2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup

Last updated

The 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup [1] was contested in the final ten races of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to determine a champion. The Chase began with the Sylvania 300 on September 14, 2008 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and ended with the Ford 400 on November 16, 2008 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 2008 Chase was won by Jimmie Johnson, his third consecutive championship.

Contents

From 2004 through 2007, the championship system was known as the "Chase for the Nextel Cup", but with the 2005 merger of Sprint and Nextel, the name of the series became known as the Sprint Cup Series in 2008.

Drivers

Chase Standings
PLSeedDriverPtsBehindPWT5T10DNF
13 Jimmie Johnson 6,073Leader5613201
29 Greg Biffle 5,924(−149)2211153
37 Jeff Burton 5,921(−152)027172
42 Carl Edwards 5,875(−168)1615232
55 Clint Bowyer 5,831(−242)015150
611 Kevin Harvick 5,817(−256)006160
710 Jeff Gordon 5,798(−275)3011165
88 Tony Stewart 5,735(−338)0110153
94 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 5,694(−379)1110151
1012 Matt Kenseth 5,665(−408)008183
116 Denny Hamlin 5,653(−420)1110163
121 Kyle Busch 5,628(−445)2816182

Seeding

Seedings at the start of The Chase
SeedDriverP
1Kyle Busch5,080
2Carl Edwards5,050
3Jimmie Johnson5,040
4Dale Earnhardt Jr.5,010
5Clint Bowyer5,010
6Denny Hamlin5,010
7Jeff Burton5,010
8Tony Stewart5,000
9Greg Biffle5,000
10Jeff Gordon5,000
11Kevin Harvick5,000
12Matt Kenseth5,000

 – Edwards was docked the ten-point winner's bonus as a result of a violation found during post-race inspection at the UAW-Dodge 400 in Las Vegas.

Regular season standings with seeding change
PLDriverBehind+/-
1Ky. Busch3,878LeaderN/C
2Edwards3,671(−207)N/C
3Johnson3,576(−302)N/C
4Earnhardt Jr.3,488(−390)N/C
5J. Burton3,384(−394)-2
6Stewart3,285(−493)-2
7Harvick3,283(−495)-4
8Biffle3,280(−498)-1
9Hamlin3,235(−543)+3
10J. Gordon3,221(−657)N/C
11Kenseth3,132(−746)-1
12Bowyer3,116(−762)+7

Schedule

DateRaceTrack2007 winner2008 winner
September 14 Sylvania 300 New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Loudon, New Hampshire
Clint Bowyer Greg Biffle
September 21 Camping World RV 400 Dover International Speedway
Dover, Delaware
Carl Edwards Greg Biffle
September 28 Camping World RV 400 presented by Coleman Kansas Speedway
Kansas City, Kansas
Greg Biffle≠ Jimmie Johnson
October 5 AMP Energy 500 Talladega Superspeedway
Talladega, Alabama
Jeff Gordon Tony Stewart
October 11 Bank of America 500 Lowe's Motor Speedway
Concord, North Carolina
Jeff Gordon Jeff Burton
October 19 TUMS QuikPak 500 Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville, Virginia
Jimmie JohnsonJimmie Johnson
October 26 Pep Boys Auto 500 Atlanta Motor Speedway
Hampton, Georgia
Jimmie JohnsonCarl Edwards
November 2 Dickies 500 Texas Motor Speedway
Fort Worth, Texas
Jimmie JohnsonCarl Edwards
November 9 Checker Auto Parts 500 Phoenix International Raceway
Avondale, Arizona
Jimmie JohnsonJimmie Johnson
November 16 Ford 400 Homestead-Miami Speedway
Homestead, Florida
Matt Kenseth Carl Edwards

 — Non-qualifier for the 2007 Chase.
Italics denotes non-qualifier for 2008 chase.
 – Denotes night race or race that will start in the late afternoon and finish at night.

Television

This marked the second year of exclusive national television coverage of the Chase for the Sprint Cup on ABC. Dr. Jerry Punch remained in the play-by-play position, with Andy Petree in one color commentary position, but there were changes in the booth and host position.

Brent Musburger and Suzy Kolber were out in the host position, and former MRN Radio, TNT and NBC play-by-play voice Allen Bestwick took their place after spending the 2007 season on pit road. Joining him were 1989 NASCAR series champion Rusty Wallace and JTG Daugherty Racing owner and former Cleveland Cavaliers center Brad Daugherty in the on-site studio, while 1999 series champion Dale Jarrett took Wallace's spot in the broadcast booth and Shannon Spake replaced Bestwick on pit road, joining Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Mike Massaro.

Results

NOTE: Actual race finish in parentheses.

Race One: 2008 Sylvania 300

Race Two: 2008 Camping World RV 400

Race Three: 2008 Camping World RV 400 presented by Coleman

Race Four: 2008 AMP Energy 500

Race Five: 2008 Bank of America 500

Race Six: 2008 TUMS QuikPak 500

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>NASCAR Inside Nextel Cup</i>

NASCAR Inside Nextel Cup was a show that aired Monday nights on Speed Channel during the NASCAR season. Inside Nextel Cup was hosted by Dave Despain. The show was taped every Monday morning at Speed's studios in Charlotte, North Carolina about 11 am, unless a race is postponed to Monday, in which case the show takes place live. The show usually ran for 60 minutes, except for a brief period during the first few weeks of the 2005 season, when it ran for 90 minutes. Speed Channel chose to discontinue this show at the end of the 2007 NASCAR season, replacing it in 2008 with the similar program This Week in NASCAR.

Allen Bestwick American sportscaster

Allen Bestwick is an American sportscaster. He is the lead play-by-play voice for University of Connecticut women’s basketball telecasts for SportsNet New York, the lead track announcer at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the lead broadcaster for the Superstar Racing Experience racing series.

