Category: Featured Stories

The past five races of the Sprint Cup Series Chase have been interesting to watch as the action has focused on Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, and Kevin Harvick.

[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]Back at Charlotte, it seemed that the picture for the final run to the champion was being set.

Following Charlotte, Harvick sat third in points, 77 points behind then leader Johnson, after finishing eighth.

Hamlin sat in second, 41 points behind, after finishing fourth. Hamlin started to show his determination there as the disappointment could be seen on his face as he knew he’d lost ground to Johnson.

Johnson, meanwhile, finished second, after making an incredible comeback.

At the beginning of the race, Johnson had a really loose car, which caused him to spin. Once he was stuck back in traffic, it was thought that he’d be done. However, like many times before, crew chief Chad Knaus pulled out the magic wand and got the car to where it was the quickest car on track. Johnson drove from the back to lead the race for awhile, and then eventually settled for second.

After the oval, the series headed to the Martinsville paperclip, where the Chase took another turn.

Harvick showed he wasn’t backing out of it yet as he finished third, now sitting 62 points behind.

“I just have to thank everybody on this Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet,” Harvick said after that race. “Those guys on pit road were just awesome today and really kept us up front and in the race. That’s what we have to do. We kept the No. 48 (Johnson) behind us and the No. 11 (Hamlin) in sight. Everybody said this was going to be a two-horse race, and we were right there in the middle of it. So, today was a lot of fun. We came here and finished third at a track that we never had a top-five finish. Right now, we have four more weeks. I’m really looking forward to Talladega and just racing hard.”

Hamlin, meanwhile, made himself known as he won the race, closing the gap to just six points.

“We’re back, baby,” Hamlin said after the race. “Awesome job.”

Johnson, though, held his ground as he finished fifth.

“Good top-five finish today. We certainly wanted to finish higher. But it’s over and done with,” said Johnson afterwards. “It is what it is. Top five is something would have been a good goal coming in here this weekend. We’re rolling into Talladega. We all know what can happen there. Happy to still be leading. Wish the margin had gone the other way. Denny won the race, closed it up. We’ll buckle down, go to work the next four.”

Talladega was the next step on the line for the trio, in which it brought more drama to the Chase.

In a dramatic finish, Harvick barely missed the win by inches as the win went to teammate Clint Bowyer. Though he was still satisfied with how he did, considering he got damage in an earlier wreck.

‎”I didn’t know when the caution came out, but I know I beat him to the line,” Harvick said afterward. “I just got thank David Reutimann for the push….That’s what we came to Talladega to do. We came to win the race, came up a spot short on that, but beat the guys we needed to.”

The second-place finish allowed Harvick to gain points as he now sat 38 behind.

Hamlin, meanwhile, fought his own battles at Talladega as he got to ninth after coming back from being a lap down. This left him sitting 14 points back.

For Hamlin, that was enough as he was ready for the final stretch.

‎”I like that the championship will be decided on three race tracks where the drivers are in control,” Hamlin said afterwards. “Let the best man win.”

Johnson was looking for more, though a seventh place finish was all he could manage.

‎”It’s not the best finish, but we’ll take it,” he said after the race. “I thought we had this thing in control and we could’ve hung on till the end.”

From the Talladega highbanks, the series traveled to the lonestar state, where some of the biggest twists of the entire chase will be recalled from.

Harvick had a consistent day as he finished sixth.

Hamlin, though, made himself known as he took the lead with 29 to go and never looked back.

With the win, Hamlin took the lead in the championship standings by 33 points over Jimmie Johnson, who finished ninth.

“It was just a long day,” Johnson said. “We just gave away so much track position at the beginning and it was tough to get back to where we needed to.

“On the restart, it was the 16 spinning the tires on the restart and all those guys who took tires behind us.”

“It was pretty rough day for sure,” crew chief Chad Knaus said. “We lost the track

position and when you get back there, you don’t know how you should tune on the car.”

The race was an eventful one for the No. 48 team that even included a pit crew swap.

Out of the first seven stops of the day, the No. 48 team lost spots on four of them, costing their driver valuable time. Once teammate Jeff Gordon was wrecked out of the race, Hendrick officials decided to use Gordon’s pit crew.

