NASCAR’s vision for their 2010 Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship has turned into everything they were hoping for when the program began many years ago. As the series heads into the next to the last race of the 2010 season, the current version of the Chase is a three way shoot out heading towards a racing environment where anything can happen. When the checkers falls on Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500, some one’s going to leave the Phoenix International Raceway all smiles and full of confidence and some one’s going to head home wondering if their championship run is now over.

THE STORY BREAKDOWN

There are plenty of story lines to look at heading into Sunday’s race at Phoenix. Many of them are leftovers from last weekend’s wild west show at Texas. But the focal point is, and must be, the Chase. Denny Hamlin goes into the Phoenix race 33 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson and 59 ahead of third place Kevin Harvick.

Adding to the intensity of these numbers are the facts that Phoenix is a very challenging, and sometime troublesome, speedway. It’s one mile oval qualifies it for short track status. The fact that it’s virtually flat as a pancake in the turns makes it challenging for the drivers to pull off a clean pass. The Phoenix International Raceway is short track racing on steroids and anything could happen to impact the latest Chase numbers.

Of the three championship contenders, Denny Hamlin’s numbers at this race track could use some work. He’s still searching for his first win in ten previous starts. But he does have five top five finishes, six top tens with an average finish ratio of 11.6.

But it’s this team’s mental focus that is outstanding. When Hamlin crossed under the checkers last Sunday, after winning the Texas race, he came over the radio and said “it’s on.” That’s probably the best two line definition of the 2010 Chase anyone could possibly come up with. Later in the week Hamlin said he would approaching the Phoenix race like he was 33 points down instead of 33 points in the lead.

Then there’s the matter of four time consecutive champion Jimmie Johnson and his highly potent drive for five campaign. When it comes to numbers compiled at Phoenix the #48 team rules the valley of the sun. They’ve won four of their last six races there. Johnson in 14 previous starts has also compiled nine top fives, 12 top fens and has an amazing average finish ratio of 4.9 at this track. If there is a race track on the entire NASCAR schedule where Johnson can make up 33 points and re establish his points lead, then Phoenix is that place.

Don’t expect last Sunday’s surprise crew swap, between the Johnson and Jeff Gordon teams, to be any form of distraction during the Phoenix race. Last Wednesday Chad Knaus, crew chief for the #48 team emphasized that before the decision was made to keep the swap permanent for the final two races of the year everyone involved signed off on it. That included the two drivers, team owner Rick Hendrick and Marshall Carlson, President of Hendrick Motorsports. Next Knaus presented the idea to the pit crew members.”We got the guys together and we discussed it with them and they all bought into it one hundred percent,” Knaus said adding “there’s a lot of positive in it to be honest.”

Kevin Harvick’s numbers at Phoenix includes three wins in 15 starts along with three top five finishes, six top tens along with an average finish ratio of 15.0.

Harvick, however, does have an advantage over his fellow Chase contenders: laps and experience at this race track. With his career stemming from his native Bakersfield-California, Phoenix was a frequent touring point for Harvick. He has raced there in late models, the former NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour Series, the NASCAR Winston West Series and of course all three of NASCAR’s national touring series. He’s also considered to be a master of flat track racing.

He will need that experience this Sunday. To coin a phrase from the world of professional poker, Harvick’s Chase aspirations have hit “all in” status. He needs to eradicate a large share of the 59 point lead that Hamlin has on him this Sunday so he can make an all out assault on the title during the final championship weekend.

The truth be known, Harvick probably longs for the days of yesteryear when the old points system was still in place. Under that old system he would be first in the championship standings, 300 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson and the official engraver of NASCAR would have received instructions to start placing his name on the champion’s trophy.

What’s the great equalizer here? It could turn out to be qualifying positions and the pit stall selections that come with it.

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At this point of the week we have already seen the video of the Jeff Gordon-Jeff Burton dust up, from last week’s Texas race, so many times we can practically recite their post fight comments. You can expect to see an encore presentation of that piece of video many more times during the Phoenix weekend. But that’s all you should expect from the moment. It appears that the two drivers have talked it out, they are fine, and we should not be looking for any reason to expect round two.

In fact, on Wednesday night, the incident between these two drivers hit a comical note. Gordon was in Nashville to make a special appearance on the annual Country Music Association’s award show. Country music superstar, and show co-host, Brad Paisley assigned a new nickname to Gordon: “Scrappy.”

