Kyle Busch

Finish: Second

After his runner up finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch was apologetic about the run.

“I’m sorry to all the guys, I mean everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, everybody in the engine shop, chassis shop. It’s my job to come out here and get a win for these guys and I’m the one behind the wheel and ultimately don’t make the right adjustments and gave it up,” Rowdy said.

Despite Busch’s disappointment, it was his best finish at the track (he’d finished third three times) and made him the big winner in points, jumping to the top five, 177 points out of the lead.

Points position before Charlotte: 9th

 

 

Points position after Charlotte: 5th (+4)

Jimmie Johnson

Finnish: Third

It doesn’t seem to matter what the NASCAR Gods throw at Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team: they always find a way to blow us away.

That was just the case in this past Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at the former Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Johnson spun on lap 35, and got hit on pit road by Clint Bowyer. But alas, nothing could hold Team 48 down as they battled their way back to the front, leading 15 laps and coming home 14th top five of 2010.

And things just keep getting better for the four time champion, as the series next rolls into Martinsville Speedway. This past March at the track Johnson came home ninth, and in 17 starts has six wins, including sweeping the events in 2007. His only DNF was in his track debut in 2002, and he’s led over 1,500 laps. Will the Johnson domination continue, or will Johnson lose his golden horseshoe in Martinsville?

Points position before Charlotte: Leader

Points position after Charlotte: Leader

Denny Hamlin

Finish: Fourth

Coming into the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Denny Hamlin had an 18th place average finish in ten starts at the track. Hoping to make ground up on Johnson, Hamlin set out to collect a top ten, and did not just finishing fourth. The only problem was JJ bested him by one, and maintains a 41 point lead over Hamlin.

With Martinsville Speedway the next stop on the Sprint Cup schedule, it’s sure to be a battle between the men first and second in points. Hamlin has won the last two events at the track, including when the series visited the track earlier this season in March, and three wins total. Hamlin hasn’t had a DNF in Martinsville since his second start there in 2006 (the only time he failed to finish off the lead lap), has an average finish of sixth, and in ten starts has led 909 laps.

But with Johnson showing dominance at the track himself, it begs the question; will a Hamlin charge with five races to go be enough to dethrone the No. 48?

Points position before Charlotte: Second

Points position after Charlotte: Second

Greg Biffle

 

Finish: Fifth

After the high of his Kansas win and the low of his engine issues and 41st place effort last week in Fontana, Greg Biffle was looking to rebound under the lights in Charlotte.

“We didn’t qualify very well, so we had to work out way to the front,” Biffle, who started the race 22nd, said. “Then we made a pretty big change and had to restart all the way at the back and got all the way back into the top five.”

Biffle is 225 out of the points lead and may not contend for a championship, barring utter catastrophe for the top three in points two weeks from now in the wild card of the Chase, Talladega Superspeedway.

Points position before Charlotte: 10th

Points position after Charlotte: Eighth (+2)

Matt Kenseth

Finish: Sixth

Charlotte Motor Speedway was the best Chase performance thus far for Matt Kenseth, who ran in the top ten most of the night and came home sixth. It came a week after a dismal week at the Auto Club Speedway after mechanical issues plagued the Roush Fenway team. The top ten- Kenseth’s 12th of the season- but wasn’t enough to launch him away from the basement of the points standings.

Heading into Martinsville, where Kenseth is winless in 21 career Cup starts, Kenseth is 256 points out of the lead and appears to be all but eliminated from championship contention.

Points position before Charlotte: 11th

Points position after Charlotte: 11th

Kevin Harvick

Finish: Eighth

Kevin Harvick continues to keep it consistent when it comes to the 2010 Chase, getting his 21st top ten of the season this past Saturday night. The finish keeps in him title contention, but like Hamlin, will a run this late be too late for Harvick to win his first Sprint Cup championship?

“I know we probably had a better racecar than eighth place tonight. For me, this place is just a struggle. I struggle getting the feel I want. To come out of here with an eighth-place finish feels like a victory.”

Harvick is now 77 points out of the lead and 36 out of second heading into the track that Johnson and Hamlin have made their personal playground, winning the last eight races there. The good news for Happy? After Martinsville, where Harvick has a blank, the driver of the No. 29 heads into Talladega, where he dramatically ended his 115 winless streak earlier this season, and where he’s never had a DNF.

Points position before Charlotte: Third

Points position after Charlotte: Third

Carl Edwards

Finish: 12th

It certainly wasn’t one of Carl Edwards’ best outings in this year’s Chase- he finished in the top ten in Dover and Kansas- but after the week he and the entire Roush Fenway group had in Fontana, 12th was welcome. Edwards just led two laps during the 500 mile event.