“Ultimately, it was my decision to make the decision as we were getting beat,” Knaus said. “I hope we get back with the 48 guys and get things back on track.”

“I’m okay with it,” front tire changer Mike Lingerfelt said. “We’re all team players.”

Johnson said, though despite everything, don’t count them out.

“I’ve lost plenty of championships in the past,” he said. “You’re not going to get everything you want every weekend. I can promise you this – 33 back is not where we want to be, but we’re going to work hard on getting it back.”

The change was set to stay in place heading into Phoenix, which the final run to the finish led to the championship standings growing even closer.

Harvick had issues during the day, including hitting the wall and a loose lug nut on a lap 224 pit stop. Harvick used it to his advantage as he pitted under the lap 233 caution, while most of the leaders stayed out, to be able to make it to the end and finish sixth.

“I was pretty down and I thought, ‘There it went,’” Harvick said. “We dodged one, for sure.”

Harvick now sits third in points, 46 points behind Hamlin.

Johnson also used the fuel card as he stretched it the last 88 laps to come home fifth and bring the gap from first to second to just 15 points.

“I’m so happy to put pressure on the No. 11 team,” Johnson said.

Hamlin, meanwhile, led a series high 190 laps before having to pit late for fuel, resulting in a 12th place finish.

“Knowing that we had a very, very good points lead with 15 or 20 to go, that quickly diminishes, it hurts,” Hamlin said. “It hurts when you have a car that can possibly win.

“So for me, I wasn’t aware that anyone was going to try to stretch it [on fuel] and make it. [Crew chief] Mike [Ford] didn’t make me aware that anyone was going to stretch it and make it so I went out there and ran as hard as I could. Unfortunately, our car didn’t have as good of fuel mileage as everyone else’s.”

The Sprint Cup Series now heads to the final event of the season – the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Hamlin looks to lock up the championship while Johnson and Harvick look to steal the trophy away.

For Hamlin not to worry about where Johnson or Harvick finish and just purely lock up the championship, he has to win or finish second while leading the most laps. If he falls beyond those two positions, depending on where Johnson finishes, he could lose the championship.

In a sense, for Johnson to win the title, he has to gain 16 points on Hamlin as if he ties, he loses virtue of the tie breaker.

If Johnson wins and leads the most laps, Hamlin has to finish second and tie him in the most laps led category.

If Johnson wins, but doesn’t lead the most laps, Hamlin has to finish second or finish third while leading at least one lap.

If Johnson finishes second while leading the most laps, Hamlin has to finish third or better without leading a lap, fourth or better with leading at least a lap or finish fifth and tie him for most laps led.

If Johnson finishes second while leading at least one lap, Hamlin has to finish fourth or better without leading a lap, fifth or better with leading at least a lap or finish sixth and lead the most laps.

If Johnson finishes second yet doesn’t lead, Hamlin has to finish fifth or better without leading a lap, sixth with leading at least a lap, or seventh and lead the most laps.

The scenarios can continue way beyond that as they are pretty much endless till you get Hamlin finishing last and not leading a lap.

However, there is also a third party – Harvick. Harvick could play a definite factor, depending on how he finishes.

For Harvick to win the championship, he is going to need to gain 47 points on Hamlin and 32 points on Johnson.

Let’s take a look at a couple of scenarios.

If Harvick was to win the race and lead the most laps, he’d need Hamlin to finish seventh or worse, eighth or worse if he led a lap or ninth or worse if he tied Harvick in leading the most. Harvick would then also need Johnson to finish fourth or worse, third or worse if he led a lap, or second or worse if he tied Harvick in most laps led.

If Harvick wins the race without leading the most, Hamlin needs to finish eighth or worse, ninth or worse if he leads, or 11th or worse if he leads the most. He then would need Johnson to also finish fifth or worse, sixth or worse if he led, or seventh or worse if he led the most laps.

If Harvick was to finish second with leading the most laps, he’d need Hamlin to finish 11th or worse, 12th or worse if he led or 14th or worse if he led the most laps. He then would also need Johnson to finish seventh or worse, eighth or worse if he led, or ninth or worse if he led the most laps.

