“I had become okay with the fact that we were probably gonna finish 20th or 25th,” Edwards said. “I was thinking already about [next weekend’s race at] Texas and how we were gonna have to go there and everything we were gonna do. But my guys stuck with it and we got very, very fortunate. I’m just glad we can move on.”

But not without some new company.

Stewart has been left for dead several times this season. First, when he didn’t win a race during the regular season and characterized his spot in the Chase as nothing more than taking up room, then when he seemingly spoiled his hot start to the Chase (when he won the first two races) by going 25th-15th in the next two races to drop all the way to seventh in the standings.

It didn’t look like he’d make up any ground Sunday, especially with under 100 laps to go when he gave up the lead with an apparent flat tire. It wasn’t flat, but still Stewart went to pit road, dropping him all the way back to 23rd.

Over the next 80 laps he drove his way back toward the front and found himself in second with less than 10 to go. That’ where he would finish, or so it seemed because no one was catching Johnson. Then Brian Vickers decided to exact some revenge on Kenseth for an earlier incident. That brought out a caution with eight laps to go and, more importantly for Stewart, erased his deficit behind Johnson.

“You can thank Vickers for that, being a jackass,” Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus lamented over the team radio.

On the ensuing restart, Stewart started on the outside of Johnson. The two raced side-by-side during the first of a three-lap shootout, with Stewart nosing ahead of Johnson and eventually into the lead.

“When I was inside of Tony, I went down in the corner and thought that eight tires would be a lot better than four,” Johnson said, indicating that he thought about barreling through the corner and using Stewart’s car as a retaining wall. “I changed my mind. With where he is in the points, what’s going on, the fact we raced throughout the day today, he never touched me, I had a hard time doing that.”

Now it’s on to Texas, where Edwards finished third and Stewart 12th earlier this season. And though the Chase is more than just a two-man race – Kevin Harvick (4th on Sunday) is just 21 points back, Brad Keselowski 27 – Stewart is only focused on the man in front of him.

“It’s no disrespect to [Edwards],” Stewart said. “He’s a great competitor, he’s a great guy, he’s with a great organization that deserves their shot at that championship, too. We’ve had one of those up and down years and we’re having a run in this Chase now where we’re hungry. We’re hungry for this. I feel like our mindset into these next three weeks, we’ve been nice all year to a lot of guys, given guys a lot of breaks. We’re cashing tickets in these next three weeks.”

The heat is now on … Carl Edwards.

The points leader dodged a scud missile when he left Martinsville Speedway with an uncanny 9th-place finish Sunday. For that, he can breathe a little easier knowing he survived his worst track in the Chase. But he can’t feel comfortable with Tony Stewart hot on his tail.

NASCAR’s most ornery driver is on the hunt and he’s making no bones about who his prey is. It’s Edwards, whose lead is down to just eight points after Stewart pulled off an improbable victory Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, vaulting him from fourth to second in the standings.

“He better be worried, that’s all I’ve got to say,” Stewart declared after climbing out of his car in victory lane. “He’s not going to have an easy three weeks.”

If Edwards thought he was going to face a friendly, intra-team scrimmage for the 2011 championship, well, that’s not happening. Five hundred laps of short-track racing took care of that.

Sunday’s race at Martinsville was, in a word, chaotic. To recount who had run-ins with whom would require upping our bandwidth 10-fold. Since we can’t do that, I’ll summarize what went down this way: a demolition derby would have been jealous of Sunday’s race, which had almost as many leaders (12) as it did cautions (18).

First it was Jeff Gordon’s race to lose, then Kyle Busch’s, then Jimmie Johnson’s. You’ll note the absence of Stewart, who ran in the 20s for much of the day. Joining him mid-pack was Edwards, who’s never been very good at Martinsville and, knowing so, came in with a just-survive attitude.

