Weekend preview: Dodge Boys ready for Chase

Posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 2:16 PM EDT.

Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch will give Dodge a potent 1-2 punch as the Chase to the Sprint Cup Championship begins this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  The 12-driver Chase field is set, and now the focus turns to the final 10 races of the 2009 season that will determine the season’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion.  The first test is the 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
 
The other 10 Cup drivers joining Kahne and Busch are Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Juan Pablo Montoya and Greg Biffle.
 
All four manufacturers (Chevy – 6, Dodge – 2, Ford – 2 and Toyota – 2) are represented in the Chase including four previous series champions(Busch, Stewart, Gordon and Johnson). Other notes include:
 
-  Dodge’s Kurt Busch looks to earn his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series    championship.  He was the 2004 champion
-  Kasey Kahne looks to give Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) their first Sprint Cup championship in 1979 (then Petty Enterprises)
-  Penske Racing looks for its first Cup title (Rusty Wallace was runner-up in 1993).
-  Jimmie Johnson looks to four-peat as series champion
-  Jeff Gordon seeks his fifth Sprint Cup championship
-  Tony Stewart looks to become the first owner/driver to win a championship since Alan Kulwicki.
 
Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) is making his second appearance in the Chase (2006).  Since the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway over the July 4th weekend, Kahne has arguably been the most consistent Cup driver in the garage.  In the last eight races, Kahne picked up seven positions in the driver’s point standings.
 
“We weren’t as good as we needed to be in Richmond,” Kahne said.  “We ran 12th and probably could have been 10th by the end of it.  There are just a few tracks that we need to keep working hard at and we know what they are. 

Hopefully, we can hit on some things if we want to have a chance at a championship.  We’re going to do all we can to win races, get the most points we can and hopefully, have a shot at the championship.”
 
In 11 races at New Hampshire, Kahne has scored one top-five and five top-10 finishes. 
 
Kurt Bush (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) looks to add to the 22 national championships that team owner Roger Penske has earned over his stellar career across multiple forms of motorsports.  Busch, the 2004 Cup series champion, enters the weekend in seventh-place in the Chase, 30 points behind leader Mark Martin.  A winner at the spring event in Atlanta, Busch has used consistency and the power of the Dodge R6P8 engine to rebound from a disappointing 2008 season. 
 
“You feel like you’ve got the barrels loaded and the trigger cocked – you’re one of 12 teams that made the finals and now it is playoff time – and you can feel almost invincible,” Busch explained.  “It’s like a ‘hey we made it (the Chase) and we’re here to kick (rear end) and take names’ attitude.  It just runs rampant within your team.”
 
For the veteran Busch, starting off fast at Loudon this weekend may be a key to his hopes of bringing home the series championship.
 
“I know from experience that if you can get it going in the right direction at Loudon, you can keep the momentum growing and sort of build some insurance for something bad happening later on during the 10–race stretch,” Busch added.
 
In 17 career appearances at New Hampshire, Busch has three wins, six top-five and eight top-10 finishes.
 
Other Notes: 
·        All seven Dodge teams are assured starting spots in Sunday’s Sylvania 300.
·        Three Dodges finished in the top 10 when the Sprint Cup Series visited NHMS earlier this year.  Kurt Busch was third, Sam Hornish Jr. eighth and Kasey Kahne 10th.
·        Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge) captured his seventh top-10 finish of the season last weekend with an eighth-place showing at Richmond International Raceway.
·        Reed Sorenson (No. 43 McDonald’s McCafe Dodge) has a 52-race streak without a DNF (did not finish), the longest non-consecutive streak in Sprint Cup racing.
·        Elliott Sadler (No. 19 Stanley Dodge) has five top-10 finishes at New Hampshire.

What You Need To Know:
The Race:     Sylvania 300
The Place:    New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1.058-mile oval)
The Date:      Sunday, Sept. 20
The Time:      2 p.m. ET
Distance:      300 laps/317.4 miles
TV:                  ABC, 1 p.m. ET

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 2:16 PM EDT and is filed under Motorsports and tagged Dashboard. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments are currently closed.