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The other piece of video you will see a lot this weekend will be the sight of the four Richard Petty Motorsports car and equipment haulers sitting in the parking lot of the Texas Motor Speedway where they spent stranded from Sunday night to late Wednesday afternoon. The RPM haulers were joined in the wait by a fifth hauler belonging to Roush Fenway Racing, Inside of that hauler were the eight race cars RPM needed for the Phoenix race. The Petty organization leases their cars from Roush Fenway and their power plants from Roush Yates Engines. The Roush truck driver was under strict orders not to load the race cars into the Petty haulers until he received a call informing him that the RPM check was cleared and fully funded.

This is of course the latest saga in the struggle for RPM financial solvency. It’s also the third race in a row where delivery of race cars and engines were momentarily delayed until the vendor received payment. The funding for the Phoenix cars were expected to be in place my Monday but, for unspecified reasons, that deadline could not be met. It was late Wednesday afternoon before the matter was resolved and the cars were loaded into the four RPM haulers so they could begin the long 18 hour drive from Texas to Phoenix.

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The one piece of video that we hope is shown a lot is connected with Ryan Newman’s #39 U.S. Army, Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet. This special edition Sprint Cup car has over 500 faces of military veterans incorporated into the paint job in honor of the recently observed Veterans Day. The Newman team will also have a honored guest on pit road with them on Sunday. 85 year old U.S Army and World War Two veteran Luis Rodriquez Jr, from Sahuarita-Arizona will spend Sunday as an honorary member of the Newman team.

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For those you whose schedules allow you to be home on Monday mornings, then check out the NASCAR edition of “The Price Is Right”. The November 15th episode will feature NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers Clint Bowyer and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Austin Dillon. The drivers will be present two NASCAR themed showcases: a North Carolina trip to the Hall Of Fame, a trip to Miami to attend the season ending events for all three of NASCAR’s national touring series and a Chevrolet Impala SS. The show will air on CBS at 11 am eastern time.

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THE VEGAS BREAKDOWN

To no real surprise the Las Vegas based World Sports Exchange, WSE, has four time Phoenix winner Jimmie Johnson on top of their of their weekly rankings at 7 to 2 odds. Also, to no surprise, the WSE has Denny Hamlin right behind Johnson at 9 to 2. The recently subdued Kyle Busch is ranked at five to 1. Kevin Harvick, at 10 to 1 odds, could turn out to be a potentially lucrative wager.

In the middle section of this week’s WSE rankings you will find previous Phoenix winners Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon at 12 to 1. At 15 to 1 odds you will find Mark Martin who could turn out to be an interesting long shot bet this week. After a dismal roller coaster of a season, Martin’s team has been in resurgence mode lately. He’s a two time winner at Phoenix and also holds the track records for most top five and most top ten finishes. At 18 to 1 is a trio of drivers that includes race winner Kurt Busch along with Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards.

In the lower tier of this week’s rankings you will find two time Phoenix winner Jeff Burton at 20 to 1 which, like Martin, could make an interesting long shot wager. Also in the 20 to 1 group are Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle. At 25 to 1 is a quartet of drivers featuring Joey Logano, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jamie McMurray and former winner Ryan Newman. The list closes with drivers Martin Truex Jr and Kasey Kahne at 30 to 1 odds.

Now for the disclaimer. NASCAR wants us to remind you that these numbers are for entertainment and informational numbers only. They neither encourage nor condone the placing of wagers on their races.

Instead you may want to consider sending some money to Jimmy Spencer, in care of the SPEED Channel’s “NASCAR Race Hub” program. Spencer has been spending a lot of money on those crying towels he issues here lately.

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THE RACE BREAKDOWN

The Kobalt Tools 500K is 312 laps-312 miles-500 kilometers around the Phoenix International Raceway’s one mile oval.

The race has 46 entries. 11 of the entries are on the go or go home list. That means these teams are not guaranteed a starting berth because they are currently outside of NASCAR’s top 35 in owner’s points. These teams will have to earn a starting berth based on their qualifying speeds.

The defending race champion, from last November, is Jimmie Johnson. Ryan Newman won the spring Phoenix event this past April.

Good track position, established by qualifying, is very important at Phoenix. Ryan Newman holds the track qualifying record, 135.854 MPH, set back in November of 2004. He also holds the track record for winning the most poles at four.

Construction began on the Phoenix International Raceway in 1964. The result was a one mile oval with a connecting 2.5 mile road course.

The late Alan Kulwicki won the first Sprint Cup race at Phoenix in November of 1988. Since that time there has been 28 Sprint Cup races there that has sent 20 different winners to victory lane.

