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Tony Stewart’s victory in Sunday’s Bass Pro Shops 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway shows among other things just how competitive the Nextel Cup Series can be.

Stewart in the 500 and moved to second in the standings, 26 points behind leader Matt Kenseth, who finished fourth. “There are more than 10 teams capable of winning the championship.”

This sport is really tough,” said Jimmie Johnson, who finished second to Stewart in the 500 and moved to second in the standings, 26 points behind leader Matt Kenseth, who finished fourth. “There are more than 10 teams capable of winning the championship.”

Stewart said he’s not trying to prove a point or ignite a debate about the Chase. He said he and his crew are in a totally different position than the drivers in the Chase.

“We’re just trying to win races, especially [Sunday],” he said, adding that not having the pressure of a title run makes it easier to win. “We don’t have to worry about anybody but ourselves. I’m sure Matt Kenseth and [Dale Earnhardt Jr.] and all those guys are worried about where the other nine guys in the Chase are. It just takes the pressure off of us. … Once we missed the Chase at Richmond, that was it.”

Stewart, the defending series champion, missed the cut for the Chase by 16 points, but he has been a top performer since the start of the 10-race “playoffs.” Besides his two victories — at Atlanta and Kansas — he has a second at New Hampshire and a fourth at Martinsville.

Kenseth said those results not only say a lot about the sport but about Stewart and his team, too. “Tony’s pretty much a threat to win at any kind of racetrack,” he said.   Sunday’s 500, which started under sunny skies and ended under the lights, boiled down to a battle between drivers sponsored by competing do-it-yourself home-improvement stores, with Stewart’s Home Depot-sponsored Chevy coming out on top by a couple of car-lengths over Johnson’s Lowe’s-backed car.

Earnhardt, who took the lead by not stopping for tires on the race’s next-to-last caution period at lap 306, quickly surrendered the top spot to Stewart, but he held his ground and edged Matt Kenseth by inches to take third. Greg Biffle finished fifth.  Earnhardt said his decision not to pit was the wrong call. “The duration of the race got to my decision-making process,” he said.

In the big points picture, Earnhardt, Johnson, Denny Hamlin (finished eighth) and Jeff Burton (13th) scored victories of sorts as they remain within 100 points of Kenseth with three races remaining.  Hamlin, who moved into the top 10 late in the race after running in mid-pack for most of the afternoon, still wasn’t smiling afterward. “I can’t get a grip on this racetrack,” he said. “Never have and don’t know if I will in the foreseeable future.”   But the foreseeable future — the three remaining tracks on the schedule this year at Texas, Phoenix and Homestead — looks far brighter for Hamlin and those around him on the points chart than it does for Mark Martin, Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne, all of whom likely saw their chances of contending for the title fade at AMS.

Martin and Kahne were involved in separate late-race crashes in turn 1. Busch spun on lap 4 and never seemed to recover, finishing 27th, four laps off the pace.  Kahne’s plans to win the race — and his bid to move up in the title run — came grinding to a halt when he moved to the right and ran into David Stremme as the two entered turn 1 on lap 249.  Kahne, a winner at AMS in March and a six-time victor this season, took the blame for the crash, saying he was thinking ahead to his next move rather than concentrating on the turn ahead.

“I knew he was there,” Kahne said. “I just ran over him. … The track was coming to us. It was a matter of time, and we were going to be leading that thing, and it was going to be fast. But driver error.”  Martin appeared to be a victim of drivers ahead of him stacking up and slowing unexpectedly just after a restart at lap 310.   “We were fighting and scrapping for it,” he said. “We’ve got three more races, and we’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”

Martin, Kahne and Busch are more than 200 points behind Kenseth.  Kevin Harvick dropped four positions in the standings to sixth after another dismal run at AMS. His 31st-place finish was his sixth consecutive outside the top 20 at AMS, the track where he got his first Cup victory in 2001 in his first appearance at the track.

