Taking a deeper look at what happened at Kansas

One of the fascinating things about the Chase is the many subplots that play throughout the 10 races. While some will argue that’s too short of time to determine a champion compared to a full season (we can debate this some other time), it still provides interesting nuggets that are easy to miss. So, let’s get to it.

BEHIND JIMMIE JOHNSON’S WIN

A lot of talk is going to be about Johnson putting himself back into the title hunt with his first Cup victory since Talladega in April. A few things you might not notice come to mind, though.

# Johnson’s pit crew. Remember how last year Johnson won despite the pit crew? How crew chief Chad Knaus replaced his guys with Jeff Gordon’s pit crew in the middle of the Texas race during last year’s Chase? The pit crew has had its problems this season and has been a weak point part of the year. That was part of the process, Knaus kept saying. He was re-thinking the pit crew positions and putting the guys who were best in practice on the race crew, thus the crew could change from race to race. It went against the notion of how each pit crew needs to have the right “chemistry.’’ This was a more aggressive way of doing things than most teams were doing (sure teams would replace guys that were not performing, but it typically wasn’t on a week-to-week basis). Johnson’s pit crew was spot on Sunday at Kansas, allowing him to keep the lead often. Now, that doesn’t mean this pit crew will be 100 percent the rest of the Chase but it is certainly better off than back in July when Johnson was critical of his crew after some pit road issues at New Hampshire that cost Johnson any chance of winning there. The key will be how well this pit crew responds to the pressure as the Chase progresses. Sunday was a good step, though.

# It’s easy to look at previous results but not truly see what happened in the race. Case in point was how Johnson finished 10th at Chicago. Well, he was running third until he ran out of fuel in the final lap, costing him seven spots. Thus, he was headed for a third at Chicago (a race he led three times for 39 laps) and scores a win at Kansas. That’s quite a start among the 1.5-mile tracks in the Chase. While they’re not all the same, they all require horsepower and aerodynamics. The series heads to Charlotte on Saturday night, another 1.5-mile track, and what’s interesting about it for Johnson is that he blew an engine there in the Coca-Cola 600. In the last four races at Charlotte, Johnson has finished 28th, 3rd, 37th and 1st. If they can fix their issues there, then Johnson could be in for another strong race that could alter the point standings further.

THINGS JUST GOT TOUGHER FOR TONY STEWART

Stewart seemed headed for a top-10 finish to bounce back from the poor finish at Dover last week that knocked him out of the points. That is until his final pit stop when he slid the car into his pit stall. He was running ninth before the pit stop, came out 17th and finished 15th.  Stewart apologized on the radio afterward.

“I know exactly what I did,’’ Stewart radioed his team. “I went to hit the brake and I got a corner of the throttle (with his foot). That was 100 percent my fault. I’m sorry guys. I’ve never even done that before.’’

He’s finished 25th (Dover) and 15th (Kansas) the past two weeks. That won’t win the title. He can’t afford another bad race. Thing is that among those remaining six are Martinsville (where he finished 34th in the spring) and Phoenix (reconfigured race track that could be the biggest wildcard in the Chase).  And of course there’s still Talladega on the schedule. The margin for error has grown smaller for Stewart, who is going to need to have those in front of them have bad days ahead.

CARL EDWARDS REBOUNDS AND TAKES POINTS LEAD

Edwards would say after Sunday’s race he knew from the start that he and crew chief Bob Osborne had gone with the wrong setup as soon as the green flag waved. I was listening to a number of different radio channels at the start of the race and was struck how on the second lap Edwards radioed in and talked about his car’s handling. Rarely do you hear a driver describe his car’s handling so soon after the start of the race. It would provide a clue to his woes.

“We had the wrong front suspension settings in the car,’’ Edwards said after the race. “Bob and I together in practice, we prepared the wrong setup, and they dropped the green and I realized we were in deep trouble.  So Bob made adjustments to the setup, made some bigger adjustments than we would normally make, and then we were very fortunate with the late race caution and being able to get two tires and have a shot to run up there through the traffic.  We were very, very fortunate, and I'm extremely grateful.  I do not deserve to be sitting up here.  We should have finished 15th or 20th, so it all worked out in our favor.   I mean, we made the decisions to put the setup in it that we did.  It's our fault as a group.  It's just that usually for us when we make those bad decisions we can't recover like we did today.  That's what I'm really grateful for.  That was amazing. ‘’

Last week, Edwards fell as far back as 28th after being caught for speeding on pit road for the first time this season in Cup. Sunday, he was as far back as 25th after a slow pit stop early in the race. The late cautions saved him, allowed him to get fresh tires and charge to a top-five finish _ making him the only driver in the Chase who has had a top-10 finish in each of the first four races (average finish of 5.0 in the Chase).

That puts him atop the standings by one point on Kevin Harvick.

In a way, this kind of reminds one of the inaugural Chase in 2004 when Kurt Busch had all sorts of issues in it (from spins to an engine failure to a fortunate situation in the season finale when his wheel fell off and caused a caution that, in a way, helped him) in winning his title. Can Edwards continue with his good fortune or will luck bite him in the coming weeks?

