NASCAR takes the Chase to Kansas

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is headed to Kansas this weekend for the Price Chopper 400 presented by Kraft Foods. This 400 mile race should prove to be a little different than last week’s race at Dover.

Dover provided us with some good racing, with a touch of drama in Joey Logano’s huge wreck. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time somebody rolled their car seven times or more at that track

I’m so glad that Logano was able to walk away from that mess without any serious injury. Wrecks like that are entertaining for sure, but only if no one is hurt in the process.

And what about Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin?

Man, does Johnson have his game face on or what? That cat is in The Zone now and he isn’t taking any prisoners. Martin called Johnson “Superman” in a post race interview. But if you look at Martin’s numbers, he certainly could qualify for superhero status, too.

Like Johnson, Martin’s got his game face on; you just can’t see it because he’s hiding it behind that mild manner smile of his. Don’t be deceived by that smile. If you think Martin is sitting back and just going with the flow, you’re wrong. Dead wrong. He has never won a Sprint Cup Championship and he wants this one badly. He’s just been down this road too many times to get his hopes that high.

Kansas should provide a good back drop for what might turn into an epic battle between teammates Johnson and Martin. This is Martin’s kind of track, while Johnson has enjoyed a fair bit of success here recently.

The weather is looking like it’s going to be a little cool this weekend, so that should make the track less slick and provide more traction for the cars in the corners. More traction equals more speed. More speed means more dependency on the aero-packages of the cars.

Drivers are going to want to qualify up near the front if they want to have a good shot at winning this race, the deeper you are in the pack, the harder it will be to pass because of the lack of clean air to provide the much needed down force on the cars to help them turn in the corners at higher speeds.

Look for Johnson and Martin to have good races along with Tony Stewart and perhaps Jeff Gordon.

In the “Where did he come from?” category, I’d keep an eye on Clint Bowyer, The Busch brothers, Kyle and Kurt, along with Roush teammates Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle.

Who am I going to watch? Juan Montoya. I think he is going to challenge for the win this week