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Jimmie Johnson won the battle and took a huge step forward in the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup by winning the SUBWAY 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Martinsville Speedway Sunday.

 With the .544-second win over Denny Hamlin, Johnson climbed from seventh to third in the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup standings.  “I’m happy to finish where we should have,” Johnson said after his 23^rd career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup victory and his second Martinsville win in three years. “We’ve been running up front the last three or four races and haven’t been able to close the deal and today we did.”  It was a topsy-turvy day in the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup standings, with nine of the 10 Chase drivers changing positions.

 Jeff Burton, who led the Chase coming into the SUBWAY 500 on the demanding Martinsville half-mile oval, was drop kicked back to fifth after finishing 42^nd. Burton was felled by engine trouble before the half-way point of the race.     Kevin Harvick finished ninth in the race but climbed a spot to second in the points while rookie Hamlin jumped two spots up to fourth with his finish.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was poised to make a huge jump in the points when he got caught up in a spin late in the race. Earnhardt turned around in fourth turn while trying to get past Kasey Kahne. If he had made the pass, he would have moved into second in the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup. He wound up finishing 22^nd and dropped one spot to sixth in the points.  “I made a mistake coming down in to turn three. I went into three and locked the brakes … a mistake on my part,” said Earnhardt. 

Bobby Labonte had the feel-good run of the day, finishing third in a Richard Petty-owned Dodge. Last year’s champion and Martinsville’s spring winner Tony Stewart was fourth, followed by Jeff Gordon.

Hamlin took a shot at getting past Johnson with less than five laps remaining. He got Johnson out of shape, but Johnson recovered and pulled away for the win.  “I knew being the leader we’d get a shot at some point and once I got pushed to the outside, I really felt like I was in trouble,” Johnson said of Hamlin’s challenge. “But I was able to rally back from the outside and get going. Once I got back going I knew I had a better car and could get away from him.”   Casey Mears had a strong sixth place finish, followed by Kahne, Jeff Green, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Petty. It was the first time since 1999 that Petty Enterprises had two cars finish in the top 10. It was a caution-filled day, with 18 yellow flags flying for a total of 107 laps. There were 16 lead changes among five drivers.

Kurt Busch started on the pole, but didn’t lead the first lap after being passed by Gordon.

Tags: Chase Points, NASCAR, Nextel Cup by betagnome
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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series’ present shared Homestead-Miami Speedway with a view to the future Monday as 56 2006 model racecars opened a three-day test at the 1.5-mile venue joined by seven 2007 models.

For the first time, the “standard” 2007 Toyota Camry shared a Nextel Cup venue on the same day with the 2007 “Car of Tomorrow” and a significant number of current cars that were preparing for the season-finale Ford 400 on Nov. 19.

Jeremy Mayfield, in the first of Bill Davis’ new intermediate configuration Camrys to hit the racetrack, put it into the top 10 on the evening time sheet despite spending most of the day concentrating on race runs.

With new Chip Ganassi Racing pilot Juan Pablo Montoya an interested observer, Ganassi drivers Casey Mears — who seriously threatened to win the 2006 season finale Ford 400 here and is still seeking his first Nextel Cup win — and Reed Sorenson posted the quickest times in the three-hour night session and four-hour afternoon set, respectively.

Richard Childress Racing teammates Jeff Burton, the series championship leader and Kevin Harvick were the fastest of the 10 Chase for the Nextel Cup drivers who tested, in the morning [fourth overall] and evening [eighth overall], respectively.

With no significant incidents stopping practice, Mears, who like many of the 35 drivers on track for the test shared two cars, had the top two speeds of the day, during the evening at 31.20 seconds, an average speed of 173.077 mph, in a No. 42 Dodge and 31.262 / 172.734 in a No. 42B Charger.