The Phoenix International Raceway is a basically flat track with only 11 degrees of banking in turns one and two and just nine degrees in turns three and four. The front stretch measures 1,179 feet with three degrees banking and the backstretch measures 1,551 feet with nine degrees of banking.

The pit road speed is 45 MPH.

The track presently has grandstand seating for 76,812 fans.

The weather forecast for Sunday race day in Phoenix calls for sunny skies and a daytime high of 71 degrees.

The Kobalt Tools 500K will be broadcast live by the ESPN Network beginning at 2 pm eastern time. The re airs will be Monday morning, 230 am et and again on Wednesday, 12 pm et on SPEED.

Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet, got a little bit country at the Country Music Awards this week after his rock and roll weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Gordon’s rocking and rolling with competitor Jeff Burton even made it into the CMA Awards ceremony, thanks to a Gordon spoof of country singer Brad Paisley.

Gordon, a presenter at country music’s most prestigious awards ceremony, took the stage with CMA co-host Carrie Underwood in a big white cowboy hat and scruffy beard, doing his best Brad Paisley imitation. The real Paisley then appeared, in the same garb as Gordon, challenging Gordon to sing to prove that he was an imposter.

Thankfully, especially for all the baseball fans who remember suffering through Gordon’s mangling of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, Gordon declined to share a tune. Instead, Gordon fell right into Paisley’s trap when the country singer told Gordon that he could stay on stage as long as he gave him the keys to the No. 48 race car, his teammate and competitor Jimmie Johnson’s winning machine.

Paisley then did his own imitation of a prize fighter, ribbing Gordon about his fight with Jeff Burton after the latter drove Gordon hard into the wall under caution. Paisley officially dubbed Gordon “ole scrappy” in honor of his Texas duke out of Burton.

Gordon also had some serious business to do at the CMA awards ceremony. He presented the Vocal Duo of the Year award to Sugarland and then talked about a Chevrolet Camaro, signed by NASCAR drivers and all of the country music stars, to be raffled off to benefit The Wounded Warrior Project.

While the country music stars were busily ribbing Gordon about his scuffle on the race track, his crew chief and team were standing proudly by their man, defending his feistiness.

“I’m proud of him for this,” Steve Letarte, Gordon’s crew chief said. “There are a lot of people in the world and in the media that might question his gumption and how hard he wants to be here.”

“I’m just glad to see he’s upset,” Letarte continued. “I like to see his emotion. Our team likes to see his emotion. It’s great.”

“Anytime you see a guy like him that is so clean-cut and does such a great job, when he really shows his emotion, it fires everybody up and everybody knows how much he really cares.”

Hendrick Motorsports General Manager Marshall Carlson was also impressed with the scrappiness of his veteran driver. He attributed his driver’s willingness to mix it up to Gordon’s ramped up physical training plan, which Gordon began as an answer to his chronic back pain.

“I’m real proud of Jeff Gordon,” Carlson said. “He’s confident in his physical capabilities, and so when he got in a situation where he was being pushed around, he’s going to let the guy know that’s not how he wants to be raced.”

While Gordon was rocking and rolling with Burton during the Texas race, his pit crew was rolling their gear over to pit the No. 48 race car. Unlike Gordon, Johnson is still in the Sprint Cup Championship hunt and the enhanced pit stops completed by Gordon’s crew were vital in keeping Johnson within striking distance of the current points leader Denny Hamlin.

This week, Hendrick Motorsports announced that the No. 24 and No. 48 pit crew swap would be permanent, at least for the final two races in the 2010 season. The change accentuated the HMS philosophy that the 2-4-8 team functions as one team that just happens to have two race cars.

“The shop personnel work on both cars in the shop, and the crew will lend another HMS team a hand at the track,” Gordon said. “We want to do everything possible to bring another championship trophy back to Hendrick Motorsports. But I also plan to do everything possible to get another Phoenix trophy for this DuPont team.”

After being a little bit country at the CMA Awards, Gordon will now rock and roll into Phoenix International Raceway to compete in the next to the last race of the season, the Kobalt Tools 500. Gordon came close to victory at the track earlier in the year, when spinning his tires on a green-white-checkered restart cost the four-time champion the race.

“I love the track even though it’s a very challenging one,” Gordon said. “Both ends of the race track are complete opposites and it’s impossible to get both ends to work perfectly.”

