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Happy Hour: The Chase, Martin Truex Jr., and guess who else?

nick bromberg
College football and motorsports writer

Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com or @NickBromberg. We'll post them here, have a good time and everyone's happy. Right? Oh who are we kidding, this is NASCAR. No one is ever happy.

Sup y'all? Are we going to have more of an intriguing race at Dover than we did at New Hampshire? Or did New Hampshire seem quite melancholy because we've come down off the Richmond "high" of all the drama? I'm standing by my prediction that the dramatic climax of the NASCAR season has happened and we're watching a Chase that won't come close to matching it.

Before we get to Chris's question, I think it's important to note that I don't think the Chase will be a bore. We're looking at a pretty good battle between three cars, and I don't care if Greg Biffle calls me stupid for believing that. I've got the numbers to back me up, courtesy of Bloomberg Sports.

Now, on to Kenseth. I don't think Kenseth will be the catalyst per se (insert joke about 2003 here), but I wouldn't be surprised to see a points tweak sooner rather than later. If NASCAR is going to make some schedule shifts when the new TV contracts kick in after next year, they might as well go all in with some points changes too. And while we're at it, if the Gen-6 continues to be unimpressive, let's makes some downforce changes.



I would put them at 50/50 right now with the caveat that I'm hedging. I don't like the chances of MWR being able to find a sponsor for him, but I also don't like the chances if Truex finding another ride. There's Furniture Row, though I don't blame them for slow playing this one bit. They could luck into a Chase driver being available for the second straight year provided they don't want to go young. And Truex is 33. He's not old.

No, the Chase is not detrimental to NASCAR's credibility. Everyone knows what the rules of the Chase are and what the points system is going into the season. Now of course, that's separate from adding a driver arbitrarily into the Chase...

Yeah, that's right that's...

Mike answered for me! No worries, Mike. In case you're reading this and haven't stumbled across the NASCAR live chat, join us Sunday for Dover. We have a ton of fun and we'll ask you poll questions. The last option is always "Danica." And Danica always wins. If you want to see Danica Patrick win, stop by Yahoo Sports!

(By the way, Nuck is a chat joke too.)

I know that Kurt Busch had to say that on SportsDash Wednesday because it's the right thing to do, but uh, no. However, I do legitimately think Danica has a chance for a top 20 points finish. She's currently 27th in the standings and three of the drivers ahead of her are/could be not in the sport in 2014. Is it likely? No. Is it possible? Yes.