Kevin Harvick American racing driver

Kevin Michael Harvick, nicknamed "The Closer" and "Happy Harvick," is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Martin Truex Jr. American racing driver

Martin Lee Truex Jr. is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. He is the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion and a two-time Xfinity Series champion, having won two consecutive championships in 2004 and 2005.

Clint Bowyer American racecar driver

Clinton Edward Bowyer is an American former professional stock car racing driver and commentator for NASCAR on Fox.

Michael Waltrip Racing Former NASCAR team

Michael Waltrip Racing Holdings LLC, doing business as Michael Waltrip Racing ("MWR"), was an American professional stock car racing team that last competed full-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The company was as a 50–50 partnership between Robert Kauffman, the founder and managing partner of Fortress Investment Group, and two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip, who first established the team in 1996 in the Busch Series. The team was the first full-time three-car team to field Toyota Camrys when Toyota entered the Sprint Cup racing fold in 2007, before being joined by Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008. MWR was also the last original Toyota team in the Sprint Cup Series to still be in operation, as Bill Davis Racing and Red Bull Racing Team had both ceased operations in the preceding years.

<i>NASCAR on ESPN</i> US television program

NASCAR on ESPN is the now-defunct former package and branding of coverage of NASCAR races on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC. ABC, and later the ESPN family of networks, carried NASCAR events from the sanctioning body's top three divisions at various points from the early 1960s until 2002, after the Truck Series rights were lost. However, ESPN resumed coverage of NASCAR with the Nationwide Series race at Daytona in February 2007 and the then-Nextel Cup Series at Indianapolis in July 2007. ESPN's final race was the Ford EcoBoost 400 at the Homestead–Miami Speedway on November 16, 2014, with Kevin Harvick winning that year's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

<i>NASCAR on NBC</i> Coverage of NASCAR races on NBC Sports

NASCAR on NBC is the branding used for broadcasts of NASCAR races that are produced by NBC Sports, and televised on several NBCUniversal-owned television networks, including the NBC broadcast network in the United States. The network originally aired races, typically during the second half of the season, from 1999 to 2006.

Motor Racing Network (MRN) is a U.S. radio network that syndicates broadcasts of auto racing events, particularly NASCAR. MRN was founded in 1970 by NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. and broadcaster Ken Squier, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of NASCAR. Its first broadcast was the 1970 Daytona 500.

2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series 59th season of NASCAR stock-car racing

The 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series was the 59th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 36th modern-era Cup series. Beginning on February 10 at Daytona International Speedway with the Budweiser Shootout, the season ended on November 18 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Ford 400. The Chase for the Nextel Cup started with the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway and was contested over the final ten races.

The television and radio rights to broadcast NASCAR on television and radio are one of the most expensive rights of any American sport, with the current television contract with Fox Sports and NBC Sports being worth around US$8 billion.

The 2007 Chase for the Nextel Cup was the ten-race playoffs which concluded the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup season. It began with the Sylvania 300 on September 16, 2007 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and ended with the Ford 400 on November 18 of the same year at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with Jimmie Johnson winning the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship.

NASCAR Countdown is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series prerace show that debuted on February 17, 2007. It was a live on-site pre-race show for all Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races televised on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. It came as a result of ESPN getting broadcast rights to NASCAR races, including the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

<i>NASCAR Now</i>

NASCAR Now was a NASCAR news and analysis show that aired year round Tuesday through Saturday as a thirty-minute show at 2:00am ET on ESPN2. NASCAR Now, that debuted on February 5, 2007, was broadcast in HD from Bristol, Connecticut and also had a daily segment on SportsCenter. ESPN2 also aired editions of the show on the day of all NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, starting with the Daytona 500. A race preview show aired at 10 A.M. ET on race day, with a post-race edition running on ESPN2 on the evening following the event.

<i>NASCAR on TNT</i>

NASCAR on TNT was the tagname for any NASCAR series race that had been broadcast on TNT by Turner Sports between 2001 and 2014. The network continued Turner's longstanding relationship with NASCAR that dated back to its initial association with TBS Superstation.

2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 60th season of NASCAR stock-car racing

The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was the 60th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 37th modern-era Cup season. It was contested over thirty-six races, and began on February 9 at Daytona International Speedway with the Budweiser Shootout exhibition race, followed by the 50th Daytona 500 on February 17. The season continued with the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup beginning on September 14 with the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and concluded with the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 16.

Chris Buescher American racecar driver

Christopher William Buescher is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 17 Ford Mustang for RFK Racing. He is the 2012 ARCA Racing Series and 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion and the cousin of 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion James Buescher.

Carl Edwards American racing driver (born 1979)

Carl Michael Edwards II is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. Prior to that, he drove the No. 99 Ford Fusion for Roush Fenway Racing. He won the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series championship and nearly won the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title, but lost by a tiebreaker to Tony Stewart. Edwards is well known for doing a backflip off his car to celebrate his victories.

Until 2001, race tracks struck individual agreements with networks to broadcast races, but NASCAR wanted to capitalize on the growing popularity of the sport and announced in 1999 that television contracts would now be centralized; that is, instead of making agreements with individual tracks, networks would now negotiate directly with NASCAR for the rights to air a package of races.

On December 7, 2005, NASCAR signed a new eight-year broadcast deal effective with the 2007 season, and valued at $4.48 billion, with Fox and Speed Channel, which would also share event rights with Disney-owned ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, as well as TNT. The rights would be divided as follows:

References

  1. "NASCAR.com: Predicting the 2008 Chase for the Cup champ?". Archived from the original on 2012-03-24. Retrieved 2008-03-04.
Preceded by NASCAR seasons
2008
Succeeded by