Love Johnson or hate him, he's able to quiet his critics (cont'd)

Lost in the shuffle
Clint Bowyer's No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Nationwide Series team now leads both sets of standings -- driver and owner -- and with the consistency Bowyer's shown in the junior series, it might be all over but the crying with only four races remaining.

The advantage the Gibbs gang with its group of Sprint Cup thugs -- and of course I say that lovingly -- in its No. 20 Toyotas is gone. And even though Joey Logano will acquit himself well in the stretch, he won't out-do Bowyer and the RCR bunch.

Chased-Out Standings

Following Charlotte

Pos.	Driver	Points
1.	David Ragan	639
2.	Bobby Labonte	598
3.	Elliott Sadler	549
4.	Kasey Kahne	545
5.	Kurt Busch	544

* An unofficial list of the top-five non-Chase for the Cup competitors over the 10 Chase races.

Lost in the shuffle Part II
The Chasers made a great start to the Chase, posting eight top-10 finishes in each of the first two races and only dropping back to seven of the top-10 finishers at Kansas. But after the annual Talladega anomaly and only four Chasers in the top 10, there were only five there at Charlotte.

Hmmm. Makes me wonder if a non-Chase winner will come sooner rather than later. And if it comes sooner, how about David Ragan for a possible victor? Halfway through the Chase, Ragan leads the unofficial "Chased Out" standings by 41 points over consistent Bobby Labonte.

Between the two, Ragan has the better finishes, so rates a slight nod over his more Victory Lane-familiar non-Chasemates Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch.

Finally full in Trucks
The future for the current Craftsman Truck Series might be cloudy, with manufacturers dropping by the wayside, but with the first full entry in a while for a Truck race, this weekend's Kroger 200 at Martinsville is brimming with intrigue.

First, you got a number of guys making Truck debuts, like former Canadian touring division champion J.R. Fitzpatrick and TRG Motorsports teammate Ben Stancill. But then you've got Jamie McMurray, making his first Truck start in four years, as well as Johnny Sauter, Kevin Harvick (revisiting the site of his infamous parking episode in April 2002) Hermie Sadler (stepping out of his broadcast role) and Sam Hornish Jr. (making his Truck Series debut in concert with former Penske Cup crew chief Chris Carrier, who'll be a welcome sight back on the pit box).

But the best part of the show might be watching Scott Speed, fresh off a short-track outburst in the ARCA RE/MAX Series event at Toledo last weekend. However, any stray thoughts should be tempered by the fact that Speed actually scored a top-10 in his Martinsville debut last spring.

Then again, it's interesting to see McMurray's early Christmas wish coming true.

"For the last few years, I've been asking Jack [Roush, team owner] to put me in the truck for this race," McMurray said. "Martinsville is one of my favorite tracks on the circuit and to be able to get into the truck this weekend will be a lot of fun. The last time I was in a truck was back in 2004 at Martinsville and we won the race, so I'm really looking forward to it."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.