If Harvick was to finish second with leading at least a lap but not the most, he’d need Hamlin to finish 12th or worse, 14th or worse if he led, or 15th or worse if he led the most. He then would need Johnson to finish eighth or worse, ninth or worse if he led, or 11th or worse if he led the most laps.

If Harvick was to finish second without leading a lap, he’d need Hamlin to finish 14th or worse, 15th or worse if he led, or 17th or worse if he led the most laps. He then would need Johnson to finish ninth or worse, 11th or worse if he led, or 12th or worse if he led the most laps.

Their past performances at Homestead-Miami would believe you to think that Harvick would have an advantage.

In Harvick’s past nine starts at Homestead-Miami, he has no wins, four top fives, seven top 10s and an average finish of 8.4. Last year he finished third while in 2008, he finished second.

For Johnson, in his past nine starts at Homestead-Miami, he has no wins, three top fives, six top 10s and an average finish of 12.7. Last year, he finished fifth while the year before, he finished 15th. Though Johnson has taken the conservative approach the last four years due to just looking to lock up the championship so with the need to push it, he could step up it up to a win.

Hamlin, meanwhile, has already done the duty of stepping it up to a win. In his five past starts, he has one win, three top fives, three top 10s and an average finish of 10.6. He is last year’s winner as he won the race to close out the season, making his claim then that he was going after the title this year.

As a whole, this looks to be one of the best championship fights that NASCAR has seen in awhile and it definitely will go down to the wire. Depending on what driver pushes it to most, what teams performs the best on pit road and what crew chief makes the best adjustments will determine who your 2010 champion is.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]THE STORY BREAKDOWN

All eyes will be on Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick next Sunday afternoon. We will carefully monitor their progress lap after lap. Every time one member of the Chase trio has a change in track position you can expect to see a graphic from ESPN2 informing us how that change impacted the Chase numbers.

Denny Hamlin, and his #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, is at the forefront of the Chase shootout with a 15 point lead over Johnson and a 46 point advantage over Harvick. Mathematically speaking, there are two possible ways for Hamlin to clinch the Chase. The first is rather obvious: win the race. The second clinch scenario is finish second after leading the most laps in the race.

Both scenarios are very doable for Hamlin this Sunday. Among the three championship contenders he’s the only one who has won a race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. In fact, he’s the defending race winner from last year after starting 38th. In five starts at this speedway Hamlin also has three top five finishes, three top tens and a healthy average finish ratio of 10.6.

But the one thing that Hamlin really seems to have at this point in time is a sense of razor sharp focus. In recent weeks he has been viewed as being somewhat arrogant but we should not be buying into that. When the green flag falls on the Ford 400 next Sunday a highly focused Hamlin will be concentrating on the job at hand. That razor sharp attention factor could lead to the championship he’s always dreamed of.

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The Homestead-Miami Speedway is one of the few tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit where Jimmie Johnson hasn’t visited victory lane. In nine starts there he’s accumulated three top five finishes, six top tens, an average finish ratio of 12.7 and he’s won the pole position twice.

He of course holds the Sprint Cup Series record for winning four consecutive championships and there are many observers who truly believe that his drive for five campaign could happen this Sunday. It’s that experience he has in winning a championship that could be a major factor this weekend. Johnson fully understands the procedure and is an expert at dealing with the stress levels it presents.

The other outstanding quality this team has is the combination of Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus along with their combined ability to display grace under fire. No matter what racing surprise develops, or the intensity level that it creates, this duo seems to calmly address the issue and work their way through it. That’s also the mark of champions.

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Kevin Harvick will also be seeking his first win at Homestead-Miami this Sunday. But in nine starts there he has the best set of numbers among the Chase contenders. That includes five top five finishes, seven top tens and a low average finish ratio of 8.4.

At 46 points out, Harvick will be the driver to watch on Sunday. Expect him to take a very aggressive approach to this race prepared to do whatever’s necessary to launch a charge to the front. Realistically, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain by this approach. He put it best himself in recent days when he said “the worst that can happen is we finish third in the Chase.”

