NASCAR: Five Lessons Learned From New Hamsphire
McMurray, Dillon, Stewart And Buescher Need Help To Move On
This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, but Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher need help and a little bit of luck if they hope to make it out of the Round of 16.
Chris Buescher specifically is in the worst spot of these three drivers and will need to pull off a win at Dover next week if he hopes to continue competing in the Chase.
McMurray, Dillon and Stewart aren’t too far off the Chase cut off line but these three drivers have not been running well and Dillon barely made it in the Chase on points, so unless he can completely change how he’s been running, he won’t be moving on to the next round.
He finished 33rd earlier this year at Dover, and if he struggles again his Chase hopes will be over.
Tony Stewart is a little further behind than Dillon but let’s be honest here; Smoke ran well for one part of the regular season, earning a victory at Sonoma, but he’s been so unimpressive in the Chase that it’s unlikely he’ll be able to pull off a win on Sunday.
McMurray is probably in the best spot of all these drivers to be able to move onto the next round, but he’ll be competing against his teammate Kyle Larson who is just one spot above him in the standings.
The problem McMurray faces is that Larson has a solid chance of out-running him next weekend as he almost won the Dover race earlier this year. If Larson puts on a similar performance McMurray won’t be able to make the next round unless someone above Larson takes a major hit.
Will luck be on their side? We’ll find out next week at Dover, but these four drivers are not where they want to be coming out of New Hampshire.