Stewart sees opportunities; others can't take chances

The upcoming segment of the Sprint Cup season has come to be known as the Race to the Chase -- the final 10 races of the schedule before the 12-driver field is set for the Chase.

If this were horse racing, the track announcer would be shouting, "Down the stretch they come ..."

And it all begins Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with the running of the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.

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For some drivers, among them points leader Tony Stewart, there is little reason for concern. For others, notably the bottom half of the top 12, a lot is at stake in the final 10 races of the regular season.

For the Cup points leader, there's a better chance of a meteor falling out of the sky than Stewart falling out of the top 12. With a 450-point lead on 13th-place Kasey Kahne, Stewart's focus is on winning, not points racing. Every win during the regular season is worth 10 bonus points at the start of the Chase.

"I think we're in a situation now where we can take a couple of extra chances if we feel like we might be able to get another win and pick up those 10 bonus points," Stewart said. "It's definitely a situation we're able to utilize because of where we are in the point standings."

At the start of the 10-race Chase, the drivers in the top 12 will have their points reset. Each driver begins with 5,000 points plus 10 for each victory in the first 26 races.

"It really doesn't matter where you are as long as you're locked into the top 12, but those bonus points are going to be important," Stewart said. "So, if you have to go from first to sixth in the point standings because you're taking chances to gain those extra 10 bonus points, it's really not a penalty."

Second-place Jeff Gordon and third-place Jimmie Johnson are in the same position. Gordon is 366 points ahead of Kahne and Johnson is 293 inside the Chase.

"Our goal is to make it into the Chase," Gordon said, "but you can't help but keep an eye on the bonus points. Right now, I know we're 20 points behind those with three wins, so I'd like to cut -- or possibly eliminate -- that gap before the Chase begins."

Drivers in the next three spots are in a good position but not quite good enough to do anything outlandish. Kurt Busch is 170 points inside the Chase, Carl Edwards is 137 and Ryan Newman is 132.

It is in the bottom half of the top 12 where the excitement really begins. Kahne trails seventh-place Denny Hamlin by 95 points and 12th-place Juan Montoya by three. In between are Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin.

Then there are the drivers just outside the top 12: Kahne, David Reutimann, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer are within 70 points of Montoya.

Burton, who fell out of the top 12 last week and is 15th in the standings, 46 points behind Montoya, is philosophical.

"We can't forget that they pay the same amount of points for the third race of the year as they do for the 25th race of the year," Burton said. "At the end of the day, it's an accumulation of all the points you gained in the first 26, so it really doesn't make that race any more important than any other."

FIVE TO WATCH

Reutimann

David Reutimann, No. 00: Reutimann is 14th in points, 40 behind Montoya. He posted his best finishes in four starts at New Hampshire last year, 19th and 15th.

Kasey Kahne, No. 9: Kahne, who won last week at Infineon, had four top-10s in his first five starts at Loudon but has had none in the past five.

Kyle Busch, No. 18: Busch has one win in eight starts at New Hampshire, but the focus on Busch is what he has done the past four weeks: no top-10s, with a 20.0 average finish. Busch and Martin lead the series with three wins each, but amazingly, each is vulnerable to falling out of the top 12. Busch is 48 points ahead of Kahne, Martin 12.

Clint Bowyer, No. 33: Bowyer and Burton's subpar year are reflections of the problems at Richard Childress Racing. Burton has made the Chase the past three years, Bowyer the past two. Both have been successful at New Hampshire; Burton has a series-high four wins; Bowyer kicked off the 2007 Chase with his first Cup win.

Juan Montoya, No. 42: Although Montoya's best finish in four starts is 17th, he has finished in the top 10 each of the past three weeks. That momentum trumps his record at Loudon.

TRACK CHATTER

Kenseth

Matt Kenseth: "I haven't felt like New Hampshire has been one of my strongest tracks over the years, but yet if you look at our stats, our finishes have usually been pretty good. We have good finishes, but we're never that competitive. It seems like we'll run around 12th to 15th all day, have good stops and strategy and finish somewhere between seventh and 10th."

Roy McCauley, crew chief for David Stremme: "Track position is the key to success in Loudon. This will be NASCAR's first test on the double-file restarts at a short track. It is going to change the face of the race. Historically, the inside line has been a 'pick' for the lead-lap cars. Now the leaders are going to line up side-by-side, which will be exciting for the fans."

Bob Osborne, crew chief for Carl Edwards: "Loudon has been a struggle as of late for [us]. We made some gains at the second race there last year and look to improve again this weekend. It's flat, it's fast and is really a driver's track, but the driver can't do but so much -- we'll have to give Carl a good car that handles well. If we do our part, he'll have no problem getting a good finish for us."