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There are many other factors connected to the Ford 400 that could have an impact on the final resolution of the Chase. While the focal point may be on three drivers, we need to remember that there’s going to be 43 starting this race and many of them will have their own team agendas well outside of the Chase profile.

The Homestead-Miami Speedway is the only track on the Sprint Cup circuit that four time champion Jeff Gordon hasn’t won at. Then again, his last win dates back to the fall race in Texas last year. Look for Gordon to pull out all the stops to rectify this situation next Sunday.

After an extremely dismal 2009 season, Richard Childress Racing was thrilled to see all three of their cars in the Chase line up this year. However, despite some very strong efforts, Jeff Burton is the only Childress driver who has yet to find victory lane this season. Look for a very aggressive effort from the 31 team on Sunday.

Kurt Busch certainly has a personal agenda connected to the Ford 400. It’s his farewell race in Penske Racing’s #2 Miller Lite Dodge. Next year Busch will be moving to Penske’s #22 Shell/Penzoil Dodge. Considering the legacy of the blue deuce in NASCAR racing, it’s a safe bet that Busch would love to exit this ride in victory lane.

However Busch has yet another agenda he have to concentrate on this Sunday. He’s currently tenth in the Chase rankings but only five points ahead of Clint Bowyer. Remember, only the top ten gets the coveted stage, and live television, time during next month’s Sprint Cup awards banquet in Busch’s home town of Las Vegas.

No one should make the mistake of overlooking the Ford contingency this Sunday. Ford holds the Homestead-Miami Speedway’s manufacturer’s record with six wins. All six of those wins have been delivered by Roush Fenway Racing with driver Greg Biffle serving up a record high three of them. Carl Edwards has found his fire again and looked very strong en route to his win at Phoenix last weekend. Matt Kenseth has been showing some strength recently as well. Kenseth will be making his 400th Sprint Cup career start Sunday and would love to honor that occasion with his first win of the season.

Let’s also not forget that anytime a corporation is the official race sponsor as well as having ties to individual race teams then the drivers of those teams has a tendency to work even harder to get a win for their sponsor.

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Since the start of the 2010 season, last February 14th at Daytona, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has ran 10,244 laps, 13,777 miles featuring 1,505 starters. Now, during the championship weekend, it all comes down to three drivers, 267 laps and one trophy.

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THE VEGAS BREAKDOWN

Regarding the 2010 Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship, the Las Vegas based World Sports Exchange, (WSE), seems to believe that Denny Hamlin can accomplish his great American dream by winning his first NASCAR title. They’re backing that with 1 to 2 odds. The WSE has Jimmie Johnson ranked at 9 to 5 odds to take his fifth consecutive title. Kevin Harvick has been rated at 10 to 1. These WSE numbers are highly significant in the fact that it’s the first time since January that Johnson has not been on top of their list to win the championship.

Regarding their picks for the Ford 400, the WSE has Johnson and Hamlin dead even at 5 to 1 as favorites to win. Carl Edwards is behind them at 6 to 1 followed by Harvick at 7 to 1. At 8 to 1 you will find three time race winner Greg Biffle with Kyle Busch right behind him at 9 to 1. The top of the WSE list closes out this week with two time winner Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon ranked at 15 to 1. Either one of those two drivers could turn out to be a lucrative long shot wager.

Now for the weekly disclaimer: NASCAR wants us to remind you that these numbers are for informational and entertainment purposes. They neither encourage nor condone the placing of wagers on their events.

This is normally where I offer some silly alternative regarding how to spend the left over coins from your weekly budget. I’m not doing that this week. This is Ford championship weekend and every NASCAR fan in the country has the right to get a little wild and crazy.

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THE RACE BREAKDOWN

The Ford 400 is 267 laps/400.5 miles around the Homestead-Miami Speedway’s 1.5 mile oval.

The race has 45 entries vying for the 43 starting berths. Nine of the entries are on the go or go home list meaning they don’t have a guaranteed starting berth because they are currently outside of NASCAR’s top 35 in owner’s points. These teams will have to rely on qualifying speeds to make the race.

Qualifying day is going to be important because it will establish pre race track position and, of equal importance, determine the order of pit stall selections. The track qualifying record, 181.111 MPH, was set by Jamie McMurray back in November of 2003.

