MARTINSVILLE, Va. — NASCAR’s new championship format came with fan-friendly brackets that likely had fans advancing Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. deep into the playoffs.
Instead, both drivers were eliminated last week and the third round begins Sunday at Martinsville Speedway with a few surprises.
Among them? Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman, two drivers few predicted would still be eligible at this stage of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
Both capitalized on poor performances by Earnhardt and Johnson in the last round of the Chase to advance, and Newman really raised his game. He’s led at least one lap each of the last three races and had three top-10 finishes.
n Jamie McMurray pulled off another surprise with a pole-winning run in Friday qualifying.
McMurray is not one of the eight drivers qualified to race for the Sprint Cup title, and his qualifying record of 99.905 mph nudged six championship-eligible drivers in the final round of qualifying.
Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth, who are both in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field, qualified second and third.
Non-Chase driver Tony Stewart was fourth, followed by title contenders Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski.
It was a terrible qualifying session for Kevin Harvick, who appeared to twice slap the wall and failed to advance out of the first round. He’ll start 33rd on Sunday, worst of all the Chase drivers.
• Stewart-Haas Racing will swap the crew chiefs for Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick beginning next week, giving each driver three races to work with their new teams.
NASCAR has issued a ban on testing next season, so SHR believes it is giving its two teams a head-start on 2015.
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