November 2, 2006

By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

Under NASCAR's three-year-old format for choosing a season champion, just 10 Cup series drivers are eligible to compete for the title each year in a 10-race format known as the Chase for the Championship.

The rest of the field is still on the track each week trying to win races, but no matter how well they perform, they have no chance to take the title.

By now, most fans can recite the names of the 10 Chase competitors in their sleep, as these drivers get most of the media's attention during the latter part of the season, even before the Chase begins.

This is particularly true of the televised race broadcasts, during which those in charge are tunnel-visioned on the Chase drivers to the exclusion of all others.

But as Tony Stewart's two wins in seven Chase races demonstrate, there are a lot of noteworthy drivers in the non-Chase ranks, although you'd never know it listening to the TV analysts. That is, unless one of them interferes with the running of a Chase contender, in which case he'll have all the notoriety he can handle.

But I digress …

Neither of the two most recent Nextel Cup champions is in the hunt for the title this season. 2004 Champ Kurt Busch has just one win in 2006 (Bristol in March) and was 14th in the standings when the Chase field was set in September at Richmond. He is currently ranked 16th, although he leads all drivers this season with six poles.

2005 Champ Tony Stewart, who missed the Chase cutoff by just 16 points, has won four races this year, including two of seven in the Chase. Stewart is solidly in 11th for the December award's banquet and a $1 million payout.

None of the top-three finishers from 2005 made this year's Chase. Curiously, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards were 1-2-3 at the end of last season and were 11-12-13 at the start of this year's Chase, though Biffle and Edwards have since swapped spots.

Biffle has shown flashes of great racing this year, and though he doesn't have the finishes or the points position to show for it, he is third overall in laps led and second in driver bonus points.

Meanwhile, NASCAR.com ranks Carl Edwards as the best overall driver in the last six races, despite not having scored a win. Edwards is fourth in top-10 finishes this year with 18.

Also missing from the playoffs are previous two-time Chase competitors Ryan Newman and Jeremy Mayfield. Newman, who's tied for seventh among modern-era pole winners, is winless this year with just two poles. If he remains so, it will be his first no-win season since arriving full-time in the Cup series five years ago, and will break his streak of four consecutive annual Bud Pole awards.

Mayfield's fortunes are even worse, however, fired in August by car owner Ray Evernham after a nasty and highly-publicized rift. Mayfield was 36th in points at that time and has been unable to find a Cup ride for the remainder of this season, although he will be piloting a Toyota Camry for Bill Davis Racing in 2007.

Other notable racers outside this year's Chase include 2004 contender Elliott Sadler, who took over Mayfield's ride at Evernham, and past Cup champions Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte. Jarrett made news earlier this season by signing with Michael Waltrip Racing to drive a Toyota in 2007, and Labonte has been impressive of late, with four top-10 runs in the past six races.

Also worth mentioning are three non-Chase drivers who rank in the top-10 "Most Improved Driver" category this year based on their advancement in the standings compared to this time last year. Casey Mears, currently 14th in points, and Robby Gordon, 27th in points, are both up 10 spots compared to last year, while Scott Riggs in 20th is up 12 spots.

Clint Bowyer, currently 17th in points, is the only rookie in the top 20 besides Chaser Denny Hamlin.

Brian France has announced that changes are coming to the Chase format next year. If we're lucky, one of them will be to insure that more attention is paid to all the talented but overlooked drivers outside the top 10.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.