In the warmer afternoon session, Sorenson’s No. 41B car was clocked at 31.459 seconds, 171.652 mph, followed by Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 1 Dale Earnhardt Incorporated Chevrolet (31.463) and Mears’ No. 42B (31.465).

Chase for the Nextel Cup contenders Burton (31.473) and Kyle Busch (31.475) rounded out the afternoon’s top five.

In the evening Truex (31.319), Robby Gordon (31.333) and Greg Biffle (31.338) rounded out the top five.

Despite the fact that three of the five races remaining in the 2006 Chase are on 1.5-mile speedways, both Harvick, who is third in the Chase and Burton agreed that Homestead was a bit different.

In fact, on Monday, Mears’ best lap was significantly slower than Carl Edwards‘ Bud Pole lap of a year ago, which was in 176.051 mph, but Harvick, who said he was testing both a new and a used Monte Carlo, said his team saw a particular value to the test.

“It seems like we’re running the same speeds we ran last year,” Harvick said. “We’ve got a new car, and it’s good to be able to shake a car down and take some time with it, rather than show up and go with what you’ve got.”

Burton went so far as to say that conditions would be so different on the Nov. 17-19 finale weekend for the Craftsman Truck, Busch and Nextel Cup Series to render it very difficult to determine what track conditions would exactly be like.

“Homestead’s pretty unique and there is really no other track that we’ve run that’s like this,” Burton said. “But I think if done properly, a test is something that you can use for a lot of places.

“There’s a tremendous amount of things we don’t have time to do on [race] weekends that we can do at a test, so without a doubt there are things we’ll be able to try [Monday and Tuesday] that we couldn’t try on a normal race weekend.

“But it’s too early to talk about next month, to be quite honest. The track is going to be way more rubbered-up. With three races on that weekend, there’s a lot that’s going to happen between now and then.

That’s not to say he’s not confident.

“Currently I feel pretty good about our cars because they’re both fast and they drive pretty well,” he said. “We brought two different styles of cars, trying to learn something and I think we could make both of them work.”

The Homestead test is also open to teams to test their Car of Tomorrow prototypes. Five teams opted to do that Monday and Burton said RCR’s COT would be at the track Tuesday.

Carl Edwards was the only driver who put in a significant number of laps in both vehicles Monday, as his team had one of each, as did Roush Racing teammate Jamie McMurray.

Edwards didn’t run his COT in the afternoon session, when his standard car ran a seventh best lap of 31.52 seconds. In the evening, Edwards’ standard car was only about three tenths faster than his COT, which was the fastest example at the test, 31.534 seconds to 31.828 for the COT.

McMurray ran most of the day in the COT, which was fully painted and decaled. His standard car ran 31.823 seconds, five one-hundredths of a second faster than Edwards’ COT — but McMurray’s COT was the slowest of 58 cars that ran in the evening, at 32.477.

Dave Blaney (Bill Davis Racing Toyota), Johnny Benson (Wyler Racing Toyota) and Kerry Earnhardt (DEI Chevrolet) also tested COT prototypes.

Mayfield, who said his BDR team had a number of different nose configurations to try on its standard Camry but worked primarily on front suspension geometry Monday, was seventh in the evening speed chart at 31.353 seconds, slightly better than Mike Skinner’s Team Red Bull Camry, which was 45th on the sheet at 31.755.

“The thing ran good, and we just kept working on it all day and kept getting it better and better,” Mayfield said. “We ran it in race configuration and then got it to where both Dave and I were comfortable with it on long runs.

“We kept working on it and giving it what it needed and it came in real well there, at the end. We were going to go out and try to be a little quicker yet, at the end but the track tightened up on us.”

The Car of Tomorrow is the culmination of a five-year design program by NASCAR’s Research and Development Center. The new car will begin competition in 2007 at the spring race at Bristol Motor Speedway and will race at 16 different events next season, 26 events in 2008 and all 36 events in 2009.

