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.

That is the final race before the Chase. Going into this Sunday's race at Michigan, a mere 107 points separate Denny Hamlin in ninth place from Bowyer in 13th (both Hamlin and Greg Biffle, who is in 10th, have accumulated 2,689 points to date, but Hamlin has the edge because he has the one aforementioned race victory and Biffle has none). David Ragan, sitting in 14th but only 67 points behind Bowyer and 89 out of 12th, also could be a factor and make the Chase at the expense of a bigger name.

Others who appear to be locks to make the Chase need to go even more aggressively after wins the next four weeks to make certain Busch doesn't pad his bonus-point account even further. (Each race victory is worth 10 bonus points with the playing field otherwise being leveled after the first 26 races). All in all, that still could make for some interesting and highly entertaining racing the next four events -- a sign that the Chase is doing its job in a year when Kyle Busch's dominance otherwise would have reduced the season to a complete snoozefest.

Last but maybe not least

The other battle to keep an eye on -- less interesting to all but those engaged in it, for they are fiercely slugging it out -- is being waged around the Top 35 cutoff line. The top 35 teams in owner points are assured starting spots in the first five races for next season, and this is ultra important as many of the teams involved are still scrambling to find full-time sponsorship for their cars for next season.

It's tough to sell a product that might not even be in the season-opening show. And if you're not in the top 35 in owner's points at the end of the 2008 season, there is no guarantee that you'll be in the 2009 Daytona 500 that is considered the best exposure of the season for sponsors.

It's also tough to sell this struggle for mediocrity as something fans are all that interested in. And while it is a weekly sub-plot, it doesn't change one iota whether it's a regular-season race or a Chase race -- so most of those not directly involved in it won't even pay it much serious attention until the season finale at Homestead on Nov. 16.

Still, for teams like the No. 55 and No. 00 Toyotas owned by Michael Waltrip Racing, the No. 77 Dodge owned by Penske Racing, the No. 84 Toyota owned by Red Bull Racing, and the No. 66 Chevrolet owned currently by Haas/CNC Racing but to be taken over by the new Stewart-Haas operation at year's end, the fight to stay in the top 35 can take on a life-or-death struggle kind of feel.

Let's just hope that Kyle Busch isn't so good in the final 10 races that watching how the top 35 shapes up for the beginning of next season isn't the top storyline in NASCAR as this campaign winds down.

Nothing against Kyle, mind you. That simply sounds not only boring but, honestly, way too predictable based on how the season has unfolded so far.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer