Kritik und Lob » talented racecar driver. Everything will come tog

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Toyota teams entered the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup with a well-deserved swagger. They won 13 of the first 26 races.Martin Truex Jr. promptly won two of the three races in the first round, and all five of the Toyotas -- the four of Joe Gibbs Racing plus Truex of JGR affiliate Furniture Row Racing -- advanced easily into the second round.But entering the Hellmanns 500 this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, none of the Toyotas have clinched a spot in the next round. Those five are among the 10 drivers fighting for six spots.Just by the numbers, they would need some good fortune in Sundays elimination race to have all five advance to the semifinal Round of 8.Truex has had the best season among them but now sits on the brink. Seventh on the Chase grid, he clinches if he finishes 12th at Talladega, but a crash or getting caught without a drafting partner could turn a four-win season into one in which the best he could finish is fifth in points.Well just go race Sunday and do the best job we can do and hopefully move on so we can take advantage of this great team we have, the race cars we have and the season weve been able to put together, Truex said.It would be a shame to lose it all here.Three of the four JGR drivers control their destiny -- Matt Kenseth (29 points ahead of the cutoff) clinches with a 28th-place finish, Kyle Busch (27 points ahead) clinches with a 26th and Carl Edwards (24 points) clinches with a 23rd.Denny Hamlin, who won the Daytona 500, is six points behind the current cutoff and would be 19 points behind the cutoff if one of the drivers on the outside looking in wins the race for an automatic bid to the next round.I feel like I can drive with the best of them and draft with the best of them -- its just a matter of so many circumstances, Hamlin said. Its very likely well be battling other teams and teammates, where my teammates are in a little bit different situation than I am.It will be a tough road ahead of us. But realistically I give myself as good a shot as anyone who has to go out here and have to win. I wouldnt bet against this team, and hopefully when we need a big result, were going to get it.With the Chase format designed for unpredictability and requiring at least a good three-race stretch if a driver doesnt win, it would be hard to expect all five Toyotas to be among the final eight. While team and manufacturer executives might love to be 5-for-5 as far as Toyotas advancing, it doesnt appear to be a focus for the drivers.We dont think of it like that [as a group], Edwards said. Its an afterthought, like, Oh, thats pretty neat.Its so competitive. Every one of us doing our own thing trying to get there. When this race is over, well all sit back and go, Oh, OK, heres what weve got [in]. Thats just kind of icing on the cake, as a group how well weve run.Even the drivers who appear to be safe know they arent. Busch had a 25-point cushion entering this race in 2014, rode in the back and got tagged by Austin Dillon while trying to slow down for a wreck in front of him.You never can have any comfort, and you do what you need to do in order to transfer through, Busch said. Its all about the racing gods when it comes to the story of Talladega.Ive been on both sides of it at Talladega in the first two years of this format. Weve had a cushion before and been wrecked out, and we were on the outside looking in last year and were able to stay out of trouble and make it through to the next round.Hamlin does expect, though, that his teammates could take a different philosophy than he will Sunday as he faces a virtual must-win situation.Fortunately and unfortunately, my teammates have to be pretty smart, Hamlin said. They are in a good points position, so they have to be smart when they race on Sunday. Im not able to do that. I have to have a little different strategy.The only drivers guaranteed a spot in the next round of the Chase are Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick, who won at Charlotte and Kansas, respectively, earlier this round.For a driver such as Truex, he could look at last season, and while he ran well, he wasnt as dominant as hes been this season. But thanks to the Chase system, he was in the mix at the season finale at Homestead. This year, the system could end up taking him out of championship contention with four races remaining.Its a what have you done for me lately sport and to a huge extreme with the Chase now with this format, Truex said. Youve got to perform every single week.Truex had issues last week at Kansas with the car fueling system. Hamlin has had pit-road miscues and an engine failure in this round.I like the position -- I like performing under pressure, Hamlin said. 