The Homestead-Miami test marks the final of six designated 2006 tests for Nextel Cup teams. At the beginning of this season, NASCAR instituted a new testing policy to “encourage a more level field of competition and help teams be more cost efficient.”

The teams could only test at six venues that were used for Cup events this season: Daytona, Las Vegas, Richmond, Charlotte, Indianapolis, and Homestead.

Source: Nascar.com

Tags: NASCAR, Nextel Cup by betagnome
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The Bank of America 500 was not much different than the many other races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The same familiar face; Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Kyle Busch; were running up in the front for most of the race. The race itself was clean and drama-free until lap 243 when Mark Martin suffered from a race-ending wreck.
To the dismay of other drivers, that event created a domino effect that impacted others like Jeff Gordon who with 33 laps to go suffered an engine failure. The other championship drivers faired as follows:
1. (Leader) Jeff Burton, or “Ice Man” as Earnhardt Jr refers to him, finished 3rd and posted yet another top 5 finish in this year’s Chase for the Championship. In 5 races, Burton has 1 win, 2 top 5’s, and 2 top 10’s.
2. (-45 points) Matt Kenseth finished 14th and captured five bonus points for leading the race. Kenseth will need to finish much higher in the remaining 5 races if he hopes to catch Burton
3. (-89 points) Kevin Harvick was busted for speeding on pit road late in the race. The penalty proved too costly for him to overcome and he finished in 18th place.
4. (-102 points) Mark Martin had a car that could win, and it showed early. At different points during the race, Martin had actually climbed high enough to take over the points lead. That came to end when on lap 243 when he wrecked with J.J. Yeeley. Martin was listed in 30th place when the checkered flag waved.
5. (-106 points) Dale Earnhardt Jr was strong for much of the night. He finished the race in 4th place, and collected 5 bonus points for leading the race.
6. (-137 points) Denny Hamlin’s “Golden Boy” status was lost in Saturday night’s Bank of America 500. The rookie wrecked on the first lap of the race, and never fully recovered from it. He finished 28th.
7. (-146 points) Jimmie Johnson finished 2nd and gained 10 points on leader Jeff Burton. Jimmie’s chances of winning the championship are now improved, but he’ll have to gain more than 10 points every week to catch Burton.
8. (-160 points) Kasey Kahne has posted back-to-back strong finishes by winning the Bank of America 500, and by finishing 2nd last week at Talladega. Let’s see if NASCAR’s most eligible bachelor can string together 5 more strong finishes to finish the season strong.
9. (-195 points) Kyle Busch is no longer pulling up the rear. Kid Vegas finished in 6th place and moved in front of Jeff Gordon in the points.
10. (-147 points) Jeff Gordon must be under a hex. The last three races must have been torturous for the 4 time NASCAR champion. In each race, Jeff ran strong only to have a disastrous finish at the end. Saturday night, Gordon lost an engine with 33 laps to go and finished 24th.

Tags: Chase Points, NASCAR, Nextel Cup by betagnome
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Everythingstockcar.com has a great set of race results posted HERE

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Since 2004 the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Championship has been decided by a kind of playoff system called The Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup. Sometimes this is called simply the Chase for the Cup. What is The Chase? Why does it exist? Who is eligible for it? Here is a primer on The Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup.

Answer

What is The Chase?

The Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup is NASCAR’s answer to the excitement of the playoffs found in other sports.

For the last ten races of the season all qualifying drivers have their points manually set. The point leader automatically gets 5,050 points, the second place driver gets 5,045 and so on, five points per position through all eligible drivers.

For the last ten races, NASCAR points are still assigned the same way as the rest of the season to determine the champion.

Since any lead a driver had in the points is automatically erased this format almost guarantees that the points battle will come down to the very last race. Usually multiple drivers still have a shot at winning the Championship right up until the very last lap.

