Weekend That Was: NHIS (cont'd)

Cheering on the No. 2
Naturally, McCauley remains invested emotionally in Busch's No. 2 team, which he essentially built. The team began clicking this season when Pat Tryson was eventually moved into McCauley's former crew-chief position, after which it won two races and started reeling off one top-10 finish after another until it had secured a place in the Chase.

Although Busch struggled Sunday at New Hampshire, losing a cylinder early in the race that relegated him to a 25th-place finish and dropped him to last among the 12 Chasers, McCauley still likes their chances.

"I'm very proud of those guys, Pat Tryson, Kurt and all of those guys do a great job. I'm proud of them because they're where they deserve to be," McCauley said. "They haven't really made a whole lot of changes [since McCauley's exit]. They're just hitting their marks."

More on Hornish
It remains to be seen if Hornish, a former Indy 500 champion, can make a rapid and successful transition from open-wheel cars to stock cars. But again, McCauley likes his chances.

Asked what he liked about Hornish as a driver, McCauley replied: "He's a professional. He's a consummate professional. You don't get to where he's gotten by not being that. Plus he's hungry. Right now he's a big fish in a pond. He wants to look at other ponds, so to speak, and create another challenge.

"He could very easily sit back and say, 'Well, I'm just going to be king of the hill over here [in Indy Cars] for a while and drive for another three or four years and retire.' But no, he wants another challenge. I respect that."

Chase Rundown

The top three stayed the same, but everyone else in the 12-man playoffs changed positions after New Hampshire.

• Complete story, click here
• Inside the Chase, click here

Hamlin's complaints
Denny Hamlin was absolutely irate about the Car of Tomorrow following Sunday's race after starting 14th and finishing 15th (watch video). This is the same guy who seemed to applaud the COT after testing earlier last week at Talladega, but he pointed out afterward that testing is different than trying to run a race with all 43 cars on the track.

"It's just so frustrating when you know you're better than the five cars in front of you, and you can't do anything to pass them," Hamlin said. "The real test is when we're going to go to Indy next year. I don't see a guy even going a lap down. It's so bad out there.

"They have to change the front end of these cars. Either let us have more travel [into the corners], or just totally change the front nose of these racecars. I know they want them to match up to the rear bumpers, but that's not important to me as having a car that we can race. We need to have side-by-side racing, and right now we don't have that."

He said that could make qualifying even more important in the remaining COT races in the Chase, and of course next year when the COT will be run full time on the Cup circuit.

"You hate to say there is going to be more emphasis on qualifying, but I think that it's going to take qualifying better to run better. I mean, [Sunday] we just stayed in the same place all day. We didn't move. We couldn't," Hamlin said.

"You think it would make for a good show. But the problem is guys are just running single-file. They're not able to pass each other. I looked at the leaderboard, and for most of the day it didn't change. I think everybody would agree that until they make changes to the car, you're going to have the races that you're going to have -- and that's going to be single-file."

Quotable
Sylvania 300 winner Clint Bowyer was asked following the race if he had been in communication with team owner Richard Childress, who supposedly was off hunting in Mongolia. He laughed and said he hadn't been able to locate Childress yet.

"We don't even know where he is half the time," the smiling Bowyer said. "That man goes to some crazy places. We just let him go off and hope he gets back safe." (Rapid rise)

Pit Stops
• It seems everyone assumed that the top rookie honors in Cup this season would go to Juan Montoya. After all, the former Indy Car and Formula One star won at Sonoma and has been leading all rookies in points virtually all year. But guess what? After a recent surge, David Ragan has his rookie stripe right on the bumper of Montoya's in the points standings -- trailing him by just 36 points as Montoya sits in 20th and Ragan resides in 21st (rookie standings).

• If you haven't been paying attention to the Craftsman Truck Series points race, maybe you should. They didn't even need to reset the points for a Chase to offer a compelling battle between the top two competitors of Ron Hornaday and Mike Skinner, with Hornaday increasing his lead from four points to 29 by winning Saturday at New Hampshire (watch video).

• The crowd at NHIS Sunday -- announced at 101,000 -- was impressive, especially considering all the other sporting events that were going on in the area. Baseball's Red Sox were at home facing the hated New York Yankees, and on Sunday night the NFL's New England Patriots played at home, hosting the San Diego Chargers. There is no truth to the rumor that a Cup team hired Bill Belichick to try to read the lips of various crew chiefs during Sunday's race.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.