The Chase, Round Three…
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 3:08pm EDT
By Tim Spencer, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
[thumb:364:l:s=1:l=x]As we wave goodbye to Toto and roll towards the Tide we have come to the beginning of the end. Now with 30% of the Chase complete we will begin to see the battle at Homestead start to emerge. Another week passes and the drama of the Chase has continued to play out. Speaking of out, Kahne and Busch may now be thanked for playing the game and accept their parting gifts.
As we are now realistically down to 8 contenders the question is, “Who will it be next?”
That is a difficult answer. As many have cried in the media to stop calling Talladega an “unknown” factor in the Chase we still strongly believe it is a complete crap-shoot. The mere reason for this should be obvious to even the rookie NASCAR fan. At Talladega you don’t control your own destiny, someone else does. Yes in fact we are most assuredly referring to the possibility for someone to be caught in someone else’s mess with no place to go but to the garage. It happens. While I agree that anything is possible at any track, Talladega is the one that harbors the most concern in the Chase for drivers and their teams. Once past Talladega, they breathe a small sigh of relief if they make it through unscathed. If they stumble, their Chase hopes could be doomed.
This week we saw several Chasers struggle. Jeff Gordon had a great run going, and taking the Championship lead in his sights. All until a fuel pump failure late in the day rained on his parade, leaving him with a 39th place DNF.
Jeff Burton remained consistent, and pulled out to a lead over [now] 2nd place Denny Hamlin by 69 points. Hamlin wasn’t exactly strong at Kansas but that team did what it needed to do. Keep Burton in their sights.
Jimmie Johnson was on his way to a top 10 finish, but it wasn’t in the cards. After getting ready for a late stop for a splash of gas, Kahne spun onto pit road. Johnson avoided pitting while anticipating the caution to come out. That wasn’t the case and he made his stop next time around. To make matters worse, he was penalized with a pass through [that was served] which saw him end up with a 14th place finish.
Only the top 5 are within 100 points of Burton, with Harvick in 5th at 96 points back. Gordon and Dale Jr are 120 and 123 points back, respectively, while Johnson is the last under 200 points out at 165.
Mark Martin continues to edge towards the front and sits 70 back, with his teammate 14 points off his pace.
While Busch and Kahne are far from out of it according to the math, as mentioned previously they realistically haven’t a shot at the top spot. Johnson at 165 back is questionable but not out of the picture just yet.
The biggest question right now is “Will Burton slip?”
If he can hold it together as he has since last spring, the chances for the need of that “mulligan” look pretty slim.
Hamlin, Martin, Kenseth and Harvick have had “less than stellar” days, with Harvick’s being the worst with a blown engine at Dover, but Burton’s lead is nothing that isn’t attainable. Even for Dale Jr and Gordon. Could Lady Luck be on their side as we approach Talladega?
We’ll have to wait and see what’s in the cards.
Filed Under: Features, Guest Authors, Nascar, Nextel Cup, The Chase, The Way I See It, Tim Spencer
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