Keselowski in the Lead Heading to New Hampshire

Coming off his win last week at Chicagoland Speedway, Brad Keselowski is on top of the point standings for the first time in his Sprint Cup Series career. He has a three-point lead over five-time series champion Jimmie

Johnson after the first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. The winner of the first Chase race has gone on to become champion just twice.

Kurt Busch did it in 2004 and Tony Stewart did it last year.

Keselowski deserves to be where he’s at because he scored more points than any other driver during the final 10 races of the regular season.

Race two in the Chase is this Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It’s a track where Keselowski has yet to win in six tries. He does have three top-10’s there with his best finish coming last year when he came in second.

Tony Stewart won last year's Chase race at New Hampshire. He took the lead with just two laps to go when Clint Bowyer ran out of gas. He had won the week before at Chicagoland and won three more races on his way to the season championship.

Stewart came in sixth last week at Chicagoland and stands eight points behind Keselowski.

New Hampshire is one of Stewart's best tracks. He has posted three wins, 14-top-five finishes and 16 top-10s in 27 races there.

Heading to New Hampshire, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Bowyer are each 15 points out of the lead.

Jeff Gordon battled his way into a spot in the Chase field but had a terrible day at Chicagoland coming in 35th. He stands dead last in the standings, 47 points back after just one race.

Danica Patrick has a new crew chief on her GoDaddy.com Nationwide Series team. Tony Eury, Jr. is out – Ryan Pemberton is in.