And then there were 10?
The field is set for the next-to-last race to the Chase on Sunday night at California Speedway. Kurt Busch is on the pole, but he won't be eligible to run for the title. Kasey Kahne will start ninth, but he needs all kinds of help and needs to stay up front if he wants Richmond to mean something next Saturday.
But with the fourth through 11th spots up for grabs, math geeks are having a serious field day.
According to NASCAR, there are - believe it or not - 574,560 possibilities still remaining for the order of the nine drivers fighting to get into the Chase.
Huh? How did they come up with so many?
For those who value sanity with their racing, here's some simple, direct math. Kahne is 90 points behind Mark Martin, who sits in 10th. He is 138 points behind Jeff Burton in fourth. The maximum amount of points a driver can make up in a race is 156 (190 points goes to the winner of a race who leads the most laps and the 43rd-place driver gets 34 points).
Translation: Kahne will feel pretty confident heading to Richmond, especially if he can take the checkered flag on Sunday.
Knowing that, it's time to get strapped in and start the engines. The Chase, for all of its flaws and faults, can still produce necessary excitement.
But the 2007 Chase will be another story. I hope it will create a little more buzz than this year's version has.
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