It was Martinsville that ruined Burton's '06 title run (cont'd)

The motor immediately went sour, and seven laps later, it became terminal (watch video). Burton parked the car in the garage with a 42nd-place finish, effectively wiping out his points advantage in one fell swoop. By the time the day was over, Burton stood fifth in the standings, 48 points behind Kenseth.

"We're a team," Burton said. "We fight together. We die together. We do everything together, and that's what it's all about.

"By no means do I think we are out of this thing. We won't lay down. We'll go to Atlanta feeling like we have as good a shot as anybody."

While Burton's day was a bust, Johnson's was anything but. He led nearly half of the race, including the final 55 laps to hold off Denny Hamlin and Bobby Labonte for the victory. Pretty much written off after his last-lap wreck with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Talladega, suddenly Johnson was back in the championship hunt.

"It's anybody's championship," Johnson said. "Any team is still capable of winning the championship, the points are really close right now, so there can be a lot of moving and shaking and I don't think anybody is going to sleep well these next four races."

Kenseth made a salient point following the race. It's not as much about being the best every week, he said, as much as trying to avoid being the worst.

"Everyone thinks it's the most competitive one, but I kind of look at it the other way it's the sloppiest Chase we've had so far. The least competitive one," he said. "Nobody has been able to run in the top 10 every week. No one is putting up staggering numbers, or that dominating streak we saw the first two years.

"With no trouble, Jeff Burton is probably the runaway winner of this thing. But, what we're seeing this year, is none of us are immune from trouble."

With second-place finishes in each of the next three races, Johnson would overtake Kenseth and win his first title. Johnson also used a Martinsville win as an exclamation point to his 2007 championship.

But with the roles reversed heading into Sunday's TUMS QuikPak 500, will it be Burton who gets back into Martinsville's good graces?

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer