A wild one in Dega

A dramatic finish, a tight points race and even more. It was Talladega and it rarely leaves fans disappointed, so let's get to it ....

WHAT A FINISH

So much changed in the final laps and it could have a bearing on who wins the champoinship. Just remember the final laps when either Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin or Kevin Harvick are hoisting the championship trophy after Homestead.

After Sunday's race here's the standings among the top 3 in the points:

1. Jimmie Johnson ... 6,149 points

2. Denny Hamlin ... 14 points behind Johnson

3. Kevin Harvick ... 38 points behind Johnson

OK, so let's look at the final laps.

On the restart with 4 laps to go ... Johnson was 2nd, Harvick was 13th and Hamlin was 18th.

With two laps to go ... Harvick was 2nd, Hamlin was 10th and Johnson was 18th.

At the finish: Harvick was 2nd, Johnson was 7th and Hamlin was 9th.

OK, so what does this mean?

In the last two laps Johnson went from 18th to 7th _ that's gaining 37 points. Think about that. Harvick trails Johnson by 38 points. Imagine if Johnson had stayed 18th and Harvick and Hamlin finished where they did.

That said, Harvick went from 13th to 2nd in the last 4 laps. That's a gain of 46 points. That's with a car with its front looking like the nose of a boxer after Marcos Ambrose had spun in front of Harvick earlier in the race and Harvick hit him.

As for Hamlin, he didn't move much. A key, he said, was that he had Mark Martin pushing him but when they passed Johnson, Martin's help went way.  It's understandable. As Hamlin said: "As soon as we passed the 48, he stopped pushing and that's teamwork. That's what I would expect of a teammate. We were in a bad spot. We weren't around our teammates when it counted right there at the end.''

Anyway, just think of those moments as these final 3 races play out. Big point swings in the final laps and that could be key as this Chase progresses.

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WHO WON THE RACE?

It took NASCAR nearly 4 minutes from the time the caution was called for a 5-car crash on the last lap (where AJ Allmendinger's car went upside down) before it was announced that Clint Bowyer had won the race. NASCAR officials can synchronize the video with when the caution comes out. They did that and reviewed the video.  A NASCAR spokesperson quoted Robin Pemberton as saying Bowyer won by the "narrowest of margins.''

Harvick, if he was bitter, hid it. After being told Bowyer won, Harvick radioed his crew: "Good job guys.That's pretty cool right there. ... That's pretty neat right there. So close that you can't tell on your own team, that's good.''

Even afterward, Harvick said he wasn't worried waiting on NASCAR's decision.

"There's no reason to worry about the things you can't control,'' he said. "You go up and you wait. They make the call. Doesn't stress me out at all.''

As for Bowyer, this helps make for what's been a disappointing Chase after his race-winning car at New Hampshire failed inspection at NASCAR's R&D Center two days later and he was penalized 150 points, eliminating him from title contention.

"I'm still frustrated,'' Bowyer said of the New Hampshire incident. "Took the wind out of my sails. The two races after that whole mess, it was a disaster. If we had that back, we were along our normal routine, I don't think we would have had those bad runs that we've had. So, it has been very frustrating. Haven't had much to look forward to. Didn't have much to look forward to other than the fact I knew my race car was very, very fast going into this race. The engine boys were very happy. When those boys are excited about something, you better get excited as a race car driver because you've got something that is probably going to be an advantage.''

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SO NOW WHAT?

This is the closest three-man Chase since the Chase's inception in 2004. So who's going to win it? And how are they going to do it?

Let Harvick explain:

"When you go back and look at the stats over the last four years, top 10s do not cut it,'' Harvick said.  "You've got to be in the top five and be up front every week. It's the same pace that (Johnson) has had ...it's just the two of us have done a lot of the same things.''

Said Johnson: "We're going to three tracks that are good for all  three competitors. As Kevin was saying earlier, you're going to have to run in the top five to stay in the game. Then, obviously, take advantage of things and win if you can.''

Here's a few stats for you on how each have done at the last three tracks (Texas, Phoenix and Homestead)

Jimmie Johnson has 5 wins at those tracks with 19 top 5s and 28 top 10s in 37 starts

Denny Hamlin has 2 wins at those tracks with 12 top 5s and 16 top 10s in 25 starts

Kevin Harvick has 2 wins at those tracks with 10 top 5s and 20 top 10s in 39 starts

So, who do you think will win and why?

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ONE WILD FINISH

Just check out who gaind the most and who lost the most positions in the last eight laps.

Brad Keselowski gained 17 spots to finish 10th

Jeff Gordon gained 13 spots to finish 8th

Carl Edwards gained 13 spots to finish 17th

David Reutimann gained 11 spots to finish 4th

Denny Hamlin gained 11 spots to finish 9th

Kevin Harvick gained 9 spots to finish 2nd

THOSE WHO LOST THE MOST IN THE LAST EIGHT LAPS

Michael Waltrip lost 22 spots to finish 28th

Kurt Busch lost 18 spots to finish 30th

David Gilliland lost 14 spots to finish 33rd

Matt Kenseth lost 12 spots to finish 16th

Sam Hornish Jr. lost 10 spots to finish 15th

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A LITTLE EXTRA HELP?