While they raced just to stay on the lead lap, Busch and Johnson were battling to get back into the championship hunt. And for much of the race, it looked like they would, at least Busch anyway. He led the most laps (126) and at one point during the race was just 18 points back of Matt Kenseth, who’d assumed the in-race points lead as his teammate, Edwards, struggled.

Jimmie Johnson congratulates Tony Stewart in victory lane at Martinsville.
(Getty Images)

For 463 of 500 laps, the big winner on the day looked to be Kenseth. Not only was he surviving one of his worst tracks but he was thriving, running in the top 10 the entire day. But then he and Busch made contact, cutting a tire on Kenseth’s No. 17. Moments later, Kenseth lost control of his car, collecting a handful of others, including Busch, wrecking both their title hopes.

“Obviously I didn’t make good decisions and we ended up in a bad spot,” Kenseth said. “I wish I could do some things over and try again, but we can’t do that. We raced hard all day. I thought we had pretty good track position at times and just couldn’t capitalize on it.”

With Kenseth out of the picture, Johnson had a glimmer of hope. Trailing by 50 points coming in, the five-time defending champ needed both Edwards and Kenseth to run into trouble if he was to have a chance at extending his unprecedented run, and it was happening. That is, until Edwards gradually started creeping up the leaderboard. At one point he was a lap down and even had a penalty levied against him for jumping a restart. NASCAR later rescinded that penalty, saving Edwards from falling into an insurmountable hole.

Given new life, Edwards pulled off a potentially championship-saving rally.

Oh, for the sound of engines rumbling, for the sight of wheels turning, for the addictive sensory overload that goes along with race cars making that unmistakable Doppler scream around a race track.

This isn’t about some first-of-the-year racing jones, this isn’t about being tired of too much Pinks on television, this isn’t about getting all hyped up for Daytona. This is about a quest for normalcy, about wanting a small diversion from all the hurt and suffering, about feeling, at least for a little while, like everything is all right again.

Because everything isn’t all right.

Oh sure, tracks are selling tickets and drivers are vacationing on white sandy beaches and crew chiefs for top teams are already plotting how to win at Phoenix in April. The 2009 campaign will begin and Daytona International Speedway will be packed and before long it will be all about Jeff and Jimmie and Junior once again.

But for so many of the rank and file workers that comprise NASCAR’s national divisions, men and women who push crash carts and tune engines and monitor seven-post rigs, it’s not just the season that has been brought to a pause.

Hundreds of careers have also come to an abrupt halt as race teams cut back and reorganize as a result of the economic recession. These aren’t just numbers, but real people, husbands and wives and fathers and sons, men and women with children and houses and financial responsibilities they are suddenly struggling to meet. Some wonder where their next mortgage payment will come from. Many of them are living without health insurance. They’re frightened and depressed after dedicating themselves to an industry that doesn’t need them anymore, and might never need them again.

“The contraction that’s happening is so deep, there’s nowhere for them to go,” said Don Gemmell, a former production scheduler at Dale Earnhardt Inc., and one of the approximately 120 people laid off when that organization shed two cars to merge with Chip Ganassi’s team. “Before, they would just pick up their toolbox and roll it down the street and go to the next shop and somebody would hire them. Either that shop needed them, or they had a buddy down there that got them a job. Well, that’s not taking place. That’s not going to be an option.”

Some of these displaced workers are younger, and have engineering degrees or athletic skills, and may be able to find work outside of motorsports. Others are older, people who have only known a life in racing, who are close enough to retirement to see it but can’t find a bridge to get them there.

There are people who moved south to chase the dream, and are moving back to Ohio or New Jersey or wherever they came from, because the dream can no longer pay the bills. And everywhere in central North Carolina, there are former race team employees with specialized skills, looking for work, and struggling to find it.

They’ve found a glint of hope in a Web site organized by Gemmell and designed by his neighbor, Jeff Jones. Called dontcheckup.com – taking its name from a racing phrase that means keeping the foot down on the accelerator pedal – the site serves as a clearinghouse for posting resumes, career assistance, continuing education, and what few jobs are available right now.

