 | | Matt Kenseth lost only one spot in the standings despite a myriad of problems. Credit: CIA Stock Photo |
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
October 1, 2006
09:21 PM EDT (01:21 GMT)
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Sunday proved the harsh, gritty, mind-blowing, heartbreaking reality of the Chase for the Nextel Cup. And that is, points may come, and points may go -- but the driver who's most consistent at a very high level, most likely will win the Nextel Cup championship. Right now, paint it in Jeff Burton's bright Cingular orange. You only have to look at the performances Sunday in the Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway of Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson -- or even Matt Kenseth -- to know how agonizing this reality is. And how mind-boggling is it? Denny Hamlin spun out once, got penalties for speeding both entering and exiting pit road, had a loose wheel and finished 18th. Yet the precocious rookie moved up in the standings from fourth to second -- while losing 51 points to leader Burton. "I think this was a race that was just there for the taking," Hamlin said. "The guys up front, we were in front of them for most of the day [but] it's just part of it. We're going to take our lumps and go next week." At least he's in the best position of all of Burton's "Chasers." Kenseth had a car in Saturday's Busch race that proved he knew his way around Kansas, but Sunday he was flat-out lost -- and he lost a spot in the standings on account, from third to fourth. To rationalize is never a good thing and in the 2003 Cup champion's case, it's a good thing he has seven races left in which to recoup, although he'd rather not have lost the 66 points he did Sunday when he finished 23rd. "Really, if you look at it, last week we dominated and got lucky when we ran out of gas and finished 10th," Kenseth said. "That easily could have been a 25th or 30th and [Sunday] we ran 35th and finished 23rd. "That's a really bad finish, but it's not a total disaster, either. We'll just go on and try to figure out what went wrong here and get it fixed and go run with them the rest of the year. "Some other guys had some trouble and we've been performing really good all year, so you've just got to go on and look at next week and forget about this week." That will be a tall order for Johnson, who led the most laps, dominated most of the day by running 265 of 267 laps in the top 10 and lost 29 points in the championship race while remaining eighth in the standings. How daunting is coming from the back in the Chase format? Even when he was far ahead on the track, Johnson hadn't picked up much ground. "It's definitely tough," Johnson said. "In looking around, some guys had some bad luck -- but man, I just hate missing opportunities to gain points." You can even look at guys who were as lucky as Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Kyle Busch were on this day -- to know, in effect, what your ultimate fate will be. Of those eight men, only third-place Martin gained any points on Burton -- and at that, it was a meager five markers, as Burton used an appropriate, if somewhat cautious strategy, to finish fifth. Busch scored his first Chase result that reflected the excellence of his season -- and it resulted in a nine-point deficit to Burton when he finished two spots behind him. Everyone else in the 10-man Chase field lost at least 21 points -- and I bet that has to be kind of depressing. I'm not saying Burton is the hands-down favorite to win the Chase, because there are seven races remaining and that's way too many laps and way too soon in the game to make that call. But I will say that someone had better step up, and in a hurry, to show that the championship -- as popular as it would be -- should not be Burton's and Richard Childress Racing's for the taking. Johnson's no quitter -- and he definitely hasn't given up. But when he throws up his hands and calls on luck to take its place, he might be in trouble. "We had the speed," Johnson said. "We've had the speed the last few weeks [but] I know our finishes haven't shown it. We just need some luck to come our way." Talladega -- where Johnson won last spring -- may say something about that, and for all the losers Sunday; the agonized Gordon said it best after he fell from eighth on the track to 39th in the rundown when his car's fuel pump failed. "We can still win the championship, but I'm just upset right now," said the former four-time champion, who tumbled four spots in the points from second to sixth. "I want to know what happened, I want to get out of here, move on and go to Talladega." Man -- I hardly thought I would ever hear anyone, let alone anyone competing in the Chase, say that about going to 'Dega -- which potentially is the biggest black hole possible for anyone's Chase hopes. Proves again, chasing these points will about make you lose your mind. Unless, of course, you've seen almost too much, as Martin often claims he has. "Based on my past experience, my expectation would be to wreck next week at Talladega," Martin said to a gale of media laughter. "But so far I haven't had a disaster so let's go see what happens. "If we get through Talladega, we might have a chance." In this hectic, you-just-can't-figure Chase environment, a lot of guys are saying pretty much the same thing. Except Burton, who typically didn't utter a syllable about points post-race. The opinions expressed are solely of the writer. | 
