JIMMIE JOHNSON • 48
CHASE POINTS: first, 6,366
TEAM: Hendrick Motorsports
POSITION CHANGE: None.
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 10
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BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 1st (2)
LAST WEEK: A chink in the armor? After taking a seemingly insurmountable lead in the points race, Johnson spent half of the race at Texas figuring out his car on the way to a 15th-place finish that left the door open just a touch for Carl Edwards.
CHASE CHATTER: "I’m more frustrated in the fact we didn’t do the job we needed to today than the fact that I lost points," Johnson said. "I mean, if I lose five or 10, 20 points at a time to those guys because they win and I finish fourth or fifth, you know, I can handle that. But to go out there and not perform, get caught a lap down, stuck a lap down all day, that’s the part I’m frustrated with."
CARL EDWARDS • 99
CHASE POINTS: second, -106
TEAM: Roush Fenway Racing
POSITION CHANGE: None
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 8
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BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 4th (twice)
LAST WEEK: Turned his Ford Fusion into the first NASCAR Hybrid by somehow stretching 69 laps worth of gas out of his last pit stop. The gamble paid off as he picked up his second straight win to chop Johnson’s lead nearly in half.
CHASE CHATTER: "I didn’t expect to be able to close that many points on Jimmie without him having some sort of catastrophic problem," Edwards said. "I think that’s a good shot in the arm for all of our guys, all the guys that have been working so hard at the shop and here at the racetrack, that we can go out and perform well enough to win this thing."
GREG BIFFLE • 16
CHASE POINTS: third, -143
TEAM: Roush Fenway Racing
POSITION CHANGE: None
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 9
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BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 2nd (twice)
LAST WEEK: Had arguably the second-best car on the track in Texas behind Edwards, but missed a chance to steal the win when he had to make a late pit stop for fuel and tires.
CHASE CHATTER: "I can’t quite figure out how my teammate can go eight laps more than I can either, so we’ll have to go back and do our homework and see what he’s got that we don’t have underneath the hood I guess," Biffle said. "We got a top-five here today and gained points on (Johnson)."JEFF BURTON • 31
CHASE POINTS: fourth, -212
TEAM: Richard Childress Racing
POSITION CHANGE: None
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 18
BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 1st (twice)
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LAST WEEK: Looks like another late-season fade for Burton. While Edwards and Biffle were able to take a sizable chunk out of Johnson’s lead, all Burton could manage was a 13th-place finish at Texas, just two spots ahead of Johnson.
CHASE CHATTER: "Luckily, we were able to overcome our poor qualifying effort but we weren’t able to find the right combination to help our car’s handling," Burton said. "It’s disappointing because Texas has been a pretty good track for us, but we weren’t able to master it today."JEFF GORDON • 24
CHASE POINTS: fifth, -255
TEAM: Hendrick Motorsports
POSITION CHANGE: Plus 1.
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 19
BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 1st (‘07)
LAST WEEK: Came close to ending a pair of winless streaks at Texas. Took the pole at a track in which he’s never won, quickly fell back but found a way to finish second by squeezing every last drop of fuel out of his green machine.
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CHASE CHATTER: "We’ve improved, there’s no doubt about it," Gordon said. "One of the reasons why we haven’t had a win to this point in the season’s because we really were off track at the beginning of the season. Unlike Jimmie and their team, it’s taken us a little longer to get it turned around."
CLINT BOWYER • 07
CHASE POINTS: sixth, -267
TEAM: Richard Childress Racing
POSITION CHANGE: Plus 1
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 6
BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 2nd
LAST WEEK: Moved up a spot in the standings with a fourth-place finish at Texas. Led early and ran in the top 10 almost all day but like most drivers not named Edwards or Gordon, had to pit late for tires and fuel that cost him an opportunity to win.
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CHASE CHATTER: "Those guys, (Edwards and Gordon) they had a little more guts than we did," Bowyer said. "Nonetheless, it was still a good run for us. It’s go time."
KEVIN HARVICK • 29
CHASE POINTS: seventh, -279
TEAM: Richard Childress Racing
POSITION CHANGE: Minus 2.
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 11
BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 1st (twice)
LAST WEEK: Lost two spots in the standings despite another top-10. Finished seventh in Texas after qualifying 23rd. Ran in the top five at one point but needed a splash-and-go to finish the race, costing him track position.
CHASE CHATTER: "Unfortunately, a lot of the Chase contenders finished ahead of me and we fell to seventh in the points," Harvick said. "I am looking forward to going to Phoenix and, hopefully, breaking this winless streak we have."
MATT KENSETH • 17
CHASE POINTS: eighth, -393
TEAM: Roush Fenway Racing
POSITION CHANGE: Plus 1
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 12
BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 1st (2002)
LAST WEEK: Struggled with an ill-handling car all day then pitted early toward the end in hopes of having enough time to sneak into contention. The gamble didn’t quite pay off as he finished ninth.
CHASE CHATTER: "It felt like we had a tire going down," Kenseth said. "These cars are just so much different and days like today are really frustrating. There are two races to go, hopefully we’ll be able to pull something together in the next two weeks and run better."TONY STEWART • 20
CHASE POINTS: ninth, -404
TEAM: Joe Gibbs Racing
POSITION CHANGE: Minus 1
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 13
BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 1st (1999)
LAST WEEK: Finished 16th at Texas after being forced to start at the rear of the field when his primary car got banged up during Saturday’s first practice session. His backup car was good but not great and he couldn’t find the combination to crack the top 15.
CHASE CHATTER: "It’s always hard to go to a backup car and they worked really hard to get the car ready for today," Stewart said. "We got just a little bit of practice with the car, so to finish like we did, given the circumstances, was pretty good."
KYLE BUSCH • 18
CHASE POINTS: 10th, -428
TEAM: Joe Gibbs Racing
POSITION CHANGE: Plus 2.
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 7
BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 1st (spring 2005)
LAST WEEK: The regular-season champion appears to have gotten past his early Chase problems, finishing sixth at Texas. Has shown a newfound maturity in the way he’s fought back after falling out of the Chase race so quickly. The finish was his 20th top-10 of the season.
CHASE CHATTER: "We battled all day to get up there and then we got shuffled back," Busch said. "It was the best we could do with the car we had."
DALE EARNHARDT JR. • 88
CHASE POINTS: 11th, -429
TEAM: Hendrick Motorsports
POSITION CHANGE: Minus 1.
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 12
BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 1st (twice)
LAST WEEK: Tried to make a go of it on fuel at the end, but ran out of gas with five laps remaining then stalled coming out of pit road and finished 20th.
CHASE CHATTER: "We win as a team and lose as a team, and that’s the way it goes sometimes," Earnhardt said. "We took a gamble, didn’t have enough fuel, but that’s the way it goes. I think if we started conserving sooner it would have worked out."
DENNY HAMLIN • 11
CHASE POINTS: 12th, -431
TEAM: Joe Gibbs Racing
POSITION CHANGE: Minus 1.
CAREER PHOENIX STARTS: 6
BEST PHOENIX FINISH: 3rd (three times)
LAST WEEK: Ended the day in Texas where he started, 17th. Blame it on a poor-handling car that wouldn’t let him get any grip coming off the corner.
CHASE CHATTER: "We tried everything and nothing fixed the problems," Hamlin said. "We went 500-miles today — we started 17th and came home in the same spot — unreal. So, we’re off to Phoenix where I hope we can rally one for the FedEx team before the season ends."