Launched Dec. 1, Gemmell originally envisioned the site as a tool for helping his former employees at DEI and Earnhardt-Childress Engines find work. But the scope of the layoffs has been so broad, he opened it up to the entire industry. At last count, displaced employees from 33 race teams were represented.

It’s a sliver of optimism in an industry beset with gloom and doom.

“Getting out of bed and getting up is challenge for some of them,” said Gemmell, who knows firsthand the experience and the sometimes debilitating mental strain that goes along with it. “Trying to get them to do something and take some action is like herding turtles.”

Through the Web site, displaced NASCAR employees can obtain the help of a professional resume developer, or the assistance of an insurance expert who specializes in layoffs and plant closings. Men and women who have welded car bodies together for years in race shops can find help in getting the certification they need to find a welding job outside of motorsports.

Monday at the train station in Kannapolis, N.C., there was an event sponsored by Rowan-Cabarrus Community College featuring information about workshops and training programs, tips on obtaining continuing education funds, and people to help in applying for unemployment benefits.

The site is part of an unemployment task force, founded by former Lowe’s Motor Speedway president Humpy Wheeler and the North Carolina Motorsports Association, that attempts to assist displaced workers as well as keep them in the state.

“We’ve actually been working with the biotech industry, which has connections to fabrication jobs. Things in the medical device industry are real similar to racing, with the precision and time constraints and all that,” said Shawn Stewart, marketing and membership director of the NCMA. “We’re trying to promote these workers and what kind of value they might bring to a company that’s non-motorsports. Either they stay in another career path or come back to racing, but either way, if those jobs don’t come back, they’re still in the area and still employed.”

That’s the hope, at least. Soon enough the engines will be rumbling again, the cars will be back on the race track and the people fortunate enough to still have jobs in this industry will be back in the middle of the 38-week grind.

Soon enough the attention will turn back to drivers and crew chiefs and races and the Chase. Meanwhile, those roughly 700 people let go after last season, people who as recently as Homestead were working in the garage like everyone else, will continue to live off their savings or live without health insurance and worry about what their future will hold.

“It’s already at the crisis stage,” Gemmell said. “If you were at the Kannapolis train station [Monday] with 50, 60-something guys and you looked into their faces, you would know it’s beyond bordering on a crisis. It’s in crisis. NASCAR is just a microcosm of the United States, and what do they say about the average worker, that he’s two to three paychecks away from disaster? Well guess what, these guys have just gotten to the two to three paychecks phase, and they’re facing disaster.”

En route, the sport’s No. 1 couple endured arguing, cheating allegations, considered divorce and went through intense counseling and reconciliation before ultimately realizing they were better off with each other than without.

Today, Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have never been happier, a direct reason why the pair has won the last two Sprint Cup championships and is on the verge of earning a third in Sunday’s season-ending Ford 400.

In divorce, there’s the old axiom that it’s “cheaper to keep her.” But in the case of Johnson and Knaus, it’s fair to say that one would never have been as successful without the other.

That’s why they stayed together, knowing they were better off with each other than without. Their record speaks for itself: two championships, two other runner-up finishes, 40 Sprint Cup victories, 101 top fives and 156 top 10s in 254 career starts.

That’s what you get from the pairing of the self-professed “jackass from El Cajon (Calif.)” and the guy who went from a 16-year-old crew chief for his father in Rockford, Ill., to the most innovative mind in the NASCAR garage today.

Knaus is the brains of the operation from atop the pit box, while Johnson is happy letting his feet and hands get the job done on the race track.

In essence, the partnership starts with Knaus and ends with Johnson.

Knaus’ managerial style is one of calculation of both wits and ice-cold blood in his veins. If there’s a risk to take, he’s going to take it – and Johnson is more than happy to go along, having unwavering trust and belief in his crew chief.