WHY NASCAR TOLD HARVICK TO QUIT BEING PUSHED

During a late caution most of the field pitted, but Kevin Harvick did not. This was with about 50 laps to go. Harvick was trying to save fuel. Behind him on the track was Austin Dillon, making his first Cup start. Dillon is the grandson of car owner Richard Childress and technically was in a car owned by Mike Curb. Still, Dillon saw Harvick and came up and pushed Harvick, helping him save fuel. NASCAR stepped in and told Dillon to stop.

Wait a minute you say, the rule is clear that it can’t be done only on the last lap?

Well, in a way, you are right and you are wrong. I talked with a NASCAR spokesperson after the race and here’s what happened.

After the Chicago race (where Matt Kenseth was penalized for being pushed on the final lap after he ran out of fuel), NASCAR told teams that they’d be watching this issue of assisting another car more often the rest of the season. So, already, NASCAR is on the lookout for this more often.

Then came the Harvick situation today. At first, he slowed way down and fell off the rear bumper of the car in front under caution _ NASCAR’s rule book requires drivers to “maintain a reasonable speed’’ under caution.  So, NASCAR officials wanted Harvick to maintain reasonable speed and  to close the gap with the car in front under caution (NASCAR likes the field tight to limit how much of the track cars are taking, making it easier to move emergency equipment and clean-up vehicles, if needed, around the track).

With NASCAR already putting word out that it was going to look more closely at cars assisting others, series officials reacted. What I was told was that NASCAR doesn’t like this because of the advantage it can provide. Also, this is something not all teams can equally do since not all cars have teammates and thus could be at a disadvantage to a multi-car team.

In a way, Harvick can say there’s no rule that prohibits it. NASCAR can also say that it adjusts things as it goes and this is one of them.

What would seem to be the best situation is for NASCAR to write a rule that either prohibits a car pushing another or provide further guidelines on when it is acceptable and when it is not. Don’t be surprised if there’s a new rule on this in next year’s rule book.

THEY SAID IT

KASEY KAHNE (2nd): "We had a good Red Bull car, came in third that first stop and the jack broke, so we had to get a new jack and came out dead last and just kind of battled our way back up through there the rest of the race and made the right adjustments.  At times we were really loose and then a little bit too tight.  We were pretty good there at the end.  We got on the right, we took four tires, started 12th, got to second there, and then on that restart Brad gave me a nice push  coming on the restart Brad gave me a good push, and I had a shot at Jimmie, I just couldn't really get to him.  I thought maybe getting to 3 I would go high, and he kind of entered into the middle and then just creeped his way to the top and just really didn't have a shot there at him. … The biggest thing to me would be to leave on a good note.  There's a lot of people there working really hard and unsure about maybe their future and where they're going to work next year, and they're still putting everything they have into our race cars each week.  That's pretty awesome on their part.  Kenny Francis is doing  just always is looking, him and Keith Rodman, they're always looking to make the car just a little bit better, how can I do this, how can I do that, so we're always working together trying to do that.  I'm fortunate to go with him next year, so we're working on things for next year as well as just trying to finish strong this year.’’

BRAD KESELOWSKI (3rd): “Another solid day for us thus far.  Makes you kick yourself that last week at Dover we had troubles we did because we've had top 5 cars each and every week, we're executing very well as a group and as a team.  Just the things that we can control we're doing very well.  So I'm proud of everything and proud of our efforts. We were about a third or fifthplace car today and brought home a third, so proud of that effort.

MATT KENSETH (4th): “I don’t think you can ever be disappointed when you finish in the top five. Overall it was a good day for us. I feel like we were off all day and we were still able to come home with a top-five so that was good. We had great track position, great qualifying and great pit stops and that kept us in the game today.”

KEVIN HARVICK (6th): “It was a long day to say the least. But everyone just kept adjusting and nothing seemed to work right today as far as our adjustments were going, so we kept swinging at it and that next to the last pit stop, we put four tires on and that helped us get through the traffic. I knew we were going to be close to the cutoff line there of when the guys would pit but the No. 22 (Kurt Busch) and I stayed out and everybody behind us pitted. So Carl Edwards) came with two tires there in the end; but all in all, it was a great save for everybody.’’

CLINT BOWYER (7th): “It was just frustrating. After practice I thought maybe we’d have a shot at it but it just wasn’t meant to be. We’ll keep digging. All in all, it was a good run for us. It just wasn’t what I was hoping for.’’

GREG BIFFLE (8th): “Our car wasn’t that good. We worked really hard on it to get it better. We still struggled some and I don’t know what happened with the speeding on pit road. That was stupid. I was the same number that I had been all day. One good thing about it is that I must have been right on the number all day and the bad thing about it is that I got over it one time. We were fourth, fifth, a couple of times there. I wasn’t that good in traffic. My car just wasn’t that good in traffic. That is where I got hurt there at the end.”

MARCOS AMBROSE (9th): “We stole one there. We’ve had some really good runs and we stayed out. It is good to get a bit lucky at the end there. We really worked hard all day. The team really kept trying some stuff and actually got it going pretty good there the last 80 laps and (we) were able to get back on the lead lap and back in the top-10.”