“I like that challenge,” Gordon said. “I’ve driven on the track since I was like 18 years old so I always look forward to coming here because it’s a lot of fun to drive.”

Perhaps at the “Jewel of the Desert” as Phoenix International Raceway is nicknamed, Jeff Gordon will finally find that perfect combination of being a little bit country and a little bit rock ‘n roll. Better yet, he may just find that elusive first checkered flag as the 2010 season draws to a close.

The AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday saw some twists and turns surrounding the Chase that will lead us into this weekend.

Denny Hamlin took the win with a pass for the lead with 29 laps to go to take over the point standings.

“What a run!” Hamlin said in victory lane. “Just can’t say enough for this whole FedEx team. I told everyone that I’d wait for three to go, and I felt that was the most aggressive I’ve been on a restart all year.”

With the win, Hamlin went from 14 points back to 33 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson, who finished ninth.

“It was just a long day,” Johnson said afterwards. “We just gave away so much track position at the beginning and it was tough to get back to where we needed to.”

The pit stop issues during the race that lost them that track position promoted an in-race pit crew swap between the No. 24 of Jeff Gordon and Johnson.

“It’s a professional sport, and you see it all the time,” Knaus said after the Texas race, as according to NASCAR.com. “If somebody’s out or somebody’s not getting it done, say in football, you get a different receiver in the game or a different quarterback, or whatever it is.

“Unfortunately, our guys weren’t hitting on all eight cylinders [Sunday], and we had an opportunity with the 24 crashing to bring those guys in. They did a good job. They came in and played relief, and I thought they did a good job [Sunday]. It’s unfortunate. I don’t like doing that stuff, nobody does. But it’s kind of your job.”

“I’m okay with it,” front tire changer Mike Lingerfelt said. “We’re all team players.”

This is a swap that is set to stay in place for the rest of the year as Knaus feels that the No. 24 team is a solid team that will allow him to win the championship for Hendrick Motorsports. It is something that many thought should’ve come sooner via the fact that the No. 48 crew had been struggling all year, specifically in the front tire area.

The last championship contender, Kevin Harvick, finished sixth after battling an ill-handling car and even tapping the wall.

“We had a good car,” Harvick said in the team’s post race report. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t think we’d be anywhere in the hunt after practice, and Gil (Martin) and all the guys did a great job getting the car ready. When it got dark, our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet just went really loose, and we hit the wall. The pit crew was awesome today. We gained a ton of positions on pit road. We are still in this thing, and we are definitely looking forward to Phoenix.”

Harvick now went from 38 points behind to 59 points behind the lead.

The Sprint Cup Series now heads to Phoenix International Raceway for the second last event of the schedule.

Out of the three drivers left in the hunt, Johnson has the best average finish of 4.9 in 14 starts. In his 14 starts, he has four wins, nine top fives and 12 top 10s. Johnson has also won the past three fall races. The No. 48 team is also known for coming back from adversity and dominating so a win would not be a surprise.

Hamlin has an second best average finish at 11.6 in 10 starts. In his 10 starts, he has no wins, five top fives and six top 10s. In the past two fall races there, he has finished third and fifth. Despite this, Hamlin is slightly worried as he feels he didn’t get a good test at it in the spring due to his surgery. Also, despite finishing third last fall, he feels they didn’t have the car to earn that finish.

Harvick has the worst average finish of three at 15th in 15 starts. In his 15 starts, he has two wins, three top fives and six top 10s. Harvick has had mixed results at Phoenix in the past as they’ve been all over the place and in his past three starts there, his best finish is 13th.

Based upon this, Johnson should either close up on Hamlin or take back the points lead while Harvick slowly drifts further out of the hunt. Though we all know that anything and everything is possible (Texas proved that) so that’s why these races are run and sometimes, things don’t play out as we expect. These final two races look to be interesting.

For some people the 1996 Dura Lube 500 at Phoenix International Raceway is more than just another race. It’s the day reality came back to NASCAR and Petty Enterprises found victory lane once again.

Petty Enterprises was the Hendrick Motorsports of the first 3 decades of NASCAR. Wait, I take that back. Hendrick Motorsports loses every now and then. Petty Enterprises didn’t.

Richard Petty had 198 of his 200 wins at Petty Enterprises and 7 championships with the organization. Richard’s father Lee Petty won 54 races and 3 championships in his 16 years as a driver.

From 1949-1983 Petty Enterprises had won an unprecedented 265 races, including 10 championships and 9 Daytona 500’s.