A perfect example is Knaus’ incredible call at Atlanta three weeks ago, where a late pit stop for tires rocketed Johnson from a certain 15th-place finish all the way up to second, right behind Carl Edwards, his closest challenger in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“Are you kidding me? Man, I could have done without that,” a stunned Edwards said as soon as he climbed out of his race car in victory lane.

Johnson, meanwhile, is a driver who likes to challenge and be challenged.

“Chad and I work so well together, we just click so well,” Johnson said. “We’re usually on the same page with pretty much everything.

“It wasn’t always that way when we had our problems a few years back, but I’m so glad we were able to work though those things and get to the point where we are today. I don’t even want to think what would have happened if we would not have worked through it and went our separate ways.”

When team owner Rick Hendrick paired the duo together back in 2002, Johnson was a fresh-faced entrant on the Cup scene, while Knaus had just completed an apprenticeship under Ray Evernham, then Robby Loomis – crew chiefs for Jeff Gordon.

Putting two relatively inexperienced people together was a master stroke on Hendrick’s part. He felt it would be better that the duo worked and grew together, rather than bring in a veteran crew chief and pair him with a rookie driver.

This way, they both started off on the same page and started writing chapters of the same book together.

But even good pairings sometimes have to go through bad times before the good, and Johnson and Knaus are a classic example.

It was back in 2005, just months after Johnson barely lost the previous season’s championship to Kurt Busch by a mere eight points, that his heretofore relationship with Knaus went from bad to worse.

Starting in 2003 and festering through much of 2004, Johnson and Knaus began drifting apart. Instead of working together, they became a pair that adopted an “every man for himself” philosophy.

Their personal relationship had deteriorated to the point where they barely talked, oftentimes going days without any communication – not the type of relationship that championship teams are built upon.

Knaus was unquestionably territorial, wanting things his way and his way only, while Johnson wasn’t comfortable with toeing the line so precisely. He wanted more freedom to freelance on the race track than Knaus would allow him.

Things started progressing like a football coach calling a play from the sidelines, only to watch his quarterback run something else.

Even though the results – like the close finish in 2004 – showed the two worked well as one, they may have respected each other, but they certainly didn’t seem to like each other very much.

Hendrick dutifully listened to the increasing complaints from both driver and crew chief. It was as if two kids kept running to mommy, tattling on the other.

But even Hendrick’s legendary patience finally wore thin, reaching its breaking point at about the time Knaus and Johnson did the same with each other.

In what has become known as the famous “milk and cookies” meeting, Hendrick sat both men down, at first taking a grandfatherly approach at settling things.

Hendrick made Johnson and Knaus see that they could both have what they want – and still remain successful, if not more so – if they were more flexible and tolerant of the other.

The most important advice Hendrick imparted was something they already knew, but couldn’t seem to comprehend: Both men were better off with each other than apart.

Even with their building animosity to that point, one thing was quite clear: When the duo was on, they clicked better than perhaps any other driver-crew chief combination in the sport.

Hendrick pointed to the oftentimes volatile relationships between Geoff Bodine and Harry Hyde, Hyde and wild-child Tim Richmond, and Gordon and Evernham, yet they were still able to put aside personal conflict to win on the race track.

And ever since that time, Knaus and Johnson have lived happily ever after.

Of course, there’s also the seemlier side of the duo’s run, which mostly revolves around Knaus’ propensity to bend the rules, which has rankled a faction of fans who think Johnson’s two championships are somehow tainted.

Knaus was kicked out of the 2006 Daytona 500 before it was even run for altering the rear window aerodynamics and last year was put on a six-week suspension for an illegal fender manipulation at Sonoma.

While Knaus has characterized his infractions as working in the gray area, fans and other teams characterize it as nothing more than cheating.

Still, Hendrick defends Knaus.

“People, if they don’t like you or you’re beating their favorite driver, they’re coming to come up with something,” he said. “They’re going to fabricate it if it’s not real.

