More the rule than exception

This is more like it. This is what NASCAR had in mind when it went to the Chase format in 2004.

So now maybe the powers-that-be within the sport ought to think long and hard about leaving it mostly alone.

Prevailing thought?

Kevin Harvick says someone other than Jimmie Johnson needs to win the Chase.

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With three races left in the 2010 season, three drivers are within 38 points of one another at the top of the standings. Four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson holds a tenuous 14-point edge over Denny Hamlin and a 38-point advantage over Kevin Harvick heading into this Sunday's Lone Star 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Meanwhile, there are going to be others out of the championship hunt now who remain hungry for victories. Throw them into the mix over the final three events and it should make for a volatile brew that will be highly entertaining.

"This is the tightest [race] we have had among three different guys that I can ever remember," Jeff Gordon said following Sunday's Amp Energy Juice 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. "It is going to be exciting. We really have kind of been out of it the last few weeks anyhow, or at least the last couple. So I feel like you're going to have guys like us trying to win and then you are going to have those three guys really battling it out. All three of them run good at the remaining tracks. It's going to be very interesting to see."

The Chase hasn't dripped with this much uncertainty and excitement since the first year of its existence -- and even then it wasn't this close between the top three with three to go. That year, eventual champion Kurt Busch headed into the last three races with a 59-point advantage over Johnson. Three other drivers remained within 100 points of the leader heading into the final three-race stretch that season, and just happened to be three of the biggest names in the sport in Gordon, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

All of that, combined with the newness of the Chase at the time, had everyone in a frenzy. The playoff system seemed to be doing its job.

More history lessons

The next three years were not as exciting as 2004, to be sure. But when examining where each of those Chases were at this point on the schedule -- with three races remaining -- it could be argued quite forcefully that the format was doing its job then, as well.

In 2005, eventual champion Tony Stewart was up by 43 points over Johnson and by 75 over Greg Biffle heading into the final three. Stewart eventually held off Biffle by a mere 35 points to win the title.

You hear so much these days from the conspiracy theorists about how Johnson and the Chase format have combined to supposedly ruin the sport.

At worst this is simply a gross untruth. Anyone who saw Sunday's race at Talladega -- with Johnson and Hamlin and Harvick dancing around each other and others for more than three hours -- can see that the sport is alive and healthy and well. It not only was a compelling race -- one of many this season if more folks would only give it a chance instead of always looking to complain about some of the sport's flaws -- but riveting television, as well.

At the least, the theory that Johnson's run of championships has been boring and turned off some is lacking in hard historical evidence. In 2006, when his string of four titles began, he actually trailed then-points leader Matt Kenseth by 26 points heading into the final three races. A rookie named Hamlin was only 65 points behind and, again, two other big names in the sport -- Earnhardt and Jeff Burton -- were only 84 back.

In 2007, when Johnson captured championship No. 2, he trailed Gordon by nine points heading into the final three with Clint Bowyer, Sunday's winner at Talladega, lurking within striking distance in third at 111 behind. It's true that Johnson won the next two races at Texas and Phoenix that year to remove much of the remaining drama, but isn't that what a champion is supposed to do -- rise to the challenge and perform at his best when it means the most? (Continued)