In Chase, trouble can be a driver's best friend

LOUDON, N.H. -- Denny Hamlin just wanted a top-15 finish.

Right then and there, on Lap 214 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with his car facing the wrong direction and more points potentially draining away as every opponent drove by, he would have taken it in a heartbeat. One nudge from a loose Carl Edwards left Hamlin as the last car on the lead lap, and turned a Sunday afternoon that began with the goal of increasing the Cup points lead turned into a mere salvage effort.

Chasers struggle

New Hampshire provided plenty of highlights for the Chase field -- just not the ones they were hoping for.

• Busch, Johnson spin
• Hamlin goes around
• Kenseth slams the wall
• Tire trouble on No. 48

So restarting from the 22nd position, he aimed for the top 15. Then one Chase driver got into trouble. Then another. Then a few more. Suddenly, Hamlin thought he could manage a top-eight finish.

Then a top-six.

Then he thought, "Holy cow, we can win this thing."

And he nearly did, charging to the finish and falling short of only winner Clint Bowyer, whose car was so low on fuel that he ran out of gas doing a burnout. And when the first race of this Chase ended, Hamlin found himself on top of the standings, with a 35-point lead on the rest of the field. He got there through his team's perseverance, but also because one title contender after another let him back in.

It's not unusual for one Chase driver to have trouble at the opening race in New Hampshire -- but almost all of them? Yet that's what unfolded on an aggressive and unpredictable Sunday on the Magic Mile, where damaged race cars and empty fuel cells were the rule rather than the exception. Kurt Busch crashed twice. Kyle Busch was spun out and then rammed from behind. Matt Kenseth was put into the wall. Jeff Burton got banged up. Kevin Harvick suffered pit problems. Jimmie Johnson was involved in two accidents, and had a loose wheel. And then there was Tony Stewart, heading for the white flag as the leader, only to have his final drops of fuel evaporate and his car sputter to a crawl.

Suddenly, drivers who seemed cooked received a second life, thanks to the spate of mechanical mischief that had exploded around them. Harvick, so upset with pit decisions early in the race that he chewed out his crew on the radio, came home fifth. Kyle Busch went from ping-pong ball to ninth. And then there was Hamlin, rolling home as runner-up. Turns out, in the Chase, sometimes misfortune can be a driver's best friend.

"In a strange kind of way, it played in our favor to a degree," said Mike Ford, crew chief for a No. 11 car that in the end benefited from the extra tires and fuel the poor track position allowed it to take. "Being back there, we were able to get tires that were fresher than the front guys', and when the caution came out we didn't have anything to lose by taking fuel only when these other guys finally did pit. In a strange kind of way, it didn't hurt."

It was odd to see so many top drivers competing like they were on a Saturday night short track, pushing three-wide on opening restarts and battling for position as if the championship would be decided in a single afternoon. The idea that the Chase drivers would be conservative, trying just not to lose the title on the opening playoff weekend, proved a fallacy as soon as the green flag fell. Part of that was New Hampshire, a tight layout that puts a premium on track position. But part of it was out-and-out aggression, or drivers admitting that they were wheeling it over their heads. (Continued)