“You’re not going to get everybody to like you, and they’ll always find excuses for why you beat them, but if you find an infraction in one race and you run 35 other races and whip ‘em, then I don’t think that’s [bad].”

Johnson admits Knaus made some indiscretions, but still backs his crew chief.

“Chad’s always been aggressive, and in most cases, Chad’s been a rule-maker, not a rule-breaker,” Johnson said. “The last few years we’ve had some issues. One was last year at Sonoma. I still argue the fact and think it’s a B.S. call. He gets in trouble where a template doesn’t exist and it just looks bad, that it doesn’t look right. At Daytona, what he did, he got nailed for, and he served his penalty for the crime and we went on.”

“I certainly hope we win this championship,” said Johnson, who needs only to finish 36th or better to clinch this year’s title, “and if there are people out there that are harsh on Chad for [his past indiscretions], hopefully that’ll put that to bed.”

Now, they’re on the verge of something only one other driver in the sport has ever done – win three titles in a row.

But while Cale Yarborough didn’t make a serious run at No. 4, choosing instead to spend more time focusing on his family instead of racing, Johnson and Knaus, with their issues worked out, are showing no signs of slowing down.

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Winning three consecutive championships is one of the most difficult tasks in Sprint Cup racing.

Only one man in NASCAR history, Cale Yarborough, has been able to do that (1976-1978).

“It was far from easy,” Yarborough said recently. “In fact, it was one of the most difficult things of my racing career.”

Yet, instead of laboring over the likelihood of winning his third title in a row next Sunday in Homestead, Fla., Jimmie Johnson is making what should be the hardest of three championships look the easiest of all.

The 2006 championship was unquestionably the hardest. Four races into the 10-race Chase, Johnson was 158 points back, just barely out of last place in the playoff standings and was ready to start preparing for the following season.

Instead, he mounted one of the greatest comebacks NASCAR has ever seen.

The 2007 title was much easier – four straight wins in the stretch run of the Chase will do that for you – but still required Johnson to finish strongly in the last race of the season at Homestead.

Of course, he did and racked up title No. 2 with virtual ease.

But the route to this year’s championship, while hard early on, will potentially end up with the least muss and fuss of all.

All Johnson needs to do is finish 36th or better in the season finale next Sunday at Homestead and he’ll be crowned champ at the end of the race, permanently putting his name alongside Yarborough’s in the NASCAR record book.

“Where we are in points now is going to allow me to go into Homestead and take some pressure off my brain, to relax, get in the car and set it up,” Johnson said after winning Sunday’s Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. “I’m really excited about next week. There’s no need to do anything stupid.”

All he has to do is coast around Homestead for 267 laps, stay out of trouble and he’ll once again be lifting the crystal Sprint Cup trophy to symbolize not only a great championship, but an even greater accomplishment for having done so three years in a row.

Yet, for as easy as Johnson has made it look this year, he’s thinking of shifting course in Sunday’s season finale.

“How cool would it be to win out (and tie Yarborough’s record),” Johnson said. “I’d love to do that. If we can do it like we won the race tonight, hell yes, let’s do it.”

Sure, Johnson could still lose the championship at Homestead. If he wrecks or suffers mechanical failure early on and Carl Edwards wins the race, it could be nearly as much of a shock as when the New York Giants upset the previously undefeated New England Patriots in last year’s Super Bowl.

But that’s not likely to happen. Even many of his peers have already conceded Johnson the championship.

“What Jimmie is doing is something very special,” said Kurt Busch, who finished second to Johnson in Sunday’s race. “They’re on their game and it’s really something special to watch. It’s a privilege.”

Watching history in the making truly is a privilege for the one who is doing it. But when fellow competitors feel humbled and honored to play a small part in it, such an achievement becomes something that extends beyond the reach of just the championship-winning team.