Did Jimmie Johnson have some extra help on Sunday (Halloween) at Talladega? Maybe. Asked since this was his first race at Dega as a father if he had any extra stress, Johnson said no and explained why:

"My little girl was dressed as an angle today, so I was hopeful that that brought some good luck,'' he said. "Everybody else was wearing scary costumes. I had a halo and wings on my little girl before the race. I hope that brought us some luck.''

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WHAT THEY SAID

Juan Pablo Montoya (3rd): "There's no setup (in the final laps). You know, it's what it is. You know you've got to hook two cars up, At that point I was the pusher. I couldn't really wait for the guy behind me to push me. It made sense to try to win the race. The best chance I had to win the race was to push Bowyer up front when we got to the line, try to make my move.''

David Reutimann (4th): "Just happy to get out of here – this is probably our best speedway car and we’ve been using it quite a bit. Thankfully we haven’t left where it’s been torn up too bad so we’ll be ready to take it back next year.”

Joey Logano (5th): "We had a good car and just had to be patient the whole race – that was the toughest part is trying to be patient and riding behind these guys and waiting to position yourself there at the end. I was pretty comfortable when I was in the top-seven or eight there with about 20 (laps) to go. Felt like that was where I needed to be and didn’t do anything stupid. I just stayed in line and when it came down to it, I needed to go. We did what the plan was today, but the plan was to win it so we almost did the plan.”

Jeff Gordon (8th): "There is just a lot of crazy stuff that goes on here. I'm just happy to have a car that finished in one piece to be honest with you. We haven't had that for a long time. That got us it looks like a top-10 finish. Me and Jimmie got hooked up together and drove all the way to the front. I started experiencing some weird things inside the car. It was kind of vibrating. There was a lot of smoke and it smelled like oil. I thought the engine was getting ready to blow up so he shuffled me out. From that point on, we just kind of fought back. From that restart I just couldn't get anybody to go with us.

Brad Keselowski (10th): "You just try (on that last restart) every line and everything you can think of to get to the front. I picked a c ouple of good lines and gained a bunch of spots. If we would have had one more lap, I think we could have run up to the front.''

Sam Hornish Jr. (15th): "Today was awesome up until the last four laps. For some reason on that last restart, we just didn't go. Unfortunately, a couple of guys that I had worked with all day weren't in position at the end to help us out.''

Matt Kenseth (16th): "Things just didn't go our way there at the very end. It seemed like we could be pretty competitive in exactly the right spot, but I had a hard time maneuvering, and I'd get stalled out real bad. Paul (Menard) gave me a great push on the last restart, and I was really trying to stay on his bumper. I was trying to drag the brake and I looked back and somehow he got too far behind me. I was losing all my speed and all the steam was coming on the top, so I went to block the top and tried to get up there. Of course, they just hung me in the middle and I was done, so I guess I should have just stuck it out and waited for Paul to catch back up and maybe it would have been better.''

Dave Rogers (crew chief for Kyle Busch, who finished 25th): "This is one of those places where a lot of people leave upset and a few leave happy.  We're pretty happy with our (car), it was a pretty good car. We could lead, we could push really good, but circumstances at the end, it just didn't work out for us. We got hung on the bottom and the top line just freight-trained us.''

Kurt Busch (30th): "Typical Talladega. On the restart, we were stuck on the outside. The first two rows broke away, then it got three wide and we got shuffled back because the cars in front of our line just didn't go anywhere. It's disappointing. We ran in the top 10 all day and ready to make a run at the end but never got the chance. Typical Talladega.''

AJ Allmendinger (32nd): "It’s not the most fun run I’ve ever had, but it’s Talladega. It’s one of those things.  I hate this place.  I always have and always will. I wish I could give you a description of what happened.  I was just in the middle four-wide, I was getting shoved and I got in the right-rear of Michael, but I was on the brakes as hard as I could be getting pushed as hard as I was. It was just one of those things.” 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (39th): "I got in the back of (Jeff) Burton and got him out of control. We've just been pushing each other all day long and I got into him the wrong way. Cost his crew a great race car and opportunity to win. He had a really fast car, I apologize to Richard (Childress) and all of those guys over there.''

Jeff Burton (41st): "It's just racing. (Dale Earnhardt) Junior and I work really well today and pushed each other a lot; we just didn't get lined up that time and I guess he got me in the right-rear quarter panel and got me turned around. It wasn't anything on purpose; we just didn't get lined up.

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ODDS AND ENDS

# Brad Keselowski finished 10th on Sunday -- giving him back-to-back 10th-place finishes. He hadn't had a top 10 before last weekend's race at Martinsville

# NASCAR's estimated attendance for Sunday's was race 110,000 -- more than 13,000 off the estimated attendance for the spring Talladega race. It also can be said it's the largest estimated attendance for a Cup race since the Bristol night race in August (estimated attendance of 155,000)

# Joey Logano's fifth-place finish was his third consecutive top-10 finish. It's the first time in his Cup career he's done that.

# There were 87 lead changes among 26 drivers Sunday. The only drivers to who finished in the top 20 and did NOT lead a lap were: Regan Smith (12th), Robby Gordon (18th) and Greg Biffle (19th).

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SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU GO HMMMMM

Think about this folks, with 3 races left (Texas -- 334 laps, Phoenix -- 312 laps and Homestead -- 267 laps), there's 913 laps left in the season. Less than 1,000 laps left this year. Enjoy them folks.

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