Mr. Chairman bored by same ol' point system talk (cont'd)

Post-race banter

The conversation in the post-race Kansas Speedway media interview room went, in part, something like this ...

Yours truly: "Jeff Gordon was in here and mentioned that ...

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Mr. Chairman (interrupting): "He came in here? Jeff Gordon came in here? Wow."

Yours truly: "I know you're amazed."

Mr. Chairman: "That's awesome. I never would have thought Jeff Gordon would have come in here. Go ahead. I'll try to contain myself."

(Editor's Note: He couldn't.)

Yours truly: "Gordon said if this was the old system, you'd be running away with it ...

Mr. Chairman (who would have banged a gavel if he had one and probably would even have shouted, "You, sir, are held in contempt): "Yeah, but it's not the old system, so why are we talking about the old system? In case you didn't know, we haven't used that system for five years now. Who cares?"

And so on and so forth.

Stewart went on to later add: "The thing is we had the whole time that we were in the [points] lead to think about that, but we didn't think about it. All we did was worry about the significance of just making sure you're in the top 12 when it comes time for Richmond. It doesn't matter whether you're leading; it doesn't matter how many you're leading by; it doesn't matter if you only make the Chase by one point and you're 2,000 points behind the leader. And that's the mind-set that we all start [the season-opening race at] Daytona with, and you know it.

"It's not a situation where anybody that's leading the points is going to be [frustrated or disappointed when the points are reset at the start of the Chase]. They shouldn't be disappointed because that's what the system is. We understand what it is. There's nothing wrong with it. The system is a cool system."

Stewart went on the say that he was so thrilled to be answering questions about this subject from the same chair as Jeff Gordon that he might just take the chair home with him to have Gordon sign it.

A little while later after the interview session wrapped, he did just that -- wheeling it out in front of him as he left the media center. The point that never really was made, but perhaps didn't need to be hammered home, was that after Sunday's win he's still right there in contention for this championship, now only 67 points behind Mark Martin, who was installed in the lead by virtue of having more race wins when the Chase began.

And who knows? Maybe Mr. Chairman will get cruise control installed on his new piece of furniture and sit in it all the way to his third championship, no matter what the system.

Maybe, just maybe, despite all the talk about Martin and Jimmie Johnson who sit ahead of him now but are a little closer in the standings, a determined Mr. Chairman served notice Sunday that this is still his championship to lose -- or win.

That's the way the Chairman rolls.

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writer.

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.

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