FanHouse Warmup: Richmond

Where: Richmond Int'l Raceway
Time: Saturday night 7:30pm/EDT
TV/Radio: ESPN, Motor Racing Network
Twitter: Updates @ FanHouseRacing
Forecast: Mid-60s, Partly Cloudy
Distance: 400 laps (300 miles)
Pole Winner: Mark Martin
2008 Winner: Jimmie Johnson


Pressure? What Pressure? Four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon is one of those four drivers that have nothing but a race win to battle for on Saturday night thanks to scoring enough points to earn a stranglehold of a guarantee on a Chase spot.

He's done it rather quietly, though, and he couldn't be happier with how that's worked in favor of his team heading into the 10-race scramble that follows Richmond.

"There's enough pressure from inside your team and on your own shoulders that you don't want anything adding to that," said Gordon on Friday when asked about if the reduced outside pressure to make and win the Chase is a good thing. "I'm just happy going into it. I've been on both sides of it. As close and as tight and competitive as this series is right now with these cars, I'd prefer to have that. If we had the dominate car that was just going to go wax everybody then I'm fine having the bulls-eye on my back, but that's not the case these days."

The newest expecting father in the Sprint Cup garage wasn't exactly having a good day on Friday while trying to get his No. 19 Dodge tuned up for practice and qualifying.

"We just have a demon in the car right now with our brakes," said Elliott Sadler. "We're not sure what's going to tell you the truth. We've been fighting them all day long and can't get it resolved. It's frustrating. At a track where brakes are most important, we're having brake issues."

Sadler will start 34th on Saturday night, and announced earlier in the week that he and his wife were expecting their first child in March. Kudos, sir.

If Kevin Harvick's confidence means anything for Saturday night, the Bakersfield, Calif., driver just might be stringing together two of his best weekends of 2009 together after Saturday night's race.

Harvick took second place last week at Atlanta for his best finish of what has been a struggle of a 2009 season for the No. 29 group, and from all accounts in both his quotes and Twitter posts, Richmond should be decent as well.

"We're breaking in a brand new car this weekend, and we were pretty good in race trim in practice today," said Harvick after qualifying 19th.

Earlier, he posted to his Twitter account that both his Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series cars were good (he finished 2nd in Nationwide on Friday) and it "should be a fun weekend."

Just two weeks ago, Harvick and team owner Richard Childress confirmed they'd still be working together in 2010 and perhaps that bode of confidence to the team has lit a fire for an end-of-season positive swing.

Carl Edwards, broken foot and all, won the Nationwide Series race at Richmond on Friday.

Strangely, it's not the foot that's been hurting him the most.

"My foot is good," said Edwards. "It's better than my arm pits from these crutches."

Juan Pablo Montoya, currently 8th in points and looking to earn his first ever entry in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, led the pack Friday afternoon in the second and final practice for Saturday night's race. He'll line up 14th on the grid, though.

Montoya's qualifying run put him sixth on the grid of the 11 drivers in contention for a Chase spot. Knowing that, here's how each of those drivers can make a run into the Chase at the end of the 400-lapper -- courtesy of NASCAR statistical services:

#99-Carl Edwards is currently 105 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver's finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
-- 24th or better
-- 25th and leads at least one lap or
-- 27th and leads most laps.

#9-Kasey Kahne is currently 96 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver's finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
-- 21st or better
-- 23rd and leads at least one lap or
-- 24th and leads most laps.

#2-Kurt Busch is currently 95 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver's finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
-- 20th or better
-- 22nd and leads at least one lap or
-- 24th and leads most laps.

#42-Juan Pablo Montoya is currently 88 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver's finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
-- 18th or better
-- 20th and leads at least one lap or
-- 21st and leads the most laps.

#39-Ryan Newman is currently 81 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver's finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
-- 16th or better
-- 17th and leads at least one lap or
-- 19th and leads the most laps.

#5-Mark Martin is currently 69 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver's finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
-- 12th or better
-- 14th and leads at least one lap or
-- 15th and leads the most laps.

#16-Greg Biffle is currently 68 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver's finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
-- 11th or better
-- 13th and leads at least one lap or
-- 15th and leads the most laps.

#17-Matt Kenseth is currently 20 points ahead of 13th place. Regardless of any other driver's finish, he will clinch if he finishes:
-- Second and leads at least one lap.
-- Third and leads the most laps.

#83-Brian Vickers currently sits 13th, 17 points ahead of #18-Kyle Busch. He would need to gain 21 points on Kenseth and stay ahead of Busch to clinch a Chase spot. Busch, 37 points behind 12th, needs to gain 17 points on Vickers and 37 points on Kenseth to clinch.

#00-David Reutimann, 132 points behind Kenseth, has an outside shot at clinching. He would have to gain 133 points on Kenseth. A maximum of 161 points can be made up in a given race.

Geoffrey Miller: Kyle Busch