DAVE ROGERS, crew chief for KYLE BUSCH (11th): “We ran top-four and these races just keep coming down to strategy one way or another, and we thought our best chance was to come down and take two tires there on the second to last caution.  We took two tires and the car was plowing tight and we lost a bunch of spots on the restart.  Came down and took two tires for the green-white-checkered and the car went wrecking loose.  So, for some reason we were just getting huge balance swings when we took two tires today.  We’d taken two tires earlier in the day and the car got more free, so the second to last stop where it got tight we lost most of our track position.  That’s the one that took me by surprise.”

KURT BUSCH (13th): “Track position is so important at this place and we fought tooth-and-nail all day to get it.  We got behind in qualifying and had to start 17th.  We ran from 15th to 20th most of the day and caught a break; we got the lucky dog to get back on the lead lap.  We gambled after the fourth caution and didn't pit with Steve (Addington, crew chief) coaching me to save fuel.  We were a lap shy on the fuel calculation and hit pit road when most of the other guys pitted with less than 25 to go.  That guaranteed us to be good on fuel.  We got up to seventh when the 24 blew an engine to set up the green-white-checkered.  We stayed out because we just had never been that great on new tires.  It was like everybody behind us did pit, so that might have been our best move.  We were still a top-10 car when the green-white checker came out, but just couldn't hold on to a top 10.  The fresher tires got us."

DALE EARNHARDT JR. (14th): “Well, it was all right. We had a pretty tight car when the race started. And then there was a run in the middle of the race where I couldn’t have asked for the car to be any better. It was really fast. And near the end there we just had a lot of cautions and a lot of traffic and my car was real tight. In that dirty air, we just couldn’t get anything done. But I was better than we were last time here. We’ve just got to gain a little bit more on it. We’re getting there. … During the green-white-checkered, I was on the bottom and they were four-wide in front of me going down the back straightaway. I can’t go and run over somebody and them guys behind me I think somebody got by me there at the flag stand and it’s just a crap shoot pretty much unless you’re in the lead. … I just want to win a race. It’s a goal of mine right now to just go out there and win. Man, if we could do that, that would really, no matter what happened in the Chase, I think we’d be real happy with our season.

DENNY HAMLIN (16th): “We were just struggling pretty much all day.  We were right around 10th-place.  We had a bad restart there at the end, and we finished 16th.  Just frustrating because I feel like we’re better than what we’re showing.  We just got to work on our stuff and get better.  Everything right now needs to get better. … I think we know what direction to go in -- whether we can get there or not -- got to have cooperation from everyone.  People need to be open-minded to make changes.  We’ll just see where it goes from there. … It’s everything that goes into to putting the race together and making it fast -- we have to get better at.

DAVID RAGAN (20th): "We just didn't start out the race very good. We made a lot of adjustments throughout the day and at the end of the race we had a top 10 to top-15 car depending on our balance. We just weren't lucky today. We missed getting the Lucky Dog a couple of times and the chips just didn't fall our way. When you're back there 10th to 20th you need a couple lucky breaks and we just didn’t get them. We could have gotten a top 10 out of it, but it just wasn't our day."

DAVID GILLILAND (32nd): "I don't know what it is about this track, but it's just always been tough for us.  From the time we rolled off the truck, Peter (Sospenzo) and the guys worked on trying to make it better all weekend.  And we did get it better, but track conditions changed during the race and it just seemed like we were always chasing it.  I can't wait to get to Charlotte, though.  It's great racing at home and it's a track we run well at, so I'm really looking forward to next weekend."

JEFF GORDON (34th): “I started seeing smoke inside the car. We had a really bad restart there and got shuffled back. Our day was pretty much over anyway and we were going to finish maybe 15th or something. Right there I started what smelled like burning oil and I saw the oil temp start to come up and I felt like it was just a matter of time before it blew up. … That restart Tony Stewart took me three wide, all the way down to the apron, and we were on old tires and that just ruined our day right there. He did what he had to do, it messed us up but right after that we start getting smoke, we thought it was tire smoke, but it wasn’t it was under the hood, obviously it ended out day.”

NOTES

# Jimmie Johnson’s win was his 55th career Cup victory, tying him for 8th on the all-time wins list with Rusty Wallace.

# Jimmie Johnson’s victory also gave Chevrolet the manufacturer’s title. Chevrolet has won the title the title 35 times.

# Austin Dillon, making his first career Cup start, finished 26th.

# Jimmie Johnson continues his streak of being the only driver to have a Chase race all eight years of the Chase.

# Kasey Kahne’s second-place finish was his best this season. He’s finished fourth (at Dover) and second (Kansas) in the last two weeks.

# Marcos Ambrose finished ninth for the second consecutive weekend. It’s only the second time this season he’s had back-to-back top-10s this season.

#Clint Bowyer finished seventh, marking the third time in the last four races he’s finished in the top 10.

SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU GO HMMMM

Jeff Gordon placed 34th after blowing an engine in the final laps Sunday at Kansas. It was only the second engine failure he’s had in a points race since the 2008 season finale at Homestead, a span of 103 races.

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