The rest of the story is HERE

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Wow, Talladega Superspeedway put on a heck of a show today. The fans certainly got their money’s worth as this race was decided on the backstretch of the final lap. Brian Vickers was credited with the controversial victory after he caused Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to crash.Robert Yates Racing swept the front row as David Gilliland put his #38 on the pole. His teammate Dale Jarrett qualified second. Row two was made up of Hendrick Motorsports teammates and Cup Chasers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. The fifth starting spot went to Roush Racing’s Greg Biffle.

When the green flag flew Dale Jarrett dropped down from the outside line to lead lap one. However he quickly got shuffled back as Jamie McMurray and Jeff Gordon traded the lead back and forth.

The smooth repaving job seemed to really help stabilize the cars. The drivers made it all the way to lap 72 before the first yellow flag flew. That incident was for a blown tire and not “The Big One.”

Talladega Superspeedway was repaved this summer. The new pavement is much smoother than the old surface. Before, the cars would bounce around as they went over the bumps. This would unsettle the cars and sometimes would even cause a wreck.

With the new surface drivers seemed to have much more control and this UAW-Ford 500 was a safer race because of it.

We still had “The Big One” as Jimmie Johnson got into the back of Carl Edwards causing him to wiggle and make contact. This triggered a multi-car wreck that damaged Chasers Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick.

This the story of restrictor plate racing. One car has to lift off the gas, then somewhere five or six cars behind him someone can’t check up in time and the wreck is on. Maybe the “Car of Tomorrow” that NASCAR is working on will allow NASCAR to be done with the plates? We can only hope.  

With 22 laps to go Dale Earnhardt Jr. pulled low and took the lead with a strong three-wide move. What made this so impressive is that Dale Jr. made that pass without any drafting help! Clearly Jr. had a fast horse and was biding his time for most of the day.

The final restart came with just ten laps to go. Dale Jr. lead them to the green over Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers, Kasey Kahne and point leader Jeff Burton. On that final restart Jeff Burton pulled down out of line with a flat tire. This was a big event for the point standings.

On the backstretch of the final lap Jimmie Johnson got a run and pulled down to pass Earnhardt for the win. Johnson’s teammate Brian Vickers pulled down to go with him but misjudged it. Vickers clipped Johnson and both Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Junior wrecked.

The yellow flag flew and froze the field while Brian Vickers was still leading. This victory was Vickers’ first in the NEXTEL Cup series. Unfortunately it was won on a mistake. The fans were brutal as Vickers tried to celebrate his first NEXTEL Cup win.

Emotions are running high now, but it is important to remember that this was clearly just a mistake. Vickers had no intention of wrecking his teammate or Earnhardt to take the win.

1. Brian Vickers
2. Kasey Kahne
3. Kurt Busch
4. Matt Kenseth
5. Martin Truex Jr.
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Jeff Green
8. Mark Martin
9. Carl Edwards
10. Bobby Labonte

Jeff Burton’s late race problems allowed his Chasers to cut into his point lead significantly. We now have a real battle on our hands as the top five drivers are only 51 points apart. This battle is going to come down to the wire.

The top ten in points are now:

1. Jeff Burton -0
2. Matt Kenseth -6
3. Mark Martin -10
4. Kevin Harvick -33
5. Denny Hamlin -51
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -106
7. Jeff Gordon -147
8. Jimmie Johnson -156
9. Kasey Kahne -185
10. Kyle Busch -185

Next week the NEXTEL Cup series heads back to Lowes Motor Speedway for the only night race in The Chase. This Saturday night shootout under the lights is in NASCAR’s backyard. The majority of NASCAR teams are based in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. Everybody wants to win at Lowes because all of the teams’ friends and families are able to make it out to the race. The pressure is on as The Chase points have tightened dramatically.

All the stats are available HERE

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Stewart Ran Out Of Gas But Was Able To Coast Across The Line For The Kansas Win

Kansas Speedway was long criticized for not providing exciting racing. That all changed today as drivers were two and three wide all day long. The finish was exciting too as Tony Stewart coasted across the line out of fuel to take the win. The 2006 Banquet 400 had it all strategy, great racing and a thrilling finish. Kansas Speedway has finally arrived.