Things don’t seem to be looking up for Cousin Carl, who’s an even 200 spots out of the lead and Martinsville is simply not his best track. He has failed to lead a lap in 12 starts at the track, has just three top tens and has an average finish of 17.5.

Points position before Charlotte: Seventh

Points position after Charlotte: Seventh

Clint Bowyer

Finish: 17th

Ever since his devastating 150 point penalty, along with the (reduced) three race suspension of his crew chief Shane Wilson, this Chase has been a struggle for Bowyer. His average finish in the first five races is 12th, finishing in the top ten just once since his win.

The Bank of America 400 encompassed what Bowyer’s Chase has been like; he struggled most of the night with handling issues and even got damage after an intense side by side battle with teammate Jeff Burton with damaged both RCR Chevrolets. He ran in the mid-twenties for most of the night until the last few runs of the race when he entered the top 20 and eventually finished 17th.

Bowyer described the race as “a nightmare” and heads into Martinsville Speedway where he has an average place finish of 12.8, has never led a lap but has five top tens in nine starts. Will we see the Bowyer from Loudon or the performance we’ve seen since the penalty?

Points position before Charlotte: 12th

Points position after Charlotte: 12th

Jeff Burton

Finish: 20th

Jeff Burton’s performance at the Charlotte Motor Speedway mirrored that of his teammate Clint Bowyer, including the contact the two made mid-race while racing for position, which sent Burton spinning in turn one. And like Bowyer, Burton struggled with handling and ran mid-pack for most of the event. Burton even fell a lap down, but received the Lucky Dog on lap 308 and battled his way up to 20th.

“I tried to make something happen when I spun and it, obviously, didn’t work out well for us, but I’m proud of the Cat Racing team for not giving up and their determination to keep working on the car. Our finish could have been a lot worse, but we all fought together and we’ll keep fighting over these final five races.”

Burton finished 20th the last time the series visited Martinsville in March, and his only win came in 1997, with his last top five coming in the spring race of 2008.

Points position before Charlotte: Eighth

Points position after Charlotte: 10th (-2)

Tony Stewart

Finish: 21st

Last week Tony Stewart announced that Mobil 1 would be sharing sponsorship duties on the No. 14 Chevrolet with Office Depot, signing a multiyear deal with Stewart Haas Racing.

“As a team owner, I’m absolutely thrilled to add such a respected technology partner to our race team,” Stewart said.

In Fontana, he was able to spring his way back into championship contention with a win and moved fifth in points. This past Saturday in Charlotte, Smoke received early damage after his teammate Ryan Newman crashed, forcing him to make multiple pit stops to repair his No. 14 Chevy. In what crew chief Darian Grubb called a “comedy of errors”, Stewart ran in the late teens to mid twenties throughout the night.

Stewart has two wins at Martinsville, the last coming in 2006 and finished ninth in this race last season.

Points position before Charlotte: Fifth

Points position after Charlotte: Sixth (-1)

Jeff Gordon

Finish: 23rd

Despite struggling throughout the practice sessions in Charlotte, Jeff Gordon found himself on the pole for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 and led 99 laps. However, a late race pit road speeding penalty sent Gordon to a disappointing 23rd place finish.

Gordon hasn’t won since Texas Motor Speedway in 2009 and after Saturday is 156 points out of the lead. With so much talk about Hamlin and Johnson’s utter domination at Martinsville, that people seem to forget that Gordon has a 6.7 place average, seven wins and 29 top tens in 35 starts. In those 35 starts he’s completed all but 118 laps, and has led nearly 3,000 (he’s 112 laps short entering this weekend). If there’s anywhere Gordon could jump back not only into Victory Lane but also back in the championship hunt, this weekend in Martinsville is absolutely key for the No. 24 team.

Points position before Charlotte: Fourth

Points position after Charlotte: Fourth

Kurt Busch

Finish: 30th

The elder Busch brother called his race in Charlotte a “confusing night” after he brought out two separate cautions. The first was on lap 23 while he was running in the top 15, sending him to pit road and ultimately three laps down after he hit the wall again 255 laps later.

With the poor performance Busch was the big loser in the point standings, dropping three spots and is now 237 points out of the lead, virtually eliminating him from title contention. Busch enters Martinsville with one career win coming in 2002 and has not finished in the top ten since 2005.

“It’s disappointing not to have the car we wanted to go after the “triple” here at Charlotte tonight. We’ll go back and look at our post-race notes and see how we can get better on the next mile-and-a-half at Texas in a few weeks.”　

Points position before Charlotte: Sixth

Points position after Charlotte: Ninth (-3)

Thanks to Racing Reference, Paddock Talk, the Kansas City Star, NASCAR.com, SPEED TV and Motorsport.com for the information, quotes and statistics used in this piece. For complete recap of this past Saturday’s Bank of America 500, click here.