"Have At It" Taking It's Toll- Just ask Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch

Six races into the Chase and Jeff Burton's words rang true when he said the "intensity levels would be ratcheted up" during the Chase with this "Have At It" attitude. Just ask Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon if it's affected their championship shots.  All season long, it's been pondered, if not spoken aloud, just how would this look if a Chaser gets delivered this attitude while driving for the championship. And NASCAR has set the stage all season long by just watching and then not delivering much more than a slap on the wrist for such attitudes on the track. When everyone epected Carl Edwards to get dealt a really heavy blow for taking out Brad Keselowski at Atlanta, NASCAR gave him a general penalty and probation. Carl referred to remembering he's on probation during Martinsville, which admittedly caused him to hesitate on messing with Juan Pablo Montoya a bit more than he did.

At Kansas, Kyle Busch started out in a good position to chase the championship but appeared to have had trouble with David Reutimann early on in the race and then found himself taken out by David Reutimann after Reutimann felt slighted by Kyle on the track. Naturally this turned out to be very bad news for a Chaser. It just happened that the "non-Chaser" (Reutimann) wasn't afraid to "have at it" with the Chaser (Busch). And in the long run in the big picture, it hurt Kyle a lot more than it hurt Reutimann. In fact, it probably benefitted Reutimann by virtue of the fact that he had the guts to mess with Kyle! Too often many fans figure anyone not in the Chase just let's the Chase driver go by, and this certainly proved that wasn't so. Three races later, Kyle Busch is finally back up to fourth place which puts him back in the hunt for the championship, albeit a longshot but closer than anyone else outside the top three.



Kurt Busch takes out Jeff Gordon at Martinsville (NASCAR)

 At Martinsville, Jeff Gordon watched his champsionship hopes fall away when he tangled with Kurt Busch. Gordon is more than 200 points down and sitting in 5th place, however, there have been stranger things to happen with Talladega looming next week. It's still possible to count Gordon from 5th place and even Edwards and Stewart in 6th and 7th respectively still in the Chase at this point. The big keys to Talladega for the general picture will be what NASCAR throws out there next week. For example, will there be a larger restrictor plate like the drivers got at Daytona in July?  Will the tire be as readily agreeable? Any other potential changes that NASCAR can dictate can change how the drivers all run together either in freight trains or in the dicey racing packs we've been enjoying the last couple times.

With the way Johnson, Hamlin and Harvick ran so close together throughout the race at Martinsville and haven't let themselves out of each others sight very much over the past six races, being caught up in a wreck together is very easily a possibility. Talladega's reputation is it's glory for being so famous for their incredibly nasty, big wrecks that everyone gleefully calls, the "big ones". One wreck could easily collect the top contenders and turn the points chase into a top seven Chase very quickly.

Headlines this week said nothing much would change from Martinsville. I disagree. A lot changed. Johnson, Hamlin and Harvick raced a smart race staying in contention of each other, but Hamlin tightened up the race and Harvick gained on both. Next, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards both gained a position while Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart both dropped a position. In the end, the Chase became more competitive as they roll into one of the most treacherous tracks of all: Talladega. Try as they might to race her smart, Dega has a mind of her own. Likewise, so do the other 31 drivers not involved in the Chase who at Talladega can be a winner too.  Talladega isn't about racing anymore, it's about surviving, after Talladega, THEN the Chase may be decided who's really in it.