Chase race comes to Fontana

As the NASCAR Nextel Cup series returns to California Speedway this weekend, attention is focused on which 12 drivers will make the series’ Chase for the Cup championship playoff.

Only the Sharp Aquos 500 on Sunday night and the following week’s race at Richmond (Va.) International Speedway are left to decide who makes the 10-race Chase.

Cup practice starts today at 11:30 a.m. at the two-mile California Speedway oval in Fontana, and qualifying starts at 3 p.m. to determine the starting lineup for Sunday’s 43-car race.

The track also will host a NASCAR Busch Series race Saturday at 7 p.m., and the 250-lap Cup race Sunday is scheduled at 5 p.m., meaning it will start as the sun is setting and finish under the lights.

Kasey Kahne of Gillett Evernham Motorsports won the Cup race a year ago, and Kurt Busch of Penske Racing South won the pole position.

Like any popular sport, NASCAR is constantly drawing new fans, and some might not be totally familiar with the Chase. The format also was tweaked this year, so even veteran fans might not know all the details.

So here’s an overview of how the Chase works:

Question: What is the Chase and why was it created?

Answer: The Chase was started in 2004 to create more late-season excitement in NASCAR and keep interest high in stock-car racing as the baseball season is ending and football season is well underway.

The Chase is essentially a playoff among the qualifying drivers to see which one wins the series championship, the Nextel Cup.

Q: Who qualifies and how?

A: The Cup season has 36 races. The 12 drivers with the most points after the first 26 races are eligible to compete for the title in the last 10 -- the Chase. The race Sunday night at California Speedway is the 25th race, so the Chase lineup will be locked in after the Sept. 8 race at Richmond.

Q: Does that mean the other drivers stay home?

A: No. The final 10 races include the full 43-car field like any other Cup race. But only the 12 drivers in the Chase are in contention for the title. Essentially, the Chase provides a “race within a race.”

Q: Do the drivers in the Chase keep the points they had after the first 26 races?

A: No. All 12 drivers start the Chase with 5,000 points. But in one of NASCAR’s tweaks this year, Chase drivers who won races during the “regular season” get an extra 10 points for each win.

For instance, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson each have a series-high four wins this year for Hendrick Motorsports. So if the Chase began today, they each would start with 5,040 points.

Q: What other tweaks were made this year?

A: The other main change was widening the Chase field to 12 drivers from 10.

The change was to help ensure that the sport’s biggest names had a chance of making the playoff. But even that change isn’t likely to help NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is 13th in points and unlikely to make the Chase for the second time in three years.

Q: When does the Chase start and end?

A: The first race is Sept. 16 at New Hampshire International Speedway, and the last one is Nov. 18 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway, where the champion will be crowned.

Q: What’s the incentive for the non-Chase drivers to finish well during the final 10 races?

A: Race victories, prize money, additional points can help them automatically qualify for future races, and the need to keep pleasing their sponsors who are paying for exposure through NASCAR’s entire season.

Q: Who are the favorites in this year’s Chase?

A: The list must start with Gordon, a four-time champion who has a wide lead in the current points thanks partly to his four victories. But Johnson also has four wins and is the reigning title holder.

Busch, Tony Stewart of Joe Gibbs Racing and Matt Kenseth of Roush Fenway Racing also are former champs and know what it takes to win it all.

And Gibbs’ Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards of Roush Fenway also have won races in recent weeks, so they have momentum going into the Chase.

In other words, it’s wide open.

“This is going to be the most exciting Chase we’ve had yet,” said Johnson, whose first Cup victory came at the California Speedway in 2002. “We’ve got a deep, deep field of competitors ready for a championship.”

james.peltz@latimes.com

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The Chase

Nextel Cup standings through 24 of 36 races. After the 26th race of the season, all drivers in the top 12 will earn a berth in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

*--* Pl. Driver Points Behind 1. Jeff Gordon 3,582 -- 2. Tony Stewart 3,233 349 3. Denny Hamlin 3,229 353 4. Matt Kenseth 3,163 419 5. Carl Edwards 3,160 422 6. Jimmie Johnson 3,059 523 7. Jeff Burton 3,054 528 8. Kyle Busch 3,024 558 9. Clint Bowyer 2,944 638 10. Kevin Harvick 2,888 694 11. Martin Truex Jr. 2,887 695 12. Kurt Busch 2,879 703 13. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2,721 861 14. Ryan Newman 2,704 878 15. Greg Biffle 2,562 1,020 *--*