's Truck race at Texas also made some waves. The race saw the #51 and #54 truck of Kyle Busch Motorsports, driven by Busch himself and championship contender Darrell Wallace Jr. respectively, consistently out front, but Wallace, last week's winner at Martinsville, blew his engine late in the race. There was oil from Wallace's truck on the track that caused a red flag. Defending series champion Matt Crafton and his teammate Jeb Burton also ran in the top ten during most of the race. On a late restart, German Quiroga got the lead, and Busch fought his way back to second. Johnny Sauter, the other teammate of Crafton and Burton, then spun on the frontstretch to bring out the last caution. Going into turn 1 on the last restart Busch got by Quiroga, who was on old tires. After the white flag, Quiroga's teammate Timothy Peters bumped Quiroga, causing him to spin and giving Busch the win. Sauter was upset with Burton after the race, and his mood became sadder with the news of the death of his father Jim. Despite this, the drivers are still eager to keep racing during the rest of this weekend.