The front row was all Dodge as Kasey Kahne put his Evernham Motorsports Dodge on the pole with teammate and fellow Dodge driver Scott Riggs along side in second.

The second row was all Chevrolet as Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Brian Vickers qualified third and fourth. J.J. Yeley rounded out the top five in his Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet.

On lap fifteen Ryan Newman spun right in front of Chaser Jeff Burton.

In order to avoid the wreck Chasers Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick turned hard to the left and spun through the infield grass. None of the four cars involved seemed to take on any significant damage, but this could have been a huge event in the 2006 Chase For The Cup.

Jimmie Johnson took over the lead from Kasey Kahne after that incident. Then Scott Riggs and Clint Bowyer took their turns at the point.

After the early excitement that nearly eliminated three Chase For The Cup contenders there was much more Chaser excitement in this race.

Matt Kenseth struggled all day trying to make his car handle. Matt limped home in 23rd.

Rookie Denny Hamlin was caught speeding on pit road and had to fall to the rear of the field. Hamlin was involved in a wreck shortly after his pit road error and finished 18th.

Jeff Gordon also had problems as he had a fuel pressure problem late in the race. He coasted to pit road under green late in the race and couldn’t get the car running. Gordon suffered a DNF and finished 39th.

Late in the race Kasey Kahne ran out of fuel, dove towards pit road and spun the car. Kahne finished 33rd after he got the car righted, fueled and restarted.

Jimmie Johnson lead the most laps during the race and had a healthy lead late in the race over Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Because of the timing of the previous yellow everyone was just a few laps short on fuel. This caused a scramble late in the race as everyone had to dash to pit road for a splash of fuel.

Jimmie Johnson was headed for the pits when Kahne spun. Johnson turned back up onto the track assuming that the yellow flag was going to come out. When it didn’t Johnson lost a bunch of time on the track. When he did pit next time by he was penalized for too fast on pit road. Johnson ended up 14th.

Tony Stewart decided to try to stretch his fuel and steal the win. Tony ran out of fuel on the back stretch of the final lap. He coasted around on the apron and took the victory. Second place Casey Mears also ran out of fuel on the last lap and coasted home on the apron.

This bizarre finish was very exciting as it was in doubt right to the checkers.

Top Ten

1. Tony Stewart
2. Casey Mears
3. Mark Martin
4. Dale Jarrett
5. Jeff Burton
6. Carl Edwards
7. Kyle Busch
8. Brian Vickers
9. Clint Bowyer
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The Points

Jeff Burton held onto his point lead with a strong fifth place finish. Mark Martin was the top finisher among the Chasers and was rewarded with a jump from sixth up to third in points. Jeff Gordon was the biggest loser as he fell four places in the points to sixth.

The top ten in points are now:

1. Jeff Burton -0
2. Denny Hamlin -69
3. Mark Martin -70
4. Matt Kenseth -84
5. Kevin Harvick -96
6. Jeff Gordon -120
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -123
8. Jimmie Johnson -165
9. Kyle Busch -233
10. Kasey Kahne -273

Tags: Chase Points, NASCAR by betagnome
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Located in the Charlotte North Carolina area Lowes Motor Speedway is the home track of most NASCAR teams. This is the only night race in the Chase For The Cup.

In 2005 Tony Stewart suffered his worst finish of The Chase when tire problems relegated him to 25th. Tony recovered to claim the Championship but he used up his “one bad finish” that a driver can absorb and still win the Cup this week.

