For the sixth consecutive year, Richmond International Raceway will be the venue where the Chase for the Championship field is finally determined. And if you're a fan of NASCAR's playoff system, you gotta love the drama.
After 25 races this we know -- Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin are in, regardless of what happens Saturday night.
Determining the final eight spots gets a little dicey, since there are 11 drivers in the mix to fill them out.
David Reutimann is currently in 15th place in the points standings, and mathematically he is the last driver to have a shot at getting in the field. While it appears he's pretty much of a long shot, keep in mind that he's only 217 points behind fifth place Carl Edwards.
If the stars are aligned correctly, he could actually sneak in the playoffs and Edwards could exit with a bad run in Virginia.
Then there's the case of Mark Martin and Kyle Busch. The drivers are tied for the lead in Sprint Cup competition in number of wins with four each. But as it stands now Martin is barely in the Chase and Busch is out.
Once the Chase field is set the points are reset to 5,000 with race victories accounting for 10 bonus points per win. So if Martin and/or Busch make the Chase, they would actually be top seeds with 5,400 points.
But they have to make it first, and obviously that's far from a done deal.
Martin, ranked No. 10, is just 69 points ahead of 13th-place Brian Vickers while No. 11 Greg Biffle leads Vickers by a tentative 68 points.
Busch is 14th -- 37 points away from the cut line.
Speaking of which, how about Matt Kenseth?
The winner of the rain-shortened Daytona 500 has been holding steady at the 12th spot in the points standings over the last two weeks, and you have to wonder if he can maintain that position and thus get a shot at winning his second series title.
Kenseth, along with Johnson, are the only wheelmen to make the Chase in every year of its existence.
"I just want to run good and be back at the front where we belong," Kenseth said. "We have a championship caliber team as far as personnel. We're capable of much better than this. We've got to beat all the guys we're around to get in the Chase. There are about five or six guys that are really close in the points and whoever outperforms the rest of them will make it in."
My feelings on the Chase have gone back and forth over the years.
When it was first implemented I didn't care for it, preferring the old days when an entire season's body of work determined a champion. But I can't deny that it does give the series a shot of adrenaline.
With football season under way and the baseball playoffs closing in, it's easy for NASCAR to get lost in the shuffle. Thanks to the Chase, however, fans have a new reason to rediscover stock car racing in September.
(Contact Scott Adamson of the Anderson Independent-Mail in Anderson, S.C., at adamsons(at)independentmail.com.)
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