The Cheez-It 355 At The Glen was indeed full of surprises and shocks for a lot of veterans who were practically in the wrong place at the wrong time. Pit road penalties and overpowering restarts shook up the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings left a lot of the regulars sore. Watkins Glen was indeed full of red flags and road rage and has most likely ignited a feud or two. Nevertheless, we still have the five hottest NASCAR drivers who managed the survive the chaos that ensued at the Glen.
Denny Hamlin: The number 11 earns the top spot this week after winning his first career road course race after having Sonoma slip out of his hands earlier in the year. Since failing to find a little consistency after his Daytona 500 win, he manged to get in sync after Joe Gibbs Racing won Loudon and Indianapolis. Since then, Hamlin ran off four top 10’s in the last four races with JGR now winning three of the last four races. Since an early summer slump, the team has caught fire once again.
Tony Stewart: A road course sweep in his final season wasn’t in his future, but a fifth place finish at the Glen and moving up to 26th could be enough to ensure that no matter what happens, he shouldn’t fall out. Five top fives in the last seven races including his Sonoma win is enough to ensure that he is ready to retire as Sprint Cup Champion and be the first to do so. First he’ll have to help employees Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch get better while around him.
Kyle Busch: It’s not just the number 18 blazing the hot trail into August, it’s almost the entire team and all appear to be feeding off each other’s success. While others win, Kyle runs up four straight top 10’s counting his win at Indy. The last three are enough to put him back into the top five in points since the Pocono spring race. It was around that time he finished four straight outside the top 30 before getting his groove back at Sonoma with a seventh place finish.
Matt Kenseth: Four out of the last five with a top 10 has been crucial for the number 20 since Kentucky and includes his Dover win. Kenseth wasn’t able to catch the first fire that started the season with JGR, but has since gotten a second wind since his early bad luck ended. Since winning at Dover, he has flirted with the top 10 all season long and gotten as high as ninth. Kenseth finished 10th at the Glen in his 600th career start.
Brad Keselowski: I’m probably playing with fire on this one, but four out of the last six races have been top fives including consecutive wins at Daytona and Kentucky. Yes he spun out Martin Truex Jr and most likely cost him a win, but it was aggressive all race long and the final turn is always unpredictable. With Kevin Harvick involved in the last crash, it allowed Keselowski to take over the points lead for the first time this season. Now he just has to watch for Truex over his shoulder.
This week is the last offweek of the season and one last chance to put another Chase plan together. Whether cooler heads will prevail before the night race at Bristol remains to be seen. Fireworks could most likely start before Bristol Motor Speedway hosts their first ever college football game.
Thoughts and prayers go out to former NASCAR Xfinity driver and three time USAC National Midget Champion Bryan Clauson who died after complications of a multicar crash during the Belleville Nationals midget race.
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