Exciting race at Loudon brought about revelations

As usual, last weekend's Chase opener meant all kinds of ideas were hatched and revelations made.

It wasn't obvious then, even as perhaps the most intriguing opener in the Chase's seven-year history unfolded -- but in the aftermath there's a certain amount of sadness that the Chase, at least for 2011, won't open in New England for the first time.

The only thing that would be worse would be for New Hampshire Motor Speedway to not have a Chase race at all -- which would just not be right.

Stewart on track?

Tony Stewart did nothing at New Hampshire to dissuade many people from thinking he'll be a force in this Chase -- and even better, he showed that Chase be damned, going for the win still counts for something as he tried to stretch his last fuel run only to run out coming to the white flag.

AS NASCAR's two other national series championship leaders, Brad Keselowski (Nationwide) and Todd Bodine (Truck Series) have shown -- repeatedly -- they're going to race with gusto and try to win, even if its puts their significant current points advantages at risk.

The most surprising aspect of Stewart, eventual winner Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton trying to use fuel gambles to win was that Kyle Busch, of all people -- he for whom winning is everything, at any price -- would express surprise that they tried it in the Chase opener.

It seems the event in which you have nine potential races to overcome the possible deficit would be the perfect time to take a gamble. Stewart did, finished 24th and will start Dover's Chase race 11th in the standings, 124 points behind leader Denny Hamlin.

Busch's vitriol

Busch continues to prove he's almost constantly a gargantuan tempest in a fairly small teapot and, for the sake of the show -- since it's drama and budding intrigue -- let's hope he never loses that spiny side, on-track.

According to unofficial in-car radio transcripts, Busch was snarling at his Joe Gibbs Racing crew last Sunday, even as he was making his car work. It's nice that Busch's passion will never be in question, even as it was nice he had something positive to say about it afterward.

"I didn't really see a whole lot of guys that started that far back that made as much ground up during the race as we did at the end of the race," Busch said. "I think we went, with 40 laps to go, from 25th and finished ninth, so it wasn't too bad."

Just a grinder

Kevin Harvick's another one who's certainly not shy about providing some in-race auditory entertainment via the radio airwaves and again, for everyone's sake, let's hope "Happy" doesn't back off one bit, even while he's grinding out another top finish -- his car's or crew's shortcomings notwithstanding.

As long as Harvick's Richard Childress Racing gang takes his criticism in a fully constructive way -- which they seem to have done all season -- Harvick will continue to press for this championship. (Continued)