Tremendous point swings marked last week’s chapter of the 2010 Top-35 battle as the twists and turns of Watkins Glen stirred up the standings. While Marcos Ambrose earned a season-best third-place finish and 90 points of cushion, Scott Speed plummeted 46 points down into bubble danger with the first last-place finish in his young Cup …
Last week at Pocono, Sam Hornish Jr. was all smiles when his fourth consecutive top 11 at the tricky triangle capped a five-race, 157-point climb up the standings for his No. 77. The run moved them past Marcos Ambrose, who suffered his third engine failure of 2010, and Elliott Sadler, who was left catching his breath after a horrifying late-race crash, while putting the top 25 in points within reach.
We’re heading full steam toward the Dog Days of Summer, but there’s several NASCAR Sprint Cup regulars barking up the wrong tree. As the race for the Chase turns sharply into focus, there are just 17 drivers left with a realistic shot at the playoffs. That leaves a number of superstars, from Juan Pablo Montoya …
Last week, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was mean to the bubble drivers, preventing all but one – 24th-place Travis Kvapil – from finishing any higher than 30th. A first-lap crash crunched the fenders of Elliott Sadler and Sam Hornish Jr., a shredded tire ended Robby Gordon’s day and mechanical troubles wreaked havoc on both Kevin Conway and Regan Smith.
Two weeks ago, the stage for the Brickyard’s bubble battle was set on an Illinois night where all 10 drivers ranked 28th through 37th failed to finish on the lead lap. The race began with TRG Motorsports’ No. 71 parking, bringing an early end to Landon Cassill’s second Cup start. It ended with a violent …
Last week, bubble drivers continued to make headlines among the humps and bumps of Daytona’s war-weary pavement. Elliott Sadler’s No. 19 and Sam Hornish Jr.’s No. 77 combined to lead 25 laps, only to wreck each other out of top-5 finishes. “The Big One” reared its ugly head, deflating the cushions of Regan Smith and …
Last week at New Hampshire, all three cars from the Front Row Motorsports stable left the track on the brink of Top-35 oblivion. Two days after Travis Kvapil’s No. 38 was sent home early with the team’s first DNQ of 2010, teammates Kevin Conway and David Gilliland could only muster 30-something finishes, dropping the Nos. …
Last week’s race at Infineon brought the bubble battle into greater focus. Although he came up short of his first Cup win, Marcos Ambrose’s No. 47 finished a season-best sixth and gained 24 points of cushion on his rival. Four cars in front of Ambrose, Robby Gordon’s No. 7 managed to one-up the Tasmanian: a …
A 150-point penalty for Travis Kvapil topped the Bubble headlines last week, knocking the No. 38 team out of the Top 35 and putting Robby Gordon’s No. 7 back in for the first time since Dover. Gordon played defense at Michigan and successfully guaranteed himself a starting spot at Sonoma, a strategy that worked to …
It was “All for One and One for All” for Front Row Motorsports after Charlotte as the combined efforts of FRM’s David Gilliland and Travis Kvapil, now in the struggling Nos. 37 and 38, shoved Robby Gordon’s battered No. 7 back out of the Top 35 for the first time since Texas in April. That …
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