Thirty years from now and after they’re long retired from racing, guys like Busch, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon will likely enthrall their grandkids not only with their own career exploits, but how they were there to watch firsthand as Johnson did something that was nothing short of sheer greatness.

You can only imagine the reaction: “Wow, grandpa, you were there?”

I’m sure there’s some disappointment that the points battle heading into the final race won’t be closer, particularly among Edwards’ and non-Johnson fans – not to mention NASCAR chairman Brian France.

What they wouldn’t give to see something more akin to the way Busch beat Johnson on the last lap of the last race in the inaugural Chase of 2004, winning the championship by a mere eight points.

But with each passing race as this year’s Chase has unfolded, and the way Johnson has made his annual dominating achievement in the playoffs look easier than ever, there’s a certain downside, as well.

Look at ABC. It jumped ship and shifted the final 34 laps of the race to ESPN2 in favor of airing “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” You know, another race, another Johnson win or strong finish, and another championship all but in the bag. What’s the point of hanging around?

That’s like taking the final innings of Game 7 of the World Series, or the final two minutes of the Super Bowl, and shifting them to the Cartoon Network.

“To go to ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos,’ that hurts,” Johnson said.

Let’s just hope that when Johnson celebrates his third championship next Sunday, ABC realizes the history that has been made and sticks with him through the final champagne toast – and doesn’t abruptly bolt to “Desperate Housewives.”

Now, that would really hurt.

HAMPTON, Ga. – Thoughts, observations and a few questions following the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, round No. 7 of 10 in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup:

• What’s that I hear? Is that the Fat Lady singing? Stranger things have happened, but am I the only one who believes that the 2008 championship has already been decided?

• And who in their right mind would have imagined that Jimmie Johnson, who had a seventh- or eighth-place car at best, would (or could) have finished second? Crew chief Chad Knaus’ call to take four tires during the final caution of the race on Lap 314 was a peek inside his world of mad genius.

• Race winner Carl Edwards did everything right on Sunday. Had Johnson wrecked early or blown up his engine, this could have been one of those “I remember when …” days. Instead, it’s “just” another win – a sweep in fact – for Edwards, who won Saturday’s Nationwide race in Memphis. That series’ championship is still very much in play with Clint Bowyer‘s lead now whittled down to 116 points with three races left (Texas, Phoenix and Homestead).

• Based on the comments by several drivers after the race, the tire that Goodyear brought to this race wasn’t much better than the one used in the spring race. Throughout the weekend and after the race, several drivers pointed out to me, including Johnson, that the track has aged and given up so much grip that it might be difficult for Goodyear to ever build a good tire for AMS. Johnson called the situation similar to how Darlington was before it was paved this year.

“This place is a monster,” said Johnson. “Someone needs to give this place a nickname.”

• Edwards thought the tires were perfect in the spring and equally good on Sunday. One man’s meat is another man’s poison, I guess.

• Frustration thy name is “Montoya.” The Ganassi driver spent much of the day racing in the top 10 and quite easily could have had a top-five finish until his pit road collision (on what I thought was a questionable pit call) with Clint Bowyer on Lap 298 took him out of contention.

After repairs, Montoya ended up in middle of the pack and subsequently was caught up in Dave Blaney‘s wreck on Lap 304 and sent packing. It’s been that kind of season for Montoya. I do hope that having experienced such a difficult season, which has offered him more than its share of misery and very few moments of joy, won’t sour him on stock car racing. This sport needs him.

• This makes back-to-back top-15 finishes for A. J. Allmendinger. He was the highest finishing Gillett Evernham Motorsports entry – again. You have to wonder if Foster Gillett is rethinking the signing of Reed Sorenson to drive the GEM No. 10 car next season. I am. While most wrote off Allmendinger as a stock car driver, it’s likely that a change in scenery was all he needed.

