Whether you think it’s gimmicky or not, the Chase for the Sprint Cup is on. Here are the sixteen drivers who made it into NASCAR’s end-of-season playoff-style raceapalooza for 2015 after tonight’s final Chase-setting race at Richmond International Raceway.
Just missing the cut are Kasey Kahne and Aric Almirola. Matt Kenseth had a ridiculously dominant race at Richmond, leading 352 of 400 laps of the race. This gave Kenseth his fourth win of the season — the same number of wins as Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch.
Thus begins the part of the season where tensions get high and drivers get, shall we say...feisty? Yes. Feisty is a good word for that sort of thing. Figh—err, feisty.
Every four races, the bottom four in the standings get cut. A win means that you’re automatically in to the next round, so there’s even more pressure on the Chase drivers to grab first place.
Everybody’s been pretty chill this year, though, so hopefully that peace, love ‘n’ kumbaya spirit continues into the Chase.
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Who am I kidding? It’ll be a series-engineered dramarama as always.
Full Chase grid standings can be found here.
Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.