The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in November of 1999 and was won by Tony Stewart. Since that time there has been 11 Cup races at the speedway that has sent eight different winners to victory lane.

The Homestead-Miami Speedway has progressive banking in its turns measuring 18,19, and 20 degrees. The two straight-aways only has four degrees of banking.

The pit road speed is 45 MPH.

The weather forecast for race day Sunday calls for sunny skies and daytime highs around 76 degrees. Because this is solely a daytime race, track temperatures could be a concern for crew chiefs. Also of concern will be the opening phase of sunset, towards the end of the race, when drivers will have to endure a severe glare on their windshields while going down the front straightaway towards turn one.

The Ford 400 will be broadcast live by the ESPN2 Network with the pre race show beginning at 12 pm eastern time. The race re airs will be Monday morning, 330 am et, also on ESPN2 and again on Wednesday afternoon, 230 pm et, on SPEED.

Even though it’s been some months since I’ve been able to sit down at a keyboard and type the usual sort of revolting prose that I’m not really all that famous for, I haven’t been sitting idle. I am keeping track of what’s going on in NASCAR, but I’m also working on a few side projects (one being a possible Youtube automotive show of sorts), and following the pursuits of other types of auto racing. A lot has happened in my absence, but at the same time, nothing has changed.

Top Gear USA

Before I say anything else, there is a USA-version of Top Gear coming out on the History Channel….and from what I’ve seen of the new show….I cannot come up with another term more stupendously powerful than ‘it freaking sucks’. This show sucks so freaking badly, I’m ashamed to even be in the same country as the location it’s produced in. This show is proof that brain donors do indeed walk the earth. This show makes me psychotically envious of those who are legally blind and deaf. This show sucks so freaking badly, that you’d be hard-pressed to get better sucking results from a $300,000 Hoover vacuum cleaner.

BBC Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson once said something to the effect that “Americans don’t ‘get’ Top Gear”.

It’s not the viewing Americans with the problem. We ‘get’ the show just fine and dandy. Well, I take that back, Democrats don’t get it.

It’s the idiots who produce the American ‘car’ shows who are the scourge behind this rampant, all-enveloping stupidity.

Want to see what I’m talking about? Watch a car show, any car show, that’s produced in the USA. Watch NASCAR racing on TV.

See any correlation?

Both of these types of shows cater to….no one. Both types of shows are insults to the viewer’s intelligence….unless you’re a voting Democrat. I can think of a couple of shows on the Speed channel (or whatever it’s called)….but both grow boring rather quickly, as even these couple of shows constantly dip into the ‘Extreme!’ bucket for effect.

The only ‘shows’ on TV, for the car guy, that are worth watching, are Speedtv races….and BBC Top Gear.

The rest?

To borrow from the British….utter rubbish.

I shut my cable off over a year ago because of how bad it’s really gotten with American cable networks. The American Top Gear is yet another sterling example.

Here is the formula for Top Gear USA:

1. Use the Top Gear logo. According to American TV producers, we’re too stupid to notice that it’s not the UK version of Top Gear
2. Put two metrosexual males together with some guy that claims to be a race car driver, and hope we don’t notice, that in one of the commercials, two of the guys are wearing the same plaid metrosexual shirts
3. Suggest that there is ‘chemistry’ between the three presenters….never mind that there clearly isn’t any
4. Combine elements of the hit TV show ‘Jackass’ (and the dozens of other ‘Extreme!’ knockoffs that have popped up since then) with generic thematic elements of the original BBC show, because, once again, we’re too stupid to think we’d want to watch anything else
5. Sound as fake as possible by saying  ‘Oh My God!’ and other boisterous exclamations as many times as you can during the span of a 60-second commercial spot, and laugh as much as possible, even though it sounds forced
6. Simply ignore that some of the appeal with the BBC Top Gear is that a British accent adds something like 30 ‘perceived’ IQ points to the person who is speaking
7. Ignore the fact that there have been two other major attempts to get Top Gear USA off of the ground, and that it failed miserably both times
8. Do absolutely nothing to try to make it different from the UK version, even use the bits from the UK show that didn’t work too well
9. Cover up the fact that American TV producers don’t understand the concept of ‘dry humor’, and how it’s a staple of British comedy (Monty Python, anyone?)