Location: 5200 Speedway Blvd

Eastaboga, AL 36260

Ticket Information: Speedway ticket office 1-877-Go2-DEGA

Track Layout: 2.66 Mile Tri-Oval

33 Degrees of banking in the turns

18 Degrees on Tri-Oval

Important Track Dates: Track Built: 1969

First NASCAR Race: 1969

Owner: International Speedway Corp. (NASCAR)

First NASCAR Winner: Richard Brickhouse - 1969

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The 2006 Chase for the NEXTEL Cup is now 3 races old. Jeff Burton extended his slim point lead a little with another strong top-five finish in Kansas last week.
Now The Chase enters it’s two most interesting, and challenging, races as Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway will challenge the Chasers with NASCAR’s longest and shortest race tracks in back-to-back weeks. How do the ten Chase For The Cup contenders stack up as the series heads to Talladega?
1) Jeff Burton
Jeff Burton has an average finish of 4.3 through the first three Chase races of 2006. If he can avoid a disaster this weekend in Talladega he will be well on his way to the 2006 Championship.
In 2004 and 2005 Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart had average finishes of 8.9 and 8.7 during The Chase. Burton is well above that average right now as The 2006 Chase heads to race number four.

2) Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin stumbled a bit in Kansas and finished eighteenth. However his top ten runs in New Hampshire and Dover have him sitting in second place. Hamlin is getting the job done with such poise and confidence that it is hard to remember that he is just a rookie in NEXTEL Cup racing.

3) Mark Martin
Mark Martin is still on track for what he needs to do to keep his Chase hopes alive. Mark is now in third, just one point out of second place and seventy points behind Burton.
In 2005 Martin was in a similar situation. However, bad finishes in Talladega and Martinsville dashed his NEXTEL Cup dreams for last season. Mark is here again facing the same two tracks back-to-back. If Mark can escape the next two races with top ten finishes then he will be a force all the way to the end.

4) Matt Kenseth
Matt Kenseth just couldn’t find the handle in Kansas this week and even spun at one point during the race. Embarrasing for a team that was my pick to win it all this year.
That was unusual for Kenseth’s Roush Racing team. They are normally on top of every detail. For them to be that far off the mark just isn’t like them. Was Kansas a fluke? Or was that race the beginning of the unraveling for a team that has been solid the entire second half of the season.

5) Kevin Harvick
After posting a big win in New Hampshire Kevin Harvick blew the motor in Dover and fell back to fifth in the points. Then in Kansas this week Harvick was again not a factor as he limped home to finish 15th.
Harvick is now fifth in points 96 points out of the lead. Kevin Harvick will need to regain some of his magic from September if he is going to climb back to the top.

6) Jeff Gordon
Jeff Gordon started out his 2006 Chase with back-to-back third place runs in New Hampshire and Dover. However Gordon’s fuel pump failure in Kansas caused him to finish 39th in the race. Gordon dropped four places in the standings.
Jeff is currently 120 points out of first. He still has a shot at the title but he will need to start clicking off great finishes and collecting bonus points. Jeff Gordon is fully capable of winning every remaining 2006 race and taking the title.

7) Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. posted his best finish of this 2006 Chase with a tenth place effort in Kansas. Only 123 points behind Junior is still in this battle but he’ll need to continue to improve on his finishes. A big win in Talladega would be a great start to his title run.

Jimmie Johnson
Jimmie Johnson has surprised everyone with his lackluster performance in this 2006 Chase For The Cup. He started out The Chase with an unfortunate 39th place run in New Hampshire. Since then his best effort was a 13th place run in Dover. Johnson dominated most of 2006 but he just hasn’t been able to keep his momentum up during The Chase.
Johnson’s 165 point deficit isn’t fatal yet. However, it is time for Johnson to go on a tear if he wants to get himself back into this title hunt.

9) Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch is 233 points out of first place. Kyle has a boatload of talent but 2006 will not be the year that he wins his first NEXTEL Cup Championship.

10) Kasey Kahne
With yet another terrible finish in Kansas Kasey Kahne’s Chase dreams have been thoroughly dashed.

Tags: Chase Points, NASCAR by betagnome
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