Bristol Recap

With 2 races remaining until the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the field is still wide open and Jimmie Johnson is the only driver locked in the chase.  Saturday night's Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway opened the door for Matt Kenseth to lead the final 125 of 500 laps en route to his 5th victory of the season.  Kasey Kahne (2 wins in 2013) finished 2nd, Juan Pablo Montoya 3rd.  Clint Bowyer, 2nd in points, finished 14th and now only trails Jimmie Johnson by 18 points.  It's been a bad last two races for Johnson, who's engine expired early in Michigan and was involved in a late-wreck at Bristol.  The other big wreck affected Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin & Martin Truex, Jr. with less than 75 laps remaining and all 3 drivers finished laps down.  Good news for him is that he has 4 wins and is in the Chase.  Kyle Busch started 43rd after spinning in qualifying, finishes 11th.  Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished 10th and Jeff Gordon 7th. 

Speaking of points, there are only 2 races remaining until the chase and wins are crucial.  Only 26 points separates 6 drivers from 10th place, which is held currently by Joey Logano, who won last week at Michigan.  The wild-card spots right now are held by Martin Truex, Jr. (14th) and Ryan Newman (15th), which means that Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch & Jeff Gordon all need help, and that is win a race.  The only chances they have are at Atlanta & Richmond.  Keselowski has not had the dream season like last year and has 7 top-5s.  He's good at 1.5 mile tracks and just needs better pit stops.  Gordon's problem is that he has 5 DNFs this season and that is prevented him from being in the Top-10.  Kurt Busch has won poles and has run well as of late, but an incident early on in Saturday night's race dropped him to 12th in points (was 9th) and would like to get a Chase spot before he moves onto Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.  Gonna be a fun 2 races to watch, especially for wild-card contention.


INDYCAR
After a 3 week break, the IZOD IndyCar series returned to action in Sonoma, CA.  It was a wild race that featured 5 cautions in the first 33 laps of 85.  Dario Franchitti won the pole, led the first 17 laps, then set the tone for drivers like Scott Dixon & Justin Wilson to lead for multiple laps until on Lap 70 Dixon's costly pit stop and a penalty gave way to Will Power winning his first race of the season.  Power is the 10th different driver to win in 2013, one off the record with 4 races to go.  Justin Wilson finished 2nd and Franchitti 3rd.  Points-leader Helio Castroneves finished 7th and now leads Scott Dixon (finished 15th) by 39 points.  The series moves onto street courses for a Sunday showdown in Baltimore next weekend.

FORMULA 1
With rain being in the forecast in Spa, Belgium, it was quietly overcast and 3-time champion Sebastian Vettel was able to pass pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton on the start and led all 44 laps en route to another win under his belt.  Fernando Alonso & Lewis Hamilton rounded out the podium at the Shell Belgian Grand Prix.  Kimi Raikkonen saw his points-streak end after a mechanical failure halfway through the event, finishing 21st and now 4th in points.  Vettel continues to lead the points battle, but increased his lead over Alonso by 46 and Hamilton by 58.  The series returns to action in 2 weeks in Monza for the final race of the season in Europe.