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MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Matt Crafton had the luxury of winning one NASCAR Truck Series championship just by starting the race and grabbed a second title by finishing in the back of the pack.Under the revamped Truck playoff system this season, Crafton just may have to win the race to win it all.Crafton, the 2013 and 2014 series champion, should be the favorite to win Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the first year of the Truck Chase format. The 40-year-old Crafton faces Johnny Sauter, Christopher Bell and Timothy Peters in the championship field. The first to finish out of the four contenders is the 2016 champion.Crafton, third in the standings last year, could have an edge because he won here last season, his first win on the 1.5-mile track. He has two wins this season and finished second and third in each of the last two Chase races.Crafton, in the No. 88 Toyota for ThorSport Racing, can join Jack Sprague for second on the career Truck series championship list with three. Ron Hornaday holds the series record with four titles.Crafton did not finish five races this season and likely wouldnt have competed for a championship under the old system.I wasnt a fan of (the Chase) at the start of 2016 when they said it, but now Im a big fan of it because Im getting to race for a championship, he said.Crafton and the other three championship drivers all caught a break when William Byron, who won six times and was the heavy championship favorite, blew an engine with 10 laps left at Phoenix and was eliminated.ThorSport Racing, owned by Duke and Rhonda Thorson, could use a championship as an emotional boost just months after a fire damaged much of the teams race shop in Sandusky, Ohio.The shop is not running at 100 percent. Its still not all there, Crafton said. I knew it was going to hurt us a little bit, but I didnt realize it was going to hurt it as bad as it did. It definitely put a damper on the way we ran because at that point we were just on a downward spiral.Yet, here are Crafton and ThorSport, resilient to the end.Crafton has remained content racing trucks as most of the rest of the field uses the series as the start of a methodical climb toward a Sprint Cup ride. He has one career Cup start, four in the second-tier Xfinity Series and 13 wins in 383 career Truck starts.Im very happy to finish my career out here, he said. I mean, yes, I would like to race the races in the Xfinity Series or run Cup races if I was on the right equipment. But if youre not going to be in the right equipment, youre not goingg to be able to contend to win.dddddddddddd I really dont care to do it.He has the right equipment this year -- and the best accessory could be a championship trophy hoisted over his head.SAUTER FOR THE WINJoey Logano has paid attention to the Truck title race while pursuing his own NASCAR championship. His pick for series champ?Im a Johnny Sauter fan because hes awesome, Logano said.The 38-year-old Sauter had a career year driving the No. 21 Chevrolet for GMS Racing with three wins, 11 top-five finishes and a dominant run in the Chase. Sauter won back-to-back races in the No. 21 Chevrolet at Martinsville and Texas, and was runner-up last week at Phoenix. Sauter has three top fives, six top 10s and a 4.7 average finish over seven Chase races. He was second in the standings in 2011 and finished fourth in each of the past three years.Logano may think Sauter is the driver to beat. Sauter wont go that far.I dont ever consider myself the favorite, Sauter said. I feel really comfortable with where we are as an organization and as a team going into this race. But to say Im a favorite, that would not be doing ourselves a service.BELL TOLLS FOR TITLEBell, who has one win this season, drives the No. 4 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Kyle Busch, the 2015 Cup champion, picked Bell to win the championship and but he may nail his prediction. The 21-year-old Bell shook off a slow start thanks to a pep talk from his championship owner.Bell recalled Busch telling him: Look, youve got great equipment. Youre a talented racecar driver. Everything will come together. You just got to stop trying to make it come together.Bell rebounded and reeled off top-10 finishes in seven of the last eight races.Do I consider myself the underdog? No, Bell said. Does everybody else? Probably. I think weve got everything it takes to be successful at Homestead. Our year has definitely not been the year that weve wanted. Weve only won one race. But were going to make it two after Friday.PETERED OUTPeters is the only championship driver without a win this season. Hes been steady with eight top-five finishes in the No. 17 Toyota for Red Horse Racing. The 36-year-old Peters has advanced this far with an underfunded team that has failed to sign a primary sponsor.Maybe tomorrow night we can cap off this big championship and attract the eyes of some sponsors and get it on our Tundra going forward in 2017, he said. ' ' '