DOVER, Del. — For a driver on the brink of championship elimination, Kevin Harvick might have the biggest target at Dover.
The mission is clear: Knock out Harvick, knock out a champion.
SPRINT CUP UP NEXT
WHAT: AAA 400
WHEN: 2:30 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Dover (Delaware) International Speedway
TELEVISION: NBCSN
Of note: The Chase for the Sprint Cup field is cut from 16 to 12 after Sunday’s race. Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth have already advanced with wins in the first two races.
“Everyone in this Chase knows they are the biggest threat for the championship,” four-time champ Jeff Gordon said. “If they get eliminated, then that takes the biggest threat out of it.
“Kevin and that team are going to be working hard, and all the other teams are going to be working hard to win this race and potentially eliminate one of the biggest threats.”
Harvick and his team have been doing a pretty good job of taking themselves out of the running in their title defense.
Time may have run out on the No. 4 Chevrolet.
The third race in NASCAR’s playoffs is a crucial one – the bottom four drivers out of the 16 in the field are cut and gone from the title picture.
Harvick is 15th and will have to win to advance and remain in championship contention.
Kyle Busch, Paul Menard, Harvick and Clint Bowyer are in the bottom four and most at risk of elimination.
“We’ve still got racing to do,” Bowyer said.
Just not Friday.
There was no action on the track because rain wiped out qualifying at Dover International Speedway.
Even when it rains, the sun shines on Joe Gibbs Racing.
With the field set on points, Matt Kenseth has the pole and is followed by teammates Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. Hamlin won the Chase opener at Chicagoland and Kenseth won last week at New Hampshire to earn automatic berths in the next round.
The rest of the Chase grid looks like this: Jimmie Johnson is fifth, followed by Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and Jeff Gordon. Jamie McMurray is 11th and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 12th.
Johnson won in May at Dover for the latest of his 10 career wins on the mile concrete track.
Harvick is 0 for 29 at Dover. He has two wins and a series-best 18 top-fives, but has busted out in the Chase. Harvick finished 42nd in the Chase opener and was 21st last week at New Hampshire. He was runner-up to Johnson in May in the first Dover race.
Harvick thrives on pressure, though, and took the checkered flag in must-win races last season at Phoenix and Homestead to take the championship.
CLINT BOWYER hopes his one-year pit stop at HScott Motorsports is more than just a footnote on his career.
He wants to build the foundation that will shape the fledgling organization into a championship contender.
“When I leave there, I want to be able to leave there having a winning organization,” he said.
Known these days as the driver who will replace Tony Stewart, Bowyer’s whirlwind season continued Friday with the expected announcement that he will drive for team owner Harry Scott in 2016. Then it’s on to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2017 to try and fill the shoes of three-time NASCAR champion Stewart.
ELLIOTT SADLER will drive for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series in 2016.
Sadler has 10 career wins in NASCAR’s second-tier series and three wins in Sprint Cup.
He’s winless in 27 races this season driving for owner Jack Roush. Sadler has been a regular in Xfinity since 2011.
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