RICHMOND, Va. -- "Team orders" are legendary in Formula One, but in NASCAR racing, the concept of being told to give up a racing position to benefit a teammate is virtually a foreign concept.

But now NASCAR is at Richmond International Raceway for the cutoff race to determine the 12-man field for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and the possibilities boggle the mind. Ten men in the standings, between fifth place Carl Edwards and 14th place Kyle Busch, are separated by only 122 points.

The 10 are members or affiliates of teams that comprise a total of 28 cars.

Let's say the laps are winding down in Saturday night's Chevy Rock & Roll 400, and hometown hero Denny Hamlin is leading, with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Busch running second.

Hamlin is already locked into the Chase field, in fourth. What if Busch, who co-holds the mark for most wins this season, four, with 10th place Mark Martin, but is 37th points out of the Chase, has to win to get in?

Does Hamlin get "the call?" When asked, he just shook his head.

"If I were leading, I don't think they'd bring it up -- they'd never put me in that position," Hamlin said. "We haven't talked about anything this week and what we need to do to try to help [Busch]."

That's a good thing, because Hamlin, who has made no secret of his ache to win a Cup race at his home track, said he wouldn't give way.

"Not a win," said Hamlin, who last year dominated Richmond's spring race only to suffer a flat tire and fail, falling to 24th. "I'd give him second if I was second, but not a win, for sure. That's about all you can do, if you're not racing for a win. If it's gonna put him over the top, yeah, you're going to give up a position."

But not a win. Three-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson -- already locked into the Chase -- was blunt in his assessment.

"If you're leading the race, I'm not pulling out of the way to make sure Mark Martin makes the Chase if he's in second -- that just isn't happening," Johnson said. "But if I'm running 20th and he can use the three points, it's like leading a lap so I guess I see what you were referring to as far as teammates will work with one another to lead a lap. But for the win, man it could be anybody -- it could even be my mom back there -- and she's not getting by [laughing]."

Juan Montoya, a multiple Formula One race winner with Williams who experienced team orders first hand, spoke in a separate media briefing. His experience aside, he said being a good teammate would rule his decision.

"If you're a team player you would [let Busch by], wouldn't you?" Montoya said. "What's wrong with that [laughing]? I think you're going to an extreme there. I don't know. There's always a line where I think a teammate can help -- but one thing is helping the other is hurting somebody trying to help [and] I think that's crossing the line.

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• Greg Biffle
• Denny Hamlin
• Jimmie Johnson
• Tony Stewart
• Brian Vickers

"If Kyle Busch needs to go by Hamlin and Hamlin is winning the race and if Kyle needs to win the race and get into the Chase you would think they are going to tell Denny to get out of the gas to help his teammate, wouldn't you? I guarantee you, that's been talked in the team. It would be crazy if they haven't. We'll see. Hopefully it doesn't come down to that."

Montoya was asked if he was ever asked to do something he didn't want to do, but the team said he had to.

"I don't think they put it that way -- I think they just said for the benefit of the team we need your help," Montoya said through a grin. "It's not an order but at the end of the day it's supposed to be at your discretion -- but if you like doing what you're doing, you better obey [laughing]. Yeah, I was asked."

Edwards said there was no question what he would do if it came down to helping Roush Fenway teammates Greg Biffle or Matt Kenseth, who are 68 and 20 points, respectively, ahead of 13th place Brian Vickers.

"I've already thought about that in regards to my teammates and if there's anything I can do to help my teammates, I'd do it," Edwards said. "This is a team sport and especially at this point in the year, having more of your teammates in the Chase is good. I don't know about everyone's team in particular, but if I can help Matt and Greg, then that's what I'm gonna do."

Edwards, who led the league with nine wins last year but has yet to win this season, said giving up a win would be "a tough call."

"It's not the 10 [bonus] points, it's the win," Edwards said. "If that's what it took and that's what had to happen, then that's what I would do."

Edwards did say taking either Vickers or Busch out wouldn't be on his agenda under any circumstances.

"You can't take somebody out because you're not just taking that person out, you're taking out their team and their sponsors and all that stuff, so I don't think it'll come to that," Edwards said. "I think that would be an ugly way to have the season shape up."

Kenseth said he was unfamiliar with any type of clandestine team orders and had never received any direct instructions over his radio.

"Not in the way that you're insinuating," Kenseth said. "Teammates help you during the week, and they help you at testing, where you get their information and feedback, and I'll get their help [Friday] in practice, as far as what worked on their cars and what helped it.

"But as far as on the race track, very seldom do you see teammates 'help' each other. What are they going to do, because they're out trying to finish as high as they can and so are you.

"You saw Mark [Martin] and Jimmie [Johnson] pull over for each other a couple weeks ago to let [Johnson] lead a lap and get five points. Yeah, that stuff happens, but on the other hand, I was running second to Greg [Biffle] at Bristol for a long time -- 30 or 40 laps -- and he never slowed down to let me lead a lap to get my five points, either, because everybody's out there trying to get the best finish for themselves, which they should.

"There's just more emphasis on it and they're gonna talk about it because it's Richmond and it's the last race [before the Chase]. I don't know how many points the leaders have, but it's in the two thousands, so a lot of those two-thousand points there are five points here and 10 points there given to help teammates and friends and stuff like that all year long and I don't think that's really any different this week."

Vickers said fear of "what goes around comes around" would keep potential mayhem to a minimum.

"As far as [Saturday] night, I'm sure teammates are going to do whatever they can to help -- if you're running for a Chase spot and you catch a teammate, you hope to think that he would at least let you go," Vickers said. "Do I expect to see teammates causing harm to competitors over something like that? I don't think so. I'm not going to say that it couldn't happen, but we race with each other too much, too often for stuff like that to go down.

"It just never seems to work out in the long run. I think most of the drivers at this level in the sport know or realize that. There are still 10 races left. If you wreck someone to get into the Chase, you may be in the Chase, but you probably won't win the championship."

Ryan Newman, who's ninth in the standings, just shrugged and said nothing would surprise him.

"Absolutely, there are always teams manipulating things," Newman said. "We saw it a couple of years ago -- we made a lot of talk of [Jack] Roush letting every car lead a lap when they could and things like that when they were dominating, so yeah -- it's part of racing whether it's NASCAR, NHRA or IndyCar."

But for Newman, whose Stewart-Haas Racing team gets cars and engines from Hendrick Motorsports, the subject hasn't been broached.

"I just know in the experience I've had at Hendrick Motorsports, regardless of the situation, it's not been discussed or even considered," Newman said. "I think if we threw something for Mark, I think Mark would get out of the car and whip some ass [because] he wants to go in there and earn it on his own. I don't think he'd tolerate something like that.

"Again, I'm not saying that teams aren't talking about it. I know we're not talking about it. But the other part to it is, and I guess this would weigh on my mind, is that I race against these guys every week. And what comes around goes around. You don't want to control fate like that in a sense and I just don't think I could have that on my conscious, you know, just to throw a race for that to happen. I couldn't."

Newman's teammate and owner, Tony Stewart, a Chase lock as the series point leader, gritted his teeth when asked about giving up a win to let Newman into the Chase.

"It would be awful hard to do [because] I need those 10 bonus points," Stewart said. "The great thing, I don't know that it is going to come down to that. I hope it doesn't. Ryan ran better than we did here in the spring, so I think he will probably settle that on his own. But, man, you just hope it doesn't even come to that. I think when it comes down it, then you make that decision. That's a tough decision to have to make as a driver while you are out there."