ONMC offers experience major sports can't match (cont'd)

No matter what ends up happening in the Chase, the Dover race will be remembered for having five cars on the lead lap with less than 50 laps remaining, and the big crash that eliminated several Chase contenders.

For 500 race fans, however, the memory of being the center of attention during pre-race will be kept closer and longer by far.

Learn more

Get directly connected with NASCAR. Join the Official NASCAR Members Club.

• Visit our official site

Extra Points

• Carl Edwards' 25-point penalty could have easily ruined his Chase chances at the stroke of a pen, but with the way the Chase has shaped up so far, it didn't make that much of a difference.

Despite failing post-race inspection for being too low in the right rear -- possibly as a result of congratulatory love taps to the bumper by teammate Greg Biffle -- Edwards is still just five finishing positions away from the lead with eight races to go.

That could have been much worse. Just ask Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose mouth got him in Dutch with NASCAR at Talladega in 2004 and earned him the same 25-point penalty. Junior was never able to overcome the penalty, and while there was no guarantee he would have done so without it, it cost him his best shot at a title.

• NASCAR is very serious about the integrity of the COT, and that will play a role in determining the champion, if not this year then in the next couple. Tony Stewart was low in post-race at New Hampshire, but the damage was deemed to have come from contact on the track and NASCAR let it go.

• Who did Kurt Busch tick off among the racing gods? In both Chase races, he's met with disaster. It was a broken valve at NHIS and a blown tire or something similar at Dover. He finds himself 151 points out after two races, this year's version of the 2006 Kasey Kahne.

• The Kyle Petty-Denny Hamlin deal at Dover could have legs. Petty was incensed with Hamlin, to the point of slamming Hamlin's visor closed while Hamlin was still in the car, and Hamlin, once he got unlimbered from the car, was about 10 feet short of getting into Petty, mano y mano.

It's hard to pick a winner in that one. Petty is taller and has better reach, but Hamlin is wiry and has spirit. Hamlin said he expected Petty to call him this week before Kansas; here's a clue, Denny, don't spend your nights waiting by the phone. That call may never come.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.