Updated Sept. 7
Since the inception of the Chase in 2004, two drivers have been in the championship mix each and every time.
When the checkered flag waves at Richmond, could it be down to one?
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| If Matt Kenseth's luck runs out, he might miss out on the Chase. (Getty Images) |
But the fact that he's still in the top 12 following Sunday night's race at Atlanta is a testament to the 17 team's perseverance -- though some timely cautions certainly helped their cause.
Struggling with a loose car early, he smacked the wall with his right rear, which made the car even worse. By Lap 35, he was a lap down in 31st and looked to be in store for a big hit in the standings with Vickers and Busch both running up toward the front. But then came the beginning of the turnaround.
Just moments after Kenseth was lapped, Sam Hornish Jr. went for a spin along the front stretch, resulting in the first caution of the night. Not only would the caution period allow the 17 team a little extra time to work on the car, but he also got the free pass.
During the next run, Kenseth was on the verge of being lapped yet again, but as luck would have it, Hornish would go for another spin. With time for a few more repairs and adjustments, Kenseth had new life.
He steadily began to work his way forward and by lap 200 he was battling among the top 10 -- and this was despite an issue with the splitter on the front of his car, which was dragging on the track intermittently. When all was said and done, Kenseth walked away from Atlanta 12th, five spots behind Vickers, who finished seventh, but in front of Busch, who wound up 13th.
Despite the comeback, Kenseth wasn't exactly breathing a sigh of relief.
"I don't feel real good about it," Kenseth said. "We were pretty optimistic in practice yesterday and we started the race way off. I ran into the wall, which isn't their fault, it's my fault, and that hurt us a little bit. But it's just so inconsistent and hard to drive. I don't know. We just can't really seem to figure out how to get these cars to go fast.
"I just want to run good and be back up front where we belong. We have a championship-caliber team as far as personnel. We're capable of much better than this, and, to be honest with you, more so than the Chase, I'm trying to think of how in the world we're going to get this team back to running up front where it should be and leading laps and contending for wins, because we haven't done that since Fontana."
Power Rankings after Atlanta:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Is there any reason to pick against him other than the belief that the law of averages eventually has to catch up to him? | ||
| 2 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| He's got to be fed up watching his teammate rack up the wins and titles. | ||
| 3 | Kurt Busch | 5 |
| Penske is the only Dodge camp in town. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? It will be interesting to see how Busch adjusts to new crew chief Steve Addington, who helped lead his brother Kyle to 12 wins the past two seasons. | ||
| 4 | Tony Stewart | 6 |
| Throughout his career he has been the model of consistency with his first season as driver-owner right on par with his career averages. However, he'll need to step up his game during the Chase if he's to snatch the title away from Johnson. Consistency alone won't get the job done like it did in 2005. | ||
| 5 | Clint Bowyer | 9 |
| Of Richard Childress Racing's trio of drivers, he's the one who flies under the radar. But I have a hunch that this could be his breakout season. | ||
| 6 | Kyle Busch | 8 |
| He was dominant at times over the past couple of years, but when his car was off, he tended to pout and his finishes suffered because of it. It's up to Dave Rogers to keep him focused during the bad days. | ||
| 7 | Denny Hamlin | 4 |
| Because of his strong finish to end 2009, many consider him the top challenger to Johnson. But his knee injury concerns me and I think it will affect his performance as the season drags on. | ||
| 8 | Carl Edwards | 15 |
| I don't know that I expect him to climb all the way back to 2008 levels when he had nine wins, but he should be much improved from 2009 when he had none. | ||
| 9 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| He had a magical season in his return to full-time racing with Hendrick Motorsports, but I don't believe he'll hit that same level in 2010. | ||
| 10 | Jeff Burton | 11 |
| He was among the hottest drivers the last few weeks of the 2009 season, but we have seen so often that momentum doesn't always carry over. | ||
| 11 | Greg Biffle | 10 |
| He's a lot like Bowyer in that I don't think he gets the amount of respect he probably deserves. He has championship ability; I'm just not sure his crew is up to the challenge. | ||
| 12 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 7 |
| To be honest, I have no idea what to expect of Montoya entering this season. I think he can be in the mix again, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if he takes a step back. | ||
| 13 | Matt Kenseth | 12 |
| He's never been the same since he lost Robbie Reiser as crew chief, and I don't have a whole lot of confidence that he's going to rediscover that magic without him. | ||
| 14 | Kasey Kahne | 14 |
| Like Harvick, he's a pending free agent with many believing he has got one foot out the door. But he has seemed awfully excited about the Roush-Yates power he has under the hood with Richard Petty Motorsports' switch to Fords. | ||
| 15 | Brian Vickers | NR |
| Can the team rediscover the consistency that helped vault him and his Red Bull team into the Chase for the first time or were his dreadful runs during the Chase a sign of things to come? | ||
