Read Vote and Listen Top 5 Best and Worst of Kansas

The third race of the Chase provided us with a mix of good and bad or known here as the Best and Worst. We will cover some of the highs and lows and give you a chance to vote your picks after reading some facts associated with each choice.

The Best

1. Jimmie Johnson maintaining his Championship form
The no. 48 car started out on top, ran well all day and held off a hard-charging Carl Edwards for his 5th win of the season and 1st in the Chase.
If he goes on to win the championship would be the first driver to win three in a row since Cale Yarborough did it in ’76, ’77 & ’78. Yarborough is the only driver to pull it off so far in the history of the sport.
A driver winning two championships in a row has been accomplished 12 times since 1956 where Buck Baker was the first to get 2 championships [1956 & 1957] back to back.

2. Greg Biffle still in contention with a 3rd place finish at Kansas
The pilot of the no. 16 car fielded by Roush/Fenway Racing is still vying to be the first driver in history to win Championships in all three of the top series in NASCAR, Truck, Nationwide & Cup.
Biffle ran up front all day, but faded just a little towards the end. He managed a last lap pass on Jeff Gordon just before the line to move into 3rd, but was not in contention for his 3rd win in a row. He sits solidly 3rd in points only 30 points out of the top spot. The next driver behind him is Jeff Burton 91 Back.

3. Matt Kenseth coming back from a lap124 spin to finish 5th
After Casey Mears came up and tapped the back bumper of Kenseth on lap number 124, the driver of the no. 17 DeWalt Ford did an incredible job keeping his car controlled through the spin and avoiding damage. After a quick trip to pit road for 4 new tires and fuel, Matt drove his way back in contention and managed a 5th place finish. He is 9th in points 192 out of 1st.

4. A.J. Allmendinger pads his stock car resume
After the announcement that A.J. would not return to drive for Team Red Bull Racing in 2009, the best thing that the open wheel notable could do for his future in NASCAR was to race his way to a top 10 finish in what could possibly be his last race in the no. 84 car. He did just that running up front most of the day ending it out in 9th.

5. The closing laps between Edwards and Johnson
After attempting a dive-bomb pass on the inside of Johnson, Carl Edwards said that he was expecting to hit the wall in a move that he had practiced in the video games, but wasn’t expecting it [the wall] to slow him down as much as he did. Johnson managed to get back past Edwards coming to the checkers earning the win with Edwards remaining in second.
The finishing order at Kansas in the top 3 is also the top 3 drivers in points respectively with Greg Biffle rounding it out 3rd.

The Worst

1. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. suffering his mid-race handling issues once again
In a continuing theme, the no. 88 car ran decent through the first half of the race and began to fade at the mid-point. Any adjustments made to try to improve the handling of the car were neutral as he only managed to maintain a position just inside the top 15 up to the conclusion of the race. With an average finish in the Chase of 14th , hopes of Earnhardt getting his first Cup Championship are not looking good.
Even with a lackluster finish of 13th, he did manage to gain of one spot in points to 8th, 190 points out of the lead.

2. Tony Stewart dropping in points and still winless for 2008
In what could have been retaliation for a pit road incident, Tony Stewart got into the no. 83 car driven by Brian Vickers and spun down into the infield grass doing damage to his front splitter. After a lengthy pit stop to repair the damage, Stewart went 7 laps down finishing 40th, dropping 4 positions to 11th in points. Two decent finishes in the first two Chase races and a dismal race at Kansas is probably not how Stewart wanted to close out his JGR/Home Depot career in his fames no. 20 car. The frustrations are liable to come out even more as the season finishes out.

3. Juan Pablo Montoya disqualified from the pole
Rear shock pressure being to high was the verdict for why the no. 42 car’s pole winning qualifying time was disallowed. You might vote this one as the number 1 worst because it was good to see Montoya with his first pole or for the fact that they were cheating.
In an interview with Montoya after he won the pole, but prior to the disqualification, he proclaimed that his crew chief was extremely nervous and apparently rightly so, but for a reason different than Montoya assumed.

4. Joe Gibbs Racing falling to the bottom of the Chase ranks
Despite Denny Hamlin placing 9th at Loudon and 11th most recently at Kansas, his 38th place finish in the 2nd Chase race in Dover has him relinquished to 10th in the points. Just behind him is Tony Stewart 11th and last place, Kyle Busch in 12th. [Kyle gets his own ‘worst’ below].
The wheels have come off of the JGR & Toyota machine big time so soon into the ‘playoffs’ with the biggest surprise being the no. 18 car. If there is another scenario that makes the point better as to how difficult the top level of stock car racing is, there is no telling what that would be. It is the epitome of hero to zero only three races into the Chase.

5. Kyle Busch’s mechanical issues continue shutting the door to the Championship.
For the 3rd race in a row, the regular season points leader going into the Chase, Kyle Busch, showed mechanical issues early at Kansas.
Thinking that the fuel delivery system was malfunctioning, the team had planned to change the carburetor under yellow. It was reported that the team had found something in the intake, but Busch denied that after the race.
Whether they discovered the root of issue or not, the no. 18 car was never a factor in the race and has all but mathematically eliminated himself from the championship.

Any time that we feature a Kyle Busch comment, we have to include it in both the ‘Best & Worst’ column [for voting only] or we get 2,000 emails asking us to do so. Vote away!

To vote, visit our main website with this story page at:

http://racefanvote.com/top5bestandworstkansas.html

You can also find the link for the internet radio broadcast of this topic.