Next Stop, New Hampshire Motor Speedway for Sunday’s SYLVANIA 300, the second race of the 2015 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. For The Sixteen Challengers on the Chase Grid, there are 3,194.98 “Miles-2-Miami” remaining. The ten-race title series will conclude November 22nd at Homestead-Miami Speedway, at which time only four will remain in championship contention. The next two races will complete the Challenger Round of the post-season, after which the bottom four drivers will be eliminated. Any one of The Sixteen Challengers that wins a race in New Hampshire or next weekend at Dover will automatically advance to the Contender Round that opens October 10th in Charlotte.

Denny Hamlin has already written his name into the next round with his victory last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway … Jeff Gordon will make his 789th consecutive start on Sunday, breaking Ricky Rudd’s record of 788 that was set from 1981 through 2005. Gordon has not missed a race since debuting in NASCAR’s top division in 1992 … Kurt Busch, the Number-7 seed in this year’s Chase who is currently tied with Joey Logano for fifth place in the standings, may be without crew chief Tony Gibson for a portion of the weekend. Gibson had an emergency appendectomy on Tuesday. He’s expected to travel to New England as early as today or as late as Saturday afternoon. Busch is a three-time winner at New Hampshire.