Recently in The Chase Category

They're not good. Neither is Kyle Busch's attitude about how the Chase started.
After winning eight races before the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup began, Busch had two bad races to start the Chase and dropped from first to 12th in the Cup standings.
In the most recent race at Dover International Speedway, he blew an engine and finished in 43rd and last place.
Before qualifying for the Cup race at Kansas Speedway on Friday, Busch was asked about what happened in Dover.
"We blew up and now we're behind," he said.
His answers were short and sharp. He knows the possibility of catching the leaders -- Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson -- in the standings are not good.
"Here's how I look at it," Busch said. "You can't count on anybody else having a bad race. So, realistically, yeah we are out of it. If they do have a bad race -- then it depends on who has the bad race and how bad the race is and stuff -- for us to get back in it. Realistically, if you are not counting on those guys having a bad race -- we can't win eight races in a row and have Carl or Biffle finish fifth through 10th every single one of those and still win the deal. That ain't going to happen."
Busch was asked if he prescribed to the philosophy that drivers have to lose a championship before they can win one.
"I've been in the Chase -- this is my third year now," Busch said. "So, technically I've already lost two. I've been in this series -- I think this is my fourth year -- so I've lost it three times. So, I think I've lost enough."
He was also asked, regardless of how he finishes, about how he will reflect on his season and if it will be sour.
"I think the biggest thing we'll remember is the eight wins and the places that the came at -- being all various different race tracks," Busch said. "The overall success of the year -- being able to win 19 races overall.
"Really we weren't supposed to be in the position we've been in to win the championship. This was supposed to be the building year the learning year -- getting used to everything at Joe Gibbs Racing, and Toyota coming on board and getting a relationship going with Steve Addington (crew chief). So, you can't look at it as a sour year."

Tony Stewart finished second at Richmond International Raceway on Sunday, his fourth runner-up finish of the year. He has yet to win a Cup race this year and is one of five drivers in the Chase without a win.
That puts him in eighth place, leading a group of drivers that includes Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth at 80 points behind Kyle Busch, the leader in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings.
But Stewart said his team doesn't settle for anything less than winning races and the way the race at Richmond ended did not sit well with his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team.
"When we know that we let one slip away, that's something that we do let ourselves get down about, but that's also what got us 32 wins and two championships," Stewart said. "We have such a high standard of what we feel our performance should be on the race track. I think that shows the caliber team that we have."
Going winless up to this point in the season is unfamiliar territory for Stewart and crew chief Greg Zipadelli.
"We have the same passion, the same desire, the same frustrations," Stewart said. "Not winning might add a little bit of stress, but if you look at Zippy's past before he came to NASCAR, he was pretty successful. I had good fortune before I came here. I think we've both had good fortune since we've been here. It's personalities. We're not two guys that are going to sit back and be happy with second or third. If that's detrimental, then that's what it has to be. That's just who we are. We can't change that."

Just when it looked like the Chase was going to be a two-driver race between Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, along comes Jimmie Johnson and the ghost of Cale Yarborough.
Johnson has won the past two Cup championships and has a chance to join Yarborough as the only driver to win three straight.
Dale Earnhardt and Kyle Petty are recognized as the top drivers of their eras, but no one, not ever Petty, could touch Yarborough for three years.
Johnson has won the past two Cup races, including the Labor Day race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, and stuck his nose between the top two drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
That gives Johnson four wins this year, to Busch's eight and Edwards' six. No other driver in the Chase has more than one win.
But leave it to Johnson to try and play the role of underdog as the Chase starts at New Hampshire International Speedway this weekend.
"I'm trying to show up at next week's race scared, worried about 11 other guys, and worry about doing my part," Johnson said. "And the thing is I have confidence in what my abilities are and what my team is capable of and the packages we have put together in the last five or six months -- short track, big track, all of it."
There are five drivers in the Chase without a win. Some pretty big names are on that list, including Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. It's hard to imagine Gordon and Stewart going a full Cup season without a win.
They should at least win one of the Chase races.
But like in Chase's past, Johnson is getting hot at the right time. He says he's worried about the other 11 drivers in the Chase. Busch and Edwards should be the ones worried about Johnson ruining their great seasons.
"So you know, there's a lot of cars... you just never know what's going to happen," Johnson said. "So I want to show up next week worried about all 11 of them and just do my job."
For the past two years, his job has been winning Cup champioships.

NASCAR has called a teleconference for Tuesday with president Mike Helton and the presidents of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama and Atlanta Motor Speedway.
It is expected that the three tracks will swap their fall races. It will give Fontana a race in the Chase and give Atlanta Motor Speedway the Labor Day weekend races.
Fontana will most likely get the Talladega race, the fourth race in the Chase. Talledega will get the Atlanta race, the seventh race in the Chase. Atlanta gets the Labor Day weekend races, which have been at Fontana since 2004.
The change in the schedule won't happen until 2009.
The Associated Press, citing unnamed sources in NASCAR, is reporting that Atlanta will get the Labor Day weekend races in 2009. There has been speculation that Atlanta and Fontana would swap races next year, but Talladega has not been reported as included in those discussions.