Yet after the 1983 season Petty Enterprises and Richard Petty would be together no longer after family dispute opted him to move to Mike Curb’s operation and brought the 43 and STP over with him. Petty would win only two races in the two years with Mike Curb and cooler heads prevailed and Petty and his family run team would reunite before the 1986 season.

Yet the same success would never be found again. Petty would go winless in his final 7 seasons at Petty Enterprises before retiring in 1992.

The Randleman, North Carolina ran business would have three drivers from 1993-1995. First it was Rick Wilson, who ran the No. 44 STP Pontiac to one top ten finish in the 1993 season before being replaced by Wally Dallenbach, Jr for the start of the 1994 season. The familiar No. 43 would be back on the car as well.

Dallenbach wasn’t the answer either. He struggled and after missing six races, Petty Enterprises had seen enough and hired John Andretti to finish out the 1994 season.

In 1995 a driver from Nashville, Tennessee became available. That driver was Bobby Hamilton. Hamilton had had an interesting career until that point. He broke into the NASCAR Winston Cup Circuit by driving cars for the movie Days of Thunder. He nearly won the 1988 Autoworks 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, before a blown engine on lap 215 derailed his day to 32nd place finish.

Hamilton had moderate success on the NASCAR circuit. He won a 1989 Busch Series race at Richmond that impressed many people. Everyone thought the man needed a break. When Richard Petty came knocking, Hamliton had finally gotten his break.

Throughout the 1995 season it appeared Hamilton and Petty Enterprises were a good fit. Hamilton was giving Petty Enterprises its best point season since 1987. Hamilton would finish 14th in the standings with 4 top 5’s and ten top tens. All things pointed to a very successful 1996 season.

1996 did get off to a good start for Hamilton. After an 11th place finish at Talladega, Bobby Hamilton was 9th in the standings and had caught everyone’s attention.

Yet a mediocre middle of the season had left Hamilton and Petty Enterprises scratching their heads as to what went wrong.

By the end of the Southern 500 in September, Hamilton had dropped to a dismal 16th in the standings. Bad luck, with a combination of a single car operation may have taken its toll.

Or so we all thought.

However, after the Southern 500, Hamilton went on a tear. In the next four races Hamilton put together four consecutive top ten finishes. By the time we got to Phoenix in late October, Petty Enterprises were feeling pretty good about things.

Yet no one saw this coming. Hamilton had started 17th in the event and no one thought the Petty car would have a chance.

Yet Bobby Hamilton flew. Coming from 17th, he and crew chief Robbie Loomis would fix their racecar and figure out a way to get in front of race leader Dale Jarrett and on lap 153 Hamilton had the lead. The lead would change several times during the event.

Then Geoff Bodine took the lead with 52 laps to go. It looked like it may be Bodine’s day. But slowly creeping closer was Hamilton, who got to Bodine’s bumper with 20 to go, and passed him for the lead.

The fans at Phoenix International Raceway were witnessing something they hadn’t seen in over 13 years. A Petty Enterprise car going to victory lane. Finally the checkered flag fell and Bobby Hamilton added his name to the list of winners in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.

Tom Higgins covered his last NASCAR race that day and wrote an article about it. He remembers a shocked Bobby Hamilton.

“I couldn’t believe it. Those last laps I thought I felt tires going down. I heard rattles and even thought the battery was shaking. My mind was running wild the last lap. There were three cars smoking and and I was concerned they would put some oil on the track. I’m so happy for Richard and Dale Inman and Robbie Loomis and the other guys on the team. They’ve worked so hard and have gone a lot of years without a win. To be the first to do it in this Pontiac since Richard means a lot to me,” stated Hamilton.

“The boys did good today,” said Petty, who was mobbed on pit road when the checkered flag fell. “I just sat and watched. Today, we had it all together. I thought Bobby had enough to take care of ’em there at the end, but you never know for sure.”

Higgins recalls tears in Hamilton’s eyes that evening in the press box. According to Higgins, most people in the box that day had tears in their eyes, happy for Hamilton and Richard Petty. Among those, Higgins recalls was the king, who under his glasses, Higgins sensed, his eyes were moist too.

Hamilton and Petty Enterprises would find victory lane just one more time before he and the organization parted ways before the 1998 season.

Petty Enterprises would win only one more race from that point on, in 1999 at Martinsville with John Andretti.

The organization would fold, following the 2008 season, but not before leaving countless memories on the sport, including the unforgettable day at Phoenix International Raceway, where Bobby Hamilton made even the King cry.