Repeat performance? Earnhardt Jr., others bear watching at Texas
You can expect an aggressive race with a lot of intensity at Texas Motor Speedway in the AAA Texas 500 today. Last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, we saw Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is no longer a 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup contender, took a win off the board from those eight remaining Chase drivers.
There's nothing to say we won't see that again at Texas.
You would be making a mistake to forget about Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart or Clint Bowyer, along with others who have nothing to lose. Their 2014 championship dreams are over. They can roll the dice on strategy if it comes down to it and try to play the role of spoiler and take another win away from the Chase drivers.
That hurts drivers like Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski, who are in trouble but still alive in the Chase Elminator Round and need a win to crawl back into the championship picture.
That makes them dangerous individuals. If you are coming down to the closing laps of a race and have a chance to get maybe your first win of the year, you aren't going to care about the Chase driver next to or ahead of you. You probably aren't going to hesitate to move them out of the way to get the win. So I think these last three races are setting everything up to see some ruthlessness come out of some people.
The need to win and the want to win is heightened this season like never before. It's simply a byproduct of this new Chase format. For drivers like Kevin and Brad, who I mentioned earlier, it's not even a question of wanting to win any longer. It's now a question of having to win this weekend and next weekend at Phoenix if they want to keep their championship hopes alive after all their hard work this season.
Two non-Chase drivers you need to keep your eye on at Texas are Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson. Just because both are out of the Chase, I don't think either team is done with the 2014 season. I think both still want to make a statement these last three races that, even though this year's championship has slipped through their fingers.
Both of them would love to send the message that you all better worry about them in 2015.
VIDEO: A look back at Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s emotional win at Martinsville Speedway
