Rain, Rain go away
With the 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway postponed until Monday, I knew it was time to stop and take a look at the standings with four races left until the Chase for the Nextel Cup - gotta get that in while we can since it becomes the Sprint Cup in 2008 - gets rolling.
As ESPN was doing its pre-race/rain delay filler show, Shannon Spake reported that Carl Edwards would start 11th if the Chase were to begin today. That was puzzling to me because I thought that after driver wins, you go down the stat columns to break ties (poles, top-5s, top-10s, etc.).
Based on that, here's how I'm seeing how the Chase-eligible drivers currently line up with four races left to run.
1. Jeff Gordon 5040: Four wins, six poles. He's the man to beat.
2. Jimmie Johnson 5040: Four wins, no poles, but confidence is back.
3. Tony Stewart 5030: Three wins in four weeks - it's 2005's title run all over again.
Those are the easy ones. Now here's where it gets complicated:
4. Denny Hamlin 5010: He's the only one of the eight remaining drivers with one win who've won a pole, so he gets the nod.
Then, you slide over to the top-5 column.
5. Matt Kenseth 5010: Has seven top-5s.
6. Jeff Burton 5010: Has six top-5s.
Here's where Carl Edwards should be in the Chase standings:
7. Kyle Busch 5010: Has five top-5s like Carl Edwards, but he has 12 top-10s.
8. Carl Edwards 5010: Has only eight top-10s.
Next, all three of these drivers have four top-5s, but Kevin Harvick wins the battle in the top-10 column. Those totals are in parenthesis:
9. Kevin Harvick 5010 (10)
10. Martin Truex, Jr. 5010 (8)
11. Kurt Busch 5010 (6)
And finally, the easy one. Without wins, Clint Bowyer starts from the bottom.
12. Clint Bowyer 5000
With four races left to run until the Chase field is set, I'm praying hard that someone - anyone - of the eight drivers with one win can break this darn deadlock. It'll make things a lot less complicated.
Even math geeks need a break every now and then, you know.
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