This weekend the boys of NASCAR strapped themselves in for the Sharpie 500 from Thunder Valley. That's right, the Bristol night race. This is one of the hottest tickets in all of NASCAR. And I particularly enjoyed it this year because my boy Dale, Jr. pulled off the weekend sweep. He won the Busch race on Friday night and followed it up with a victory in Saturday night's Cup race. The top nine drivers in the points race all remained in their same positions. However, there was one big mover on the night. Ryan Newman's second place finish on Saturday night allowed Newman to move up three spots and into tenth place.
Perhaps this would be a good time for me to speak a moment about the chase for the championship. This year, NASCAR has a new format for crowning its champ. They're moving towards more of a playoff format. Only the drivers in the top ten (or within 400 points of the leader) after the September 11 race at Richmond will be eligible to win the championship. In addition, those who are eligible will be bunched all together in the standings. Only five points will separate each driver from the driver behind them. So, there is still an advantage to being in first at the cut-off date, but the tenth place guy will only be 50 points (approximately 10 finishing positions in a given race) out of the top slot.
There are only two races remaining till the chase for the championship begins. Next Sunday there will be an evening race from the California Motor Speedway. Then on the night September 11, the final "regular season" race will take place at the Richmond International Speedway.