• Allmendinger’s mid-season replacement at Team Red Bull, Scott Speed, led a lap, finished 34th and brought his Camry back to the garage after the race without a scratch. That’s what is supposed to happen when you’ve run your second Cup race and you’ve been tutored in the transition from open wheel to stock car racing in the proper manner.

• In this week’s “Battle of the Lame Ducks,” Casey Mears outscored the competition, finishing 12th. Ryan Newman was 16th and Sorenson (who also was caught up in the Blaney wreck) was 39th. Mears will test with the RCR No. 07 team after the Texas race. According to press reports, Mark Martin has expressed his interest in driving the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 for the season finale.

• Once again we’ve seen Dale Earnhardt Jr. run well at the start of the race, fall back, struggle midway through it and then fight back near the end to run with the leaders. When the checkers flies, this team always seems to fall short. It’s become a pattern, one that I’m sure they’ve noticed as well. I expect they’re already working on a plan to change things for next season. This year, which came in like a lion, is leaving like a lamb.

• Don’t you get the impression that every weekend it seems like Kevin Harvick is a day late and a dollar short? His 13th-place finish Sunday, however, did move him up one spot in the standings – to fifth.

• The same sentiment could be said for Jeff Gordon (ninth). He also moved up a spot to sixth. I’m not convinced that Gordon really meant it when he told me that he would be OK with not winning a race this year. That doesn’t sound like a champion talking.

• With part of the hoopla surrounding this race being Michael Waltrip‘s 1,000th NASCAR start, did he have to play the role of the race’s designated caution? I was able to connect three of the 10 cautions directly back to Waltrip. It sure felt more like six or seven.

• Who was the genius in the Little Debbie marketing department who chose to paint Marcos Ambrose‘s Michael Waltrip/JTG Racing Toyota entry this weekend in nearly the identical paint scheme as Harvick’s Shell/Pennzoil sponsored Chevy? Isn’t it supposed to be red and white?

• This was the third weekend in a row that Jamie McMurray ran as well or better than most of the drivers in the Chase. It was his second top 10 (seventh) in three weeks. He had a top-10 run going last weekend at Martinsville until a late-race mechanical failure relegated him to 38th place. He’ll be a factor next weekend at Texas where he’s got two top fives and five top 10s in only nine races.

• For a while there, Kyle Busch looked like the Kyle Busch of old. How cool would it have been if he had won? A real flashback down memory lane, filled with post-race bows and the accompanying boos from the crowd. I’m afraid this season will instead go down as one of the greatest chokes in NASCAR history.

• Speaking of the crowd … I almost hate to. Despite the official “estimated” attendance figure of 80,000, the stands looked more like a Craftsman Truck or Nationwide race crowd. And I’m being kind here. It was the sparsest crowd I’ve ever witnessed for a Cup race. I know I’m not going to make a lot of friends here by saying this, but I’m betting there’s only one Atlanta race (on Labor Day) on the schedule in 2010.

• A prominent NASCAR official (who requested anonymity) stopped me in the Cup garage on Sunday and asked me about my comments from two weeks ago regarding the possibility of NASCAR shrinking the fields in the Cup, Nationwide and Truck series. He adamantly denied that it was happening and said it would stifle new team owners from coming into the sport. That side of the argument may be true, but how long can NASCAR continue to prop up the field with “start and park” entries? For a year or two? Until the economy picks up? We’ll see.

Postscript:

With three races to go anything can happen. But, Jimmie Johnson can, for all intents and purposes, put away his third title with two races remaining if he delivers a solid outing next weekend in Texas. It would be the first time since the advent of the Chase that the title would be decided before the checkered flag flew at Homestead.

That is likely to bring a chorus of “time to change the Chase” from the pundits and the Johnson-haters.

That would just be plain wrong.

I’m thrilled to be able to watch history unfold. I know I’ll tell my grandchildren that I was fortunate to have worked with and be able to watch one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history.

And if you aren’t already thinking along similar lines, then it’s time you do.

See you in Texas!