The battle is on

Meet the Chasers:

1. Jimmie Johnson
2. Carl Edwards
3. Greg Biffle
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Clint Bowyer
6. Jeff Burton
7. Jeff Gordon
8. Denny Hamlin
9. Tony Stewart
10. Kyle Busch
11. Matt Kenseth
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Analysis:

• Spencer: How Johnson won it all
• Tays: History will tell how great J.J. is

Photo galleries:

• Phoenix weekend
• Texas weekend
• Atlanta weekend
• Martinsville weekend
• Charlotte weekend
• Talladega weekend
• Kansas weekend
• Dover weekend
• Loudon weekend

Kyle Busch, on the other hand ... you all remember Kyle, right? Remember him? He was the guy leading the Chase when it started two races ago. He had an 80-point lead and a conservative guess would be that 90 percent of the folks would say he was the cat to beat to win the championship. However, he has been the opposite of Biffle. Think back to the races that Busch has won. He's had a lot of wins that had been by the grace of the racing gods — like Chicago or Daytona in July or Darlington. When you use up your luck like that, you are making withdrawals from the luck bank and pretty soon it catches up with you.

We all were concerned whether Busch could keep his emotions in check and not go out there and drive crazy, but I don't think any of us considered there being mechanical issues with the car or the team.

The thing that happened in New Hampshire was a mistake that the team made, and it had nothing to do with the driver. This past Sunday, they experienced an engine failure. Now they haven't had many of those at all this year. I think his teammate in the No. 11 has had a couple.

Right now, the driver is doing his job, but he is being let down in preparation.

Now I am not going to say Busch is out of the Chase and can't win the championship, but he is going to have to win eight races in a row to do it. They have a great car and a great driver, but I really don't see that happening.

Blast from the past

Going back to Biffle and Co., Roush Fenway Racing right now reminds me of 2005 when team owner Jack Roush had all five of his teams in the Chase. Back then, you didn't know from week to week which one of them was going to win the race or the championship. If you remember, Biffle lost that championship by 35 points to Tony Stewart. Roush had a couple lean years, but he is back with a vengeance.

I really think part of the motivation for Roush is Toyota. It's very well-documented how Roush feels about Toyota. I think he, Robbie Reiser and the boys in the shop are working extra hard to prepare these cars and take it to Toyota. There is also no question that they have the talent behind the wheel, too. Oh yeah, they have the performance right now, too.

When you have talent, luck and performance on your side, it is going to be very hard to overcome.

Oh, by the way

All of a sudden this COT has fixed itself.

This same car that nobody liked, that everyone complained about — myself included — all of a sudden fixed itself. But let me stop you and remind you where we have been the last few weeks: Bristol, Richmond, Loudon and Dover last week. Those tracks where aero doesn't play a huge factor. Those are tracks where set up and driver make all the difference in the world.

Now we are getting ready to jump over the 1.5-mile and bigger tracks, and that is where we have had complaints about this car. Think about the California race — was that a good race? No, it wasn't, and it was at one of these bigger tracks I am referring to.

There is no question these teams have improved the car, and they will continue to do that. You also have to give a tip of the hat to Goodyear for bringing a better tire to the track. The right side tire you saw being run at Dover Sunday really helped the car a lot. I think Goodyear is trying to develop tires that will give the car more mechanical grip. I think they realized they were still building tires that gave aero grip, and that's not what it needed. So let's keep an open mind and see how the next few weeks work out.

Oh, by the way Part II

I was comparing the Chase points versus the old point system that we were used to. It is incredible how close the old style point system and the new Chase style point systems are. The biggest difference is that Busch would not be basically out of the championship as he is now. I just think it's ironic how similar the top 12 drivers in the old point system and the top 12 drivers in the new Chase system are.

In my mind, the championship would be much fairer the old way.

Oh, by the way Part III

My brother has taken a beating for a year and a half.

The on-track performance for Michael Waltrip Racing has been terrible with a few exceptions. Sponsors have come and gone. They reorganized the whole company and gone through just about everything you can imagine in the last year and a half.

But I think you have to agree, whether his name was Michael Waltrip or Michael Andretti, the last several weeks have been great for the company:

• David Reutimann's finishes the past month have been pretty great.
• Michael McDowell got back in the car, and Sunday he was the top-finishing rookie.
• On top of that, my brother had a much-needed and deserved top-10 finish Sunday.

Speed Mail Darrell Waltrip
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Oh, by the way Part IV

For the fourth year in a row, I got to visit the Walter Reed Army Hospital last week. It is easily the most heart-wrenching, humbling, gratifying and difficult thing I do every year.

Those young men and women, moms and dads, brothers and sisters and kids make you realize how fortunate you are to have people like this willing to defend your freedom. I never heard a pity party. I never heard a "why me." I just saw men and women who were determined to pick themselves up and go on with their lives.

The new prosthesis they have developed with all sorts of electronics and computers are simply incredible — I saw a wheel chair with a gyro in the wheels. It is just amazing the stuff that has been developed over the last few years.

While I am glad they have that technology, it sure is hard on your heart to see what it has to be used for. What these young men and women have sacrificed for you, for me, for our country and our freedom is beyond what mere words can describe. I truly am humbled by their presence when I go up there.

One final, "Oh, by the way"

I snicker every time Chad Knaus does something that gets the others raising their eyebrows and asking themselves why is he doing that. You know engineers can run trends on data collected from several years of track information that will help determine roughly when things will happen during a particular race.

Back in the day, we didn't call them trends. We simply remembered them happening.

The trends data is absolutely invaluable when you are calling a race. I am sure other teams are doing it too, but it sure looks to me like Knaus is leading the pack in that area, and it is paying off.