Kenseth, of course, won on Sunday. Burton and Busch were sidelined with car troubles, and that threw the whole thing into a tizzy. Half the field — literally — is somewhere different on the pecking order today.
The current stats (bold for drivers who moved up or down): 1. Johnson; 2. Kenseth, 58 points back; 3. Harvick, 317; 4. Martin, 395; 5. Stewart, 406; 6. Gordon, 434; 7. Busch, 443; 8. Hamlin, 445; 9. Burton, 449; 10. Earnhardt, 484.
It’s not inconceivable that a win at Bristol this weekend could move Earnhardt halfway up the charts. Likewise, another early exit by Burton would spell disaster in what has otherwise been a superb season.
And it’s no surprise that the drivers in the top 10 are the heavy favorites to win at each track they go to. They’ll have the best cars — comparably speaking — and a top-20 finish is an expectation.
Perhaps that’s where the Chase will turn: If Burton or someone clinging to a spot develops mechanical problems and is forced to retire early, the standings fall into a bigger state of upheaval. There’s a far greater chance of that this weekend at Bristol, where former driver Dick Trickle famously compared the track to flying fighter jets in a gymnasium.
Cautions are a fact of life at Bristol, and they’re rarely debris cautions. Someone’s going to get taken out, whether through their own fault or someone else’s, and a week from now I could be writing much the same thing: Holy crap, look at how different the standings are!
I’ll try to find something different, of course. But with only three left until the Chase actually begins, the points race — and the difference between 10th and 11th — becomes a story unto itself.