With Kyle locking top seed, search for drama begins

So Kyle Busch has clinched the top seed in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, doing so with his series-high eighth win of the season Sunday in the Centurion Boats at The Glen.

All that's left for young Mr. Busch now is to validate his remarkable season by winning the championship, but the world will have to wait four more weeks before the Chase commences and everyone sees how that begins to play out. He has been so good for so long this season that when Busch had two mediocre races in a row prior to Sunday's road-course romp at Watkins Glen International, many wondered -- perhaps too hopefully -- that he might suddenly be showing signs of being human.

As it turned out, there was no slump for the No. 18 Toyota fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing, and all too little of a reprieve for the other Sprint Cup drivers from Busch's all-out assault on this season.

For those looking to milk some drama out of a season that has been sapped of much of it because of Busch's blitz, there is more bad news. Of the 10 tracks that host races in the Chase, Busch already has won at three of them this season -- Atlanta, Talladega and Dover.

No other driver has more than one victory this season at a Chase track. Denny Hamlin won at Martinsville, Carl Edwards at Texas, Jimmie Johnson at Phoenix, and Kasey Kahne won at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. The only other track to host a race earlier this season with a repeat performance scheduled for the Chase is New Hampshire, where Kurt Busch, Kyle's older brother who previously was considered the top racer in the family, won a rain-shortened affair.

Kurt Busch, unlike Kyle, will not be making the Chase this season. He's like the rest of the drivers on the circuit, except for the fact that it's even worse; it's as if his Lil' Bro is elbowing him in the ribs and winking at every turn to remind him he can't catch up. They're all chasing No. 18, and no one appears to be gaining on him.

Who will make it?

Yet there are four races remaining before the Chase, and with Kyle removing all doubt about who is No. 1, that leaves us to chase drama elsewhere.

The two obvious places to search for it are around the two cutoff lines that mean the most to the drivers, owners and sponsors. The top 12 drivers make the Chase, and several big names have been playing musical chairs with spots nine through 13 the last several weeks.

This week it's Matt Kenseth's turn to jump back into the mix. His 12th-place finish at Watkins Glen -- impressive because he admits to not enjoying the twice-yearly Cup sojourns into road-course racing -- moved him into 12th in the point standings. Clint Bowyer, who had been 12th, dropped to 13th after a 23rd-place finish last Sunday and now trails Kenseth by 22 points.

"It doesn't matter where you are in the points until after Richmond," Kenseth observed correctly after Sunday's race, noting that there will be more driver flip-flopping between now and the Sept. 6 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway. (Continued)