Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Elliott Sadler to battle it out for Nationwide Series – NASCAR
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Elliott Sadler will battle it out for the Nationwide Series at the Kansas Lottery 300 on Saturday as they are the only two drivers in with a realistic chance of winning the 2011 title.
All the talk in the Nationwide series this week has been about the termination of Reed Sorenson’s drive by Turner Motorsports. Sorenson was third in the Series championship and was 49 points behind the leader. The decision has come as a surprise to many
and is an indication of the difficult times that the Nationwide Series is going through.
With Sorenson out, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. looks in good shape and is the favourite for the 2011 championship. He leads the Championship by 29 points from second placed Elliott Sadler and with 5 races to go, he will be confident of maintaining that lead. Stenhouse
had a good run here in 2010 as a rookie, where he finished 6th in the standings.
Sadler will not have given up hope for this year’s championship and will know that all he needs is for Stenhouse to have a couple of bad races and he could capitalise on it. Sadler is still looking for his first Nationwide title and with NASCAR disallowing
drivers to compete for points in more than one series, this is a good chance for him to take advantage.
With Sorenson out of the series, Aric Almirola is the next closest driver to the top two, 74 points behind the leaders. So calling the series a two-horse race from now on can be justified.
Joey Logano, who is driving in the Sprint Cup, will be looking to defend his record of two consecutive wins at this track in the last 2 years. Logano is not eligible for points in the series as he is running in the Sprint Cup this year.
The Owner’s Championship is also getting interesting, with the number 18 of Joe Gibbs leading the number 60 of Jack Roush by 13 points. Kyle Busch usually drives the number 18 but he has withdrawn from it to concentrate on the Sprint Cup. Joey Logano will
be driving in his place and Joe Gibbs will be hoping he can win the race and extend the lead over Carl Edward’s number 60.
Chase regulars Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard will also be running in the race to get a feel of the track before the Sprint Cup race on Sunday.
The practice for the race is scheduled for Friday, October 7, 2011 12:30pm Eastern Time (ET). The qualifying will be held on Saturday 10am ET and the race will start at 3:30pm ET on Saturday, October 8.
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