Sunday, after 500 miles around the 2.66 mile superspeedway, the latter occurred.
Perhaps not to the liking of the folks in the NASCAR Daytona Beach offices, or to those looking for a tight championship battle, Talladega did not squeeze the battle for the points lead. In fact, it parted it.
With Brad Keselowski opening up a 14 point lead over Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin sitting third in points, 23 points back, a close championship fight is not taking form – yet.
However, with Talladega falling earlier on the Chase schedule this season, more time is left on the schedule for the championship standings to tighten back up – and there is a good chance of this happening. With this is mind, perhaps the closest and tightest battle will not be for the championship, but for those who are arguably out of it.
Looking at the standings with six races remaining, it is clear that there are some gaps among the top three or four in the standings. However, following this gap, the point battle is quite close – and has some meaning and purpose.
Kasey Kahne, who is fourth in points, is on the bubble for his championship hopes with many already eliminating him from contention. That being a whole other issue, Kahne sits 36 points behind the leader. Thanks to NASCAR’s new point system, this is basically 36 positions behind the leader on track, 36 positions that need to be made up– obviously bonus points can make a difference and change this math slightly. Matt Kenseth, who currently finds himself 12th in the standings, is 62 points behind the leader. In relation to Kahne – fourth place in the standings – there is only a 26 point difference between the two. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is 11th in points, is only 15 points behind fourth. The simple point is that while the point lead battle may not be close, the rest of the Chase field is stacked on top of each other.
With six races remaining, much is on the line for many of these teams. For some, it is the chance to redeem a bad start to the Chase, regain magic from earlier in the season, or end a long relationship with a team on a high note. It’s also about the bragging rights of the order in which speeches are made at the post-season banquet – or even earning a spot in the banquet lineup to begin with. Perhaps most importantly, it’s knowing that as long as there is a mathematical way of winning the championship, there is still a chance and still hope.
Regardless of how one looks at it, the battle for the point lead, while holding the most attention and deservingly so, is not the only storyline relating to points.
Besides, who knows? Maybe the 2012 Sprint Cup champion will come from one of “the rest.”
