Looking ahead to round 2 of the Chase

The Contender round, the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, begins this coming weekend and there are now 12 drivers left in championship contention. The next three races should take the competition to the next level. It appears that Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports, who are responsible for half of the Contenders, are still the teams to watch. The three race winners during the Challenger round - Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Jeff Gordon - came from these teams. With two mile-and-a-half tracks featuring different styles of racing and a 2.5-mile restrictor plate superspeedway, the Contender round is sure to continue the unpredictability that has become the theme of this season.

Gordon wins Challenger round finale; first four Chasers eliminated

Jeff Gordon took the win in Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Dover, the third and final race of the Challenger round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, after a mid-race turn of events. He is one of 12 drivers to advance to the next round of the Chase, the Contender round. Gordon's three Hendrick Motorsports teammates - Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne - will be going along with him. This is Gordon's first win at Dover since June of 2001. It is also his fourth win of the season, the first time sine 2007 he has won that many races. All four of Gordon's wins this year have come at tracks at which he also won en route to his last championship in 2001.

The first half of the race was dominated by Kevin Harvick, who led the first 147 laps of the 400-lap, 400-mile race, and 223 laps overall. Around lap 255, Harvick's left front tire went down due to a broken splitter, bringing out the fifth and final caution of the day and dropping him down to 18th. A similar problem befell Harvick while leading late in the previous Cup race at Dover in June. Points leader Brad Keselowski took the lead, and got passed by Jeff Gordon on lap 305. Fellow Chasers Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards then each led one lap during the last round of green flag pit stops before Gordon cycled back to the lead.

A number of drivers were fighting to avoid elimination from the Chase. At one point, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and A.J. Allmendinger were all right on the cutoff line. In the end, it was Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch who were the first four drivers eliminated from the Chase and no longer have a shot at winning the championship. All but Biffle have won a race in the series this year. Kasey Kahne was the last driver to make it to the second round. His teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr., never contended for the race win, but was also never in danger of elimination, and now sits in eighth. Also in between during the race was last week's winner, Joey Logano.

The Contender round begins next Sunday in Kansas City, Kansas, then moves on to Concord, North Carolina, near Charlotte, for the only night race of the Chase, and concludes in Talladega, Alabama.

Proud to have Dover as my home track

I live in Maryland, and the closest major NASCAR track to my house is in Dover, Delaware, where the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series race this weekend. It's nicknamed "The Monster Mile" because it's one mile in length and the racing can be unpredictable, and sometimes dangerous. Dover also plays host to the first-ever elimination round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup on Sunday, and I like that my home track is home to a race of that level. I've driven past the Dover track many times on Delaware Route 1, but never actually attended a race there. Still, I feel proud that Dover is my home NASCAR track, the same way many NASCAR drivers like racing at "home".

Hornaday returns to Truck Series competition

Ron Hornaday Jr. will be back in the Camping World Truck Series lineup on Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Nevada, driving the #9 Chevrolet Silverado of NTS Motorsports that Brennan Newberry has driven for the past couple of weeks. Hornaday found himself out of a ride on August 27 after the #30 team of Turner-Scott Motorsports suddenly shut down. He is now looking forward to going back racing.

Hornaday is a Truck Series veteran and has competed in the series since its inaugural season in 1995. He has won more truck races than any other driver in series history. He has won four series championships, two driving for Dale Earnhardt in 1996 and 1998, and the other two in 2007 and 2009 with Kevin Harvick. Hornaday has has one full season in the Sprint Cup Series, in 2001 driving the #14 Pontiac Grand Prix owned by racing legend A.J. Foyt. Before that, he drove for Earnhardt in what was then known as the Busch Series.

Chase standings after two races

Here are the point standings after race 2 of the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup.

1. 2-Brad Keselowski - 2,097 points, 5 wins
2. 22-Joey Logano - 2,096 points, 4 wins
3. 4-Kevin Harvick - 2,090 points, 2 wins
4. 48-Jimmie Johnson - 2,080 points, 3 wins
5. 18-Kyle Busch - 2,077 points, 1 win
6. 88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 2,077 points, 3 wins
7. 24-Jeff Gordon - 2,070 points, 3 wins
8. 20-Matt Kenseth - 2,057 points
9. 99-Carl Edwards - 2,057 points, 2 wins
10. 47-A.J. Allmendinger - 2,056 points, 1 win
11. 5-Kasey Kahne - 2,055 points, 1 win
12. 31-Ryan Newman - 2,055 points
13. 11-Denny Hamlin - 2,049 points, 1 win
14. 16-Greg Biffle - 2,049 points
15. 41-Kurt Busch - 2,047 points, 1 win
16. 43-Aric Almirola - 2,045 points, 1 win

Hamlin, Biffle, Busch and Almirola are facing elimination heading into Sunday's race at Dover.

Tony Stewart cleared of charges

Tony Stewart will not be criminally charged in the August 9 sprint car crash in New York state that killed fellow competitor Kevin Ward Jr. The decision was made by a grand jury in New York on Wednesday based on insufficient evidence, which investigators repeatedly reviewed the incident to try to find. Stewart could still possibly face a civil suit from the Ward family, which is very likely since they believe Stewart could have done things differently to avoid hitting Ward.

Is 2014 Joey Logano's breakout year in the Cup series?

Joey Logano, the driver of Team Penske's #22 Ford Fusion, currently has four wins this year, the second-most among all Sprint Cup drivers, behind teammate Brad Keselowski. This is probably the first time Logano has been this consistently successful in NASCAR's top series since he went full-time in 2009.

After winning his first Nationwide Series race at Kentucky in his third series start in June of 2008, Logano replaced Tony Stewart in the #20 Toyota Cup car in 2009 after Stewart left the team one year earlier than planned. Logano won a rain-shortened race at New Hampshire in his rookie season, but after that his performance dipped and he went winless in 2010 and 2011. He returned to victory lane in a Cup car in 2012 at Pocono for his first win in a full race. Logano moved from Gibbs' team to Team Penske in 2013 and won at Michigan. His first two wins this year, at Texas and Richmond, made this his first season with multiple wins on the Cup level. Now he and his teammate are on top of the Chase standings and are the first two drivers locked into the second round. So has Logano finally proven himself in NASCAR's top series? It appears so, but the best may still be yet to come.