10. Insert butt-rock music as much as possible (something you’d hear from the late 1980’s/early 1990’s), because we do it with every other ‘car guy’ TV show in existence, and they’re too stupid to notice anyway

Well, there you go, that’s pretty much the formula for the new USA Top Gear. Feel free to add your own additions to the ‘formula’ in the comment section down below. And yes, the ‘Youtube’ show project of mine revolves around something of a Top Gear UK-type of show….same basic idea, much-different layout and subject material, however….and it will include viewer participation.

Moving on….

NASCAR Announcements

1. Well, whaddya know, NASCAR is switching to E85 for the 2011 season. Does anyone except for the Corn lobby give two bleeps that NASCAR is switching to E85 for the 2011 season, and every other season after that? We need to get away from foreign fuel sources? Where is the other 85% of the fuel coming from, if 15% ethanol is coming from America?
2. I think I saw somewhere where there was going to be a front splitter change for 2011….but I don’t have a source. That’s a nice suggestion, if it’s true, however, what is the France Cartel going to do about the rest of the car?
3. Isn’t fuel injection coming in mid-2011? This was around 10 years overdue. Now if we could only get powerplants that are sourced from actual production cars or trucks….pushrod vs. overhead cam? Chevy and Dodge went with pushrods for their production V8’s, Ford and Toyota went with DOHC….
4. I wonder if Ford is actually going to show up with a winning powerplant next year. The all-new FR9 has been a disaster, and I don’t care that Ford somehow won two races this year….out of 35 ran so far….that engine is still a turd, never mind how much time and engineering they’ve wasted upon it. Yes, it’s a great idea, and sure, it sounds like it should work…on paper…but they brought it out before it was ready to compete.

There are other announcements and developments that are out there….or at least I think there are….however, nothing has been done as to what to do about the elephant in the room, namely why viewers are leaving this sport in droves.

I have a thought about that.

This series needs an overhaul. The failed COSHAT (Car of some hideous alternate tomorrow) hasn’t been updated in three years now, other than a spoiler change….wooo, what an upgrade….and it’s done nothing to improve ‘the racing’. Yes, it’s supposedly safer….nobody has been killed in one yet….but it punches such a huge hole in the air that anyone coming up on the leader has air taken off of the nose….and so we have race after race, where whoever gets in front during a pit stop pretty much has the lead for that round of green-flag racing….and people switch off the TV sets.

There’s another suggestion as to why nobody is watching….and it has nothing to do with racing.

I’m struggling with trying to identify the problem, simply because I think I’m suffering from ‘it’ also.

I can’t sit down and watch a race any longer, unless it’s something really significant. I’m having difficulty reading an entire news article. I’m having difficulty sitting down and reading an entire book. It’s so much easier simply reading the title of the article, and if it’s got a good hook, I’ll check it out….otherwise, I’ve already moved on.

This isn’t just affecting how I read.

I can’t stand talking to slow people. If you’re talking like Forrest Gump, and in addition, sound like you are further impaired as if you’re overdosing on valium, I really cannot talk to you. I’ve already moved onto three or four other thoughts or conversation topics by the time you’ve finished saying ‘hello’. I’m not trying to be rude, I’m not trying to be a jerk, I’m simply operating at a speed at which you’re not, and unless I’m really trying to focus….you just lost me.

This is also how I feel when talking to people who vote democrat, but we all know that this particular disease is incurable, so I’ll put them into a ‘cuddly but dumb’ category, knowing that there’s nothing I can do for them and their mental illness….

However, moving on….I think what’s happened, is that our Information Age, along with fast-moving computer games, TV, and whatnot….it’s done something to the male population under 35. Think of it as ‘Acquired A.D.H.D’, where we’d really like to focus on a race….but if it’s not done in 10 laps….sorry, we’re done, and we’ve just checked our Facebook page, scanned through Drudge Report, gone through 3 different email accounts, and have eaten two frozen pizzas in the same space of time it takes a NASCAR announcer to say, “And there’s only 322 laps to go!”.

