NASCAR Cup Series

Chase for the Sprint Cup now three-man race

Published Oct. 26, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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Larry McReynolds

Six races are in the books and we are down to the last four Sprint Cup events of the season. Golly, things sure got tightened up Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. It has clearly become a three-man race for the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

After his unfortunate issue with Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon not only had a bad day, he lost fourth position in the points and had a wrecked race car. Even though Kyle Busch took over fourth, he is still a full race out from the leaders in the points.

Of course, though, we are headed to Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. There’s always the potential when you go there to completely shake things up. But going into it we have a three-man race and a very close three-man race. It’s actually the closest points battle between first and second in the seven-year history of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Denny Hamlin is now only six points behind leader Jimmie Johnson. Kevin Harvick is third, some 62 points out. Kevin is so very good on restrictor-plate tracks, so you just know he has to be feeling pretty good about rolling into Alabama this weekend. Jimmie Johnson has even said he felt his biggest obstacle this weekend will definitely be the No. 29.

You may hear Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick all downplaying their championship chances, but there is no question each one wants to be the title frontrunner right now.

I know as a crew chief, even when we knew we had a car to win the race on Sunday, we would downplay it, because in racing you just never know. If you raise your expectations up to everyone, then the devastating fall is even further if it doesn’t happen. That’s why I think those three guys are downplaying things right now.

I think all three have valid reasons to feel they are the favorites. At the same time I can see reasons why they may not feel like the favorites. I can easily sit here and make a case for any of those three race teams as to why it will be the champion.

As I have talked about in the past, no one has gotten on a hot streak and stayed there. We’ve had six Chase for the Sprint Cup races so far this year and have had six different winners. We haven’t seen that since 2006, I believe.

I don’t know after Sunday if we will have a clear picture of who the champion will be, but I definitely believe we will have a clearer picture of who the players will be. If, for example, Kevin has a great run while Jimmie and Denny get swept up in a big wreck, well all of a sudden we have even a bigger three-man race. All three teams know that of the remaining Chase races, Sunday is the one where you have the least control of the outcome of your day.

How do you like us now?

Look, if you did not like Sunday’s race at Martinsville, we will never ever, ever make you a race fan. We should just stop trying if you didn’t like the race Sunday. On top of that, it was a damn good crowd in the stands Sunday, so shame on anybody in the media that is reporting negatively on our sport right now. Shame, shame on them.

If you don’t like what we have right now, well golly, you don’t need to be a part of this.

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