The NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup starts on Sunday after a wild week for the sport and with the Geico 400 at Chicago coming at the Chicagoland Speedway, there will be 13 drivers in the playoffs gunning for the championship and the race will start up just after 2 pm.
The race has plenty of controversy surrounding it after what happened at Richmond last week and now Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon will both be in the field for the playoffs when the green flag drops down on Sunday afternoon. Gordon was put into the Chase as a wild card as the 13th driver after it was found that Joey Logano may have had some help in the race last week at Richmond and now for the first time an extra driver will be involved in the chase. Newman was also put in after some drama, as there was a spinout at the race that may have cost him the chance to win and get into the Chase and NASCAR made a move and also levied fines after what happened.
Click here for the NASCAR Chase coverage or for more coverage from SWR.
NASCAR announced that it was going to put Gordon in after Joey Logano just made it into the Chase and after Gordon was squeezed out, the organization decided that he deserved a chance to compete. Newman appeared to have his chance to get into the Chase before what happened and NASCAR felt they had no choice but to make the move and now both drivers are in. The first big issue happened with Newman, as Clint Bowyer spun out in a controversial way and he ended up falling short and then NASCAR decided to put Newman in and knocked Martin Truex out after the move helped him qualify for the Chase.
The new updated standings for the Chase had Matt Kenseth in first with Jimmie Johnson behind him and then after that is Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Joey Logano. Finishing out the rest of the top 10 includes Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt, and Kurt Busch, while Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon are at the bottom spots.
The field for the Chase has enough drama added to it to make the playoffs exciting and continuing things, Logano won the pole for the race on Sunday and Brad Keselowski will have a front row look at the Chase as defending champion, but this season he didn't qualify and this all comes after Logano was involved in the controversy with David Gilliland. Logano set the track record after Johnson and now Gordon will also be in the race for the first time as a 13th driver and NASCAR decided that was the best move to keep things fair after what happened to him.