I’m going to spend more time working on this particular phenomenon….simply because I’m in this particular age bracket, and I’m curious if there isn’t  more to why we can’t watch an entire race….from any motorsport series….

But for now….have a good week. I hope to do this again sometime soon.

If at first you don’t succeed, call it ‘the Car of Tomorrow’.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]Of course, that is if it comes down to one of the two winning, something Johnson has never done at Homestead. He was second in 2004, fifth last year, and he has 6 top tens in nine tries. Still, he has never won. Hamlin did just that in 2009, and with 3 top fives in the last four there, he could have the advantage. He also finished 13th in 2008, and seventh is all Johnson would need to take the crown for a fifth consecutive year if that should happen again this Sunday.

So, the Reader’s Digest version has Hamlin winning it all by finishing ahead of Johnson. Jimmie wins it by finishing anywhere from one to nine spots ahead of Denny. It will depend on who leads a lap, who leads the most laps (both which award five bonus points), and if we are talking about position gains equalling five (Top Five), four (Top Ten), or three points, which is the case for those spots outside the Top Ten.

As for Kevin Harvick, he would need to win, lead the most laps, and then he would claim it all if Hamlin is no better than 10th and Johnson 7th. That margin even shrinks if neither of those boys lead the most laps, or none at all. At least there is no way we could end up with a three way tie, right? Right? Well, there is. For example, if Harvick finishes second (170 points), Johnson leads a lap and finishes 10th (139 points), and Hamlin does not and winds up 13th (124 points), we would have, what they would call, a real interesting situation. Well, not really. The tie-breaker would go to the driver with the most wins, and Hamlin’s eight puts him in the driver’s seat, ahead of Johnson’s six and Harvick’s three.

NASCAR took a risk when they went away from recognizing the most dominant car over the course of the season as champion, yet most fans bought into it. The change may have cost Jeff Gordon a couple of titles and Carl Edwards one, but it did extend the drama a few more weeks with even more contenders vying for the crown. Be it with ten, twelve, or even twenty in the Chase, the format works. However, to push this further with “winner take all” or “elimination round” formats would risk crowning a paper champion that has no legitimacy with the fans. You have to remember that sometimes the best driver, car, and team simply kicks the stuffings out of the competition. That is not the case this year.

When the action resumes at Homestead on Sunday, we will have three drivers, each with a legitimate chance to become the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion. While Kevin Harvick might be forgiven for yearning for the classic system this season, the current format has presented us with a true “game seven” conclusion to the year. NASCAR wanted an exciting finale when they instituted the Chase, and they now have that.

All that they have to do now is decide how many they want to invite to the party next season. If they want Junior in it, they just might have to extend the number of invitations to twenty.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]It’s what fans have been screaming for and exactly what NASCAR needs. It’s down to the last race at Homestead and we have three contenders who all have a legitimate chance to win it all.

Each driver has their own unique story and it’s impossible to find a NASCAR fan that isn’t salivating in anticipation.

Denny Hamlin was widely proclaimed by the media at the end of last season as the driver who could de-throne the reigning king, Jimmie Johnson.

But early this season a knee injury and subsequent surgery had the same media writing him off.

Hamlin had a slow start this season but rallied back with eight wins and heads into Homestead with a slim 15 point lead in the points standings.

Last year, Hamlin won at Homestead-Miami Speedway and has three top-three finishes in five starts at the track.

The Championship is his to win or lose but his triumph over adversity would make this young driver a popular hero if he pulls it off.

Kevin Harvick is probably the long shot in the equation but with 25 top-10 finishes this season, don’t count him out. Throw strategy and luck into the mix and anything could happen.

And what a story that would be. Who wouldn’t be happy to see the driver who replaced Dale Earnhardt win another championship for Richard Childress?

Jimmie Johnson is already in the NASCAR record books for winning four consecutive championships. If you think he’s satisfied with that, think again. The team of Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus don’t show any indication that they’re done yet.

Johnson knows how to win a championship and another title is within his grasp. If you love to see history in the making, then Johnson is your man.

NASCAR has been plagued with sagging ratings and empty seats but this three driver shootout is just what the doctor ordered.

Win, lose or draw, these three drivers have breathed new life into NASCAR.