The planned to take care of the nitty-gritty of the Chase to the Sprint Cup Championship — to set the field of 12 for the Chase — on Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway in Virginia.

NASCAR will get Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin and the rest of the dueling dozen out and about this week to hype up its 10-week dash to the cash that will commence next Sunday in Joliet, Ill., home of Chicagoland Speedway.

Then the Sprint Cup series hits a little closer to home for Race Two, the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

The Gappens Gang will be ready.

“I think everything is going well,” said Jerry Gappens, executive vice president and general manager at NHMS. “From a ticket standpoint, we’re a couple of percentage points ahead of where we were last year and in this day and age that’s always a plus. And from a facilities standpoint, it seems a litter easier go of it in September than July. We’ve already got the July race under our belt and eight weeks later we come back and do the same thing. It feels good.”

Ticket sales actually went from a few percentage points down to a couple up in the last couple of weeks, Gappens said.

“We’ve got a little momentum and ticket sales have been real strong this week,” he said.

He attributes the swing to some close and exciting Sprint Cup races in recent weeks to go with several developing story lines, including what has been a tight Chase race to determine who gets the two wild card spots that are based on wins.

Kasey Kahne, who won his second race of the season at New Hampshire in July, has one wrapped up with his two wins and Kyle Busch has the inside track on about a half dozen drivers trying to get the second.

And once the Chase gets started?

Denny Hamlin ripped off wins the last two weeks going into Saturday night’s race at Richmond and suddenly is the hottest driver in the garage. He’ll have to deal with the likes of Greg Biffle and Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart and — pick one — a few other serious contenders for the title.

“Honestly, it’s as wide open as it’s ever been,” said Frank Stoddard, the Sprint Cup car owner from North Haverhill. “It’s so wide open.”

Stoddard proceeded to rip off the names of at least half the field, all perfectly capable of racing their way to a championship.

“I can tell you this, Brad Keselowski, when it starts, will be extremely difficult to deal with,” Stoddard said.

He said much the same about Stewart and Jimmie Johnson and a couple of others.

Gappens is just happy to have one of the 10 Chase events.

In that vein, Gappens said NASCAR has been in discussion with its tracks about sanctioning and dates for next year and it appears likely that NHMS will have the same two Cup dates next year, the first in mid-July, the other in September.

“I think it’s tremendous for our fans that we’re one of the 10 races in the Chase,” Gappens said. “When it comes to determining a champion, we have an impact on that. Only 10 tracks can say that.”

The Sylvania 300 race weekend has been tweaked some.

In the past, the Camping World Trucks have raced at NHMS in September. This year, the Trucks are part of a doubleheader the same weekend with the Nationwide Series at Kentucky Motor Speedway.

The change is not set in stone for future years, but Gappens likes the fact NHMS gets to go with a regional approach, and a lowered ticket price, on Saturday, Sept. 22.

The featured race is the F.W. Webb 100 NASCAR Whelen Modified event at 12:15 and it will be followed by the G-Oil 100 K&N Pro Series East race at 2:30 and the Bond Auto Parts ACT Invitational at 4:30.

Sprint Cup pole qualifying is on Friday afternoon and there will be Cup practice on Saturday.

The Sylvania 300 on Sunday is set for 2 p.m.

Travis Tritt is part of the pre-race entertainment on Sunday and Jamie Lee Thurston, a Vermont native, will perform during the free FanFest that runs from 5:30 to 10 p.m. on Thursday night.

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Brett Moffitt leads the K&N point standings heading into the race at NHMS. He’s followed by Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Corey Lajoie and Eddie MacDonald, the driver out of Rowley, Mass., whose parents own Lee USA Speedway.

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The ACT is down to one race to go and Wayne Helliwell Jr. of Dover owns an eight-point lead over defending champion Brian Hoar of Vermont.

The NHMS race does not count in the point standings and the last of 10 races in the series is at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, N.Y., on Oct. 6.

Austin Theriault of Maine holds down the third spot in the standings and Joey Polewarczyk Jr. of Hudson is fourth.

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Allen Lessels covers UNH football for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. He may be reached at alessels@unionleader.com.