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Drivers Struggling To Stay In Contention At Halfway Point

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By TONY FABRIZIO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 13, 2007

The Chase for the Nextel Cup isn't technically a playoff, but there is a natural progression of drivers being eliminated.

Four races have taken Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton all but out of contention, and tonight's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte, N.C. - the midpoint race in the 10-race championship - could claim more hopefuls.

Fourth-place Tony Stewart and the five drivers after him in the standings are between 154 and 262 points back, and though none can be counted out, all know their window for making a championship run is getting smaller.

'We're a long ways behind,' said ninth-place Denny Hamlin, who is 262 points out. 'I feel like right now that the tunnel of light is starting to close a little bit on us, but we're not even halfway through the Chase yet, so it's tough to say.'

The Chase, for the time being at least, is a three-man race between Jeff Gordon, defending champion Jimmie Johnson and surprising Clint Bowyer. After Stewart, Kevin Harvick trails Gordon by 202, Carl Edwards trails by 205, Kurt Busch trails by 215 and Kyle Busch trails by 260.

After Hamlin, the final three - Truex, Kenseth and Burton - are at least 300 points back.

Stewart would be in the mix if not for a 39th-place finish at Kansas that was partly his own team's doing.

Running in traffic after a long rain delay, Stewart got caught behind a wreck and took some damage to the left front corner of the No. 20 Chevy. Crew chief Greg Zipadelli kept Stewart on the track during the resulting caution, believing the damage to be cosmetic. But when the race went back to green, it became obvious that Stewart's fender was rubbing the left-front tire in the corners.

A few laps later, the tire blew. Stewart tried to signal the drivers behind him that he was slowing, but it wasn't enough warning for Kurt Busch, who plowed into him and then bounced off the wall into the path of Edwards.

Stewart's plight is not hopeless. At this point last year, Johnson sat eighth in the point standings, 156 points behind leader Jeff Burton. Johnson rallied to win the championship by 56 points.

'All we can do is just do our job,' Stewart said. 'Even if we win the race for the next six weeks in a row, there is still no guarantee that we could close the gap. All we can do is worry about ourselves right now.'

Stewart has been strong at several of the tracks coming up. Nine of his 32 career Nextel Cup wins have come at the six remaining tracks.

Gordon doesn't count him out for a second,

'Oh, he's the most dangerous one out there as far as I'm concerned,' he said. 'He's far more than capable of doing it. Tony is so good at so many tracks. That team is one of the best out there. They don't even have to have us falter in my opinion, and they can make a comeback. I think the other guys outside of that are going to need the guys up front to have problems.'

That group includes fifth-place Harvick, who hasn't won a points race since the Daytona 500 and hasn't run well during the Chase.

Harvick led 18 laps at Kansas and finished sixth there, but otherwise, he doesn't have a top-15 finish in the Chase.

'We have been snake-bit not only in the Chase, but it has been that way all year,' Harvick said. 'Three out of the first four weeks in the Chase have just kind of gone that way. We just have to keep the performance level up. All four weeks, our cars have run really good. That is all we can do. The rest of it, you just kind of have to laugh at and hope that it turns around.'

Edwards won the second Chase race at Dover, although he was docked 25 points because his car failed the postrace inspection. He followed with the wreck at Kansas triggered by Stewart and a 14th-place finish at Talladega.

The Busch brothers - Kyle in Hendrick Motorsports' No. 5 Chevy and Kurt in Penske Racing's No. 2 Dodge - have had cars fast enough to win races but have been doomed by wrecks and other problems.

'We need to pick up the pace a little bit,' Kurt Busch said. 'I still feel like we're within striking distance.'

Hamlin, last year's rookie sensation, finally seems to be muddling through the sophomore slump that he avoided up until the Chase. Last week's fourth-place finish at Talladega was his first top-five finish in seven races.

'For all practical purposes, I'd say we're out of it,' Hamlin said. 'We had a great run at Talladega and didn't gain any on the leaders. For us to get back in it, the 24 and 48 Gordon and Johnson are going to have to have days like we've had the last few weeks.'

Reporter Tony Fabrizio can be reached at (813) 259-7994 or afabrizio@tampatrib.com.

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