by John Wiedemann
11/15/2010 After a week of talk about who is pitting for which team and where each of the teams are pitting in respect to the title contenders, it is only fitting that a decision in the pits has created the closest title fight in Chase history as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Fifteen points are all that separate point leader Denny Hamlin from second place Jimmie Johnson. Kevin Harvick still has a chance for the title, currently 46 points behind Hamlin. With fuel mileage strategy coming into play as the laps ticked off at Phoenix International Raceway, Hamlin’s crew chief, Mike Ford, made the call to bring his Toyota in with fourteen laps left in the race. Taking time off from figuring out how to play mind games and trash talk towards Johnson’s crew, Ford decided that Hamlin would not be able to make it to the end of the race with the fuel he had. Hamlin lost a lap during the stop to take on two right side tires and fuel. Unable to recover his race dominating form, Hamlin finished just outside of the top ten in 12th after leading 190 of the 312 laps. Johnson finished fifth, gaining 18 points on Hamlin. Harvick finished sixth to keep himself alive in the chase. Johnson’s team was the focus all week as they had switched to using Jeff Gordon’s over the wall crew to finish out pitting their car at the race in Texas and then decided this week to continue with them to complete the season. Jumping on that decision, Mike Ford credited his team for psyching out Johnson’s crew by pitting in front of them at Texas. Ultimately at Phoenix, it was calls from the top of the pitbox from Ford and Chad Knaus that directly led to the final results. The decision by Knaus to tell Jimmie Johnson to conserve fuel after pitting during a caution period with eighty-four laps to go in the race allowed Johnson to finish the race with the fuel he had. Hamlin raced back into the lead when the green flag flew after that caution period and mentioned in the post-race press conference that he was never told to save fuel and thought that everyone else would need to pit. They didn’t. A frustrated Hamlin talked on the radio following the checkers asking, “Everyone else made it on fuel, that’s what you’re telling me?” After hearing that where he finished and that he now had a fifteen point lead over Johnson, Hamlin took out that frustration on the dashboard of his racecar. Later, in the post-race press conference Hamlin discussed the final portion of the race, “I wasn’t aware that anyone was going to try to stretch it and make it. Mike didn’t make me aware that anyone was going to stretch it and make it so I went out there and ran as hard as I could.” Additionaly Hamlin explained his frustration, “There were a ton of guys that made it that pitted at the same time we did. Usually we have the best fuel mileage. That part I just don’t understand. I can save fuel pretty well. But I was never alerted to save fuel. So I assumed that everyone was going to have to pit. I didn’t even think it was a question. Like I said, I did my job.” “I hope the pressure really works on his mind,” Johnson said after the race. “I hope he has a hell of a time sleeping all week. I hope he hears every rattle in that car, and everything you could imagine at Homestead.” The momentum continues to swing as the season up. It seems to be with Johnson as Hamlin struggles to deal with what just happened at Phoenix. Who knows who momentum will choose at Homestead-Miami, as we have seen it can change in an instant.
Sprint Cup Title Clinching Senarios (NASCAR Media) – With only 15 points separating the top two drivers, the closest championship in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s seven-year history won’t be won easily.
The only way points leader Denny Hamlin can guarantee a clinch of his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship is by either finishing second while leading the most laps or winning next Sunday’s season finale Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Jimmie Johnson, in second,and Kevin Harvick, in third, are the only other drivers still eligible to win the 2010 title. Harvick trails Hamlin by 46 points. Hamlin’s 15-point lead is the closest margin between first and second in Chase history, bettering the 18-point difference Kurt Busch held over Johnson in 2004.