When Rick Hendrick declared in January that he would be disappointed if all four of his drivers didn’t make the Chase for the Sprint Cup, it seemed like a reasonable goal.
Five-time Cup champ Jimmie Johnson and four-time champ Jeff Gordon probably wouldn’t have a problem making the Chase, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was heading into the second year of a strong comeback and newcomer Kasey Kahne was expected to thrive at Hendrick.
“I’m going to be really disappointed if we don’t have all four cars in the Chase,” Hendrick said in January. “And I’m going to be really disappointed if we don’t win the championship. … I can’t remember having four teams this solid, this strong, rolling into the year.”
But after a couple of months, it didn’t look as if Hendrick would get his wish. Kahne and Gordon both had bad luck mixed with mistakes that led them to being outside the top 10 in points and forcing them to race for a Chase wild card.
Even during the regular-season finale Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway it looked unlikely as Gordon struggled over the first half of the race.
Then came Gordon’s dramatic comeback. Coupled with the Kyle Busch’s collapse, Gordon’s rally put all four Hendrick drivers in the Chase.
Johnson and Earnhardt made it by finishing in the top 10 while Kahne and Gordon earned the two wild-card spots.
“We’re a much better company this year, and we’re able to reap the benefits of that with all four of us being in the Chase,” Earnhardt said. “It will be fun.”
But then Earnhardt added a caveat:
“I think the debriefs get a lot shorter on Saturday night,” he said about the team meetings. “Everybody won’t be such an open book, I won’t imagine.”
Each of the Hendrick drivers expect the others to be strong contenders during the Chase. But they know that they already have accomplished one of their main preseason goals.
“I’m glad that we got all four Hendrick cars into the Chase,” Johnson said. “That was the goal of Mr. Hendrick put up for us to accomplish.”
Didn’t get it done
With Clint Bowyer already locked into the Chase and winning Saturday night at Richmond, none of the drivers who needed at least a win to get into the Chase got the job done.
On top of that list was Carl Edwards, last year’s runner-up who needed a win and some help to make the Chase.
He finished 17th at Richmond and missed the Chase.
“This isn’t about one race,” Edwards said. “It is 26 races, and we just let too many points get away for a bunch of different reasons.
“There was a lot of luck involved and everyone tried really hard. This is the fastest we have been the last six weeks all year, and I am proud of everyone.”
For Edwards, it is the first time he has missed the Chase since 2008.
”We just go race as hard as we can,” Edwards said. “That has been kind of fun lately to do that, but, man, I don’t know, it is going to be wild to not be in the championship hunt. It won’t be as much fun at all.”
Ryan Newman led for a few laps at Richmond but ended up finishing eighth and missing the Chase.
“It’s disappointing,” Newman said. “I don’t really know what to say other than that. We gave it all we had.”
Other must-win drivers who missed the Chase were Marcos Ambrose, who finished 15th, and Joey Logano, who wound up 30th.
“I just tried my hardest tonight,” Ambrose said. “It wasn’t our night. … Obviously we wanted the win, but it wasn’t meant to be tonight.”
Biffle the regular-season champ
Greg Biffle ended up the regular-season champion, and he got nothing for it.
With the top 10 Chase drivers having their points reset to 2,000, plus three points for every regular-season win, Biffle gave up the points lead and now sits fifth in the standings.
He finished with 914 points in the first 26 races, 12 points ahead of Earnhardt, 17 points ahead of Matt Kenseth and 34 points ahead of Johnson.
Biffle was 64 points ahead of eighth-place Denny Hamlin, who is now the points leader thanks to four wins this year.
“We have been the points leader for a decent amount of the regular season,” Biffle said. “We really don’t want to change anything. … Whatever we have been doing as a team seems to be working for us.
“We have had good, solid consistent finishes and won a couple races. That is what we need to do in the Chase.”
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