As usual, after Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway, the top three finishers met with the media. By the way the finishers were all talking, one would think that Jimmie Johnson had already won the championship and the other 11 guys were heading to a very long off season.

But the Chase is not over, nor is the championship. Six drivers are still within 121 points of Johnson. It is not over, not by a long shot.

What NASCAR needs and what the fans want are for the drivers who are chasing Johnson, to have faith that they still have a shot.  Fans do not want to see the drivers give up so easily and believe they have already been defeated.

It removes the excitement from the races to come.  They want to see positive attitudes on and   off the track.  They want to see their drivers fight for the championship. 

I understand why they feel defeated.  Look at Juan Pablo Montoya. He has yet to finish outside the top five in the Chase, but he has lost ground in every race.

He is by no means out of the championship picture sitting third in the standings, yet he is showing signs of defeat already.

“It’s incredible,” Montoya said. “We have four top-fives in a row and I’ve been losing points to the leader. It is what it is.”

Second place finisher, Jeff Gordon, commented that even though he finished second it was still not enough.

“Well, the only thing to me that’s bittersweet is that we finished second, and I felt like we were like in a second class category.  That’s the only thing that bothers me a little bit.  We’re just not good enough.  We’re good, but we’re not good enough.” Gordon said.

These drivers may feel defeated, but there are a few tracks coming up that the drivers as well as fans should pay attention to: Martinsville, Talladega and Charlotte.

At the Fall race in 2007,  Talladega only five of the Chasers finished on the lead lap, but every one of them narrowly missed multiple wrecks that took out the seven Chasers from contention.

The one wreck that affected the points was the final wreck that was set off by Edwards charging the outside line and unable to complete the pass. He came down in front of the entire field, taking out not only his teammates but other Chase contenders.

The points were shaken up, once again with Tony Stewart’s victory that Sunday. Johnson’s lead did grow but we will see it shrink again when the series headed to Charlotte the next weekend.

Charlotte might surprise you as a game changer, because it is still a mile-a-half track. But do not forget last year and the complications the top two drivers in points had.  Carl Edwards had engine problems and Johnson struggled with a very ill handling race car.

Jeff Burton pulled out a surprise victory and catapulted himself back into the championship picture.

Burton pulled into second in the standings and Edwards dropped back two positions.

Martinsville causes issues of its own.  It is the smallest track in the Chase and because of this; one driver’s mistake can take out multiple cars, including the leaders. 

There is no right place to be on a short track and as we saw last year, the points can change from one simple mistake.

All these tracks have the potential to completely rearrange the standings of the drivers.  The contenders cannot give up yet.  Anything is possible in the races to come.

Those were just three tracks, and this year the competition of the Chase is the best we have seen it since its inception in 2004.

We saw it again on Sunday in Fontana, Denny Hamlin was leading the field with 60 laps to go and in effort to block a run by Montoya on the inside lane, he spun across Montoya and spun into the infield and hit the pit road retaining wall causing major damage to his car.

Hamlin came into the race sitting 99 points behind then points leader Mark Martin. After his finish on Sunday he sits 219 points out of the lead. If anyone has the right to act defeated, it is Hamlin.  After his mistake on Sunday, his Chase hopes are over, all in one lap.

Hamlin admitted that much while his team scrambled to make repairs in the garage.

“I just made a rookie mistake,” Hamlin said. “I thought I was clear and I misjudged it.”

For fans it is frustrating to hear their drivers so disheartened about their Chase chances only four races into what is the closest Chase so far. 

One of the great aspects about racing is the fact you never know what is going to happen next, will it be a clean cut race, or will there be a simple mistake made by one driver that changes everything? 

With ratings slipping, and tickets not selling at the track, hearing the drivers conceding the championship to Johnson does not make fans want to tune in.  These drivers need faith that they can still win and fight for the championship.

 Fans want to see their drivers as warriors, not cowards.

The drivers that are chasing Johnson have a lot of work to do, but they did not earn a spot in the Chase to give up so early in the Chase.

Fans and drivers need to get fired up because quite frankly, anything can happen in the remaining races and nobody is immune to bad luck, not even Johnson.

The Chase needs some warriors!  Who will step up to the challenge?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 11:01 am and is filed under Most Recommended, News Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.