Richmond Observations

Thoughts, observations and a few questions following Saturday's Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway:

• The engine on Jimmie Johnson's winning car was still warm when I started receiving emails from readers accusing the Lowe's team of cheating. Can you blame them? Unfortunately, a large group of NASCAR fans has branded this team as cheaters. I'm not surprised, really.

Crew chief Chad Knaus has been the poster boy for pushing the envelope and getting caught for the past few years, and I expect that notoriety will follow him and his team throughout the Chase. It's unwarranted. These guys work hard to earn their rewards.

• Until this season, Richmond was Johnson's worst race track. He scored only one top-10 finish in 10 previous races there. I think he's got it figured out now.

• Wasn't it great to hear Greg Biffle refer to the drivers who start at the back of the field as "donkeys" after he was involved in an early wreck? Biffle has deserved better than he's been given the past two seasons. I fear Jack Roush has turned Biffle into another Mark Martin – a great driver, but without the proper equipment and the kind of support that can win a championship.

• Speaking of Martin, it's become painfully obvious that he can't get his hands around the new car. The DEI driver's record this season in the Car of Tomorrow, and I'll be kind here, is just plain miserable.

From Martin's example, the idea of veteran drivers running part-time schedules doesn't seem to be a good one. It makes it seem as though they're out there as a hobby, not their profession.

But I suppose there still will be a few young drivers who can and will learn from racing with the skilled veteran. I'm not about to suggest that Martin take a hike, so hold off on the ugly emails, Martin fans.

• I'm wondering why DEI is the only Chevy team that is still using the old SB2 engine while everyone else is having success with the more powerful and seemingly reliable R07 engine?

Of course there are some, no, make that a lot of fans who think that with all the mechanical failures Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered over the past five or six races, that someone at DEI didn't want him to make the Chase.

• The first half of the Richmond race was a real snoozer. It seemed obvious that everyone was waiting for the final 100 laps. After the restart on lap 300 that followed the race's second red flag – for the big wreck involving several cars a few laps earlier – everyone got serious, real serious.

When Tony Stewart, Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon were sparring for the rights to second place, it unquestionably was some of the best racing all season by three of the very best in NASCAR. Don't tell me that the new car hasn't delivered on its promise of making the racing better.

• ABC's use of a split screen to show action in two different areas of the race track was nothing short of brilliant. I've always complained that the television viewer was robbed of seeing the real racing action – that usually took place in the middle of the pack – while the camera (and the director) seemed stuck on the race leader.

Now, if only ABC could start using the same technique during commercial breaks. Someday, maybe someday.

• Kevin Harvick's new favorite song? How about Rod Stewart's "Some Guys Have All the Luck."

• Kudos to both David Ragan (third) and Johnny Sauter (fifth) for scoring career-best finishes. Sauter's finish makes the ABC producers of "NASCAR Primetime" look a bit smarter now, especially after they've featured the Haas/CNC driver on their show nearly every week. I think that he may have been featured because of his fiancée, Cortney Owen.

• Saturday night's race was a forgettable evening for Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jamie McMurray and Brian Vickers, although Montoya's pyrotechnics made for some exciting television.

• I just can't see Dario Franchitti as Montoya's teammate next season, but from several reports, it may be happening. Maybe Franchitti's actress wife Ashley Judd is tired of seeing her husband flying through the air and would prefer he be surrounded by steel while he's racing.

I'm still wondering if Chip Ganassi is out to prove that he can be the expert at converting open wheel racers to stock car racers. It will take a top-notch group to do it. I can remember those good old days (1996-2000) when Ganassi's CART teams were unbeatable. His current NASCAR organization is not of the same caliber. Not even close.

• Could race fans really see four Indy 500 winners in the starting field for February's Daytona 500? The group would be Montoya, Franchitti, Jacques Villeneuve and Sam Hornish Jr.

• Believe me, if this had been a Chase race, Jeff Gordon wouldn't have been so kind to teammate Johnson. Gordon wants that fifth title so bad he can taste it.

• How many races do you think the new/old Yates Racing will win next year? Or even the next five years? It's sad to see such a great organization become a field-filler.

• Ray Evernham must be pulling out all the stops in an effort to convince the Anheuser-Busch execs that Kasey Kahne is deserving of that Bud sponsorship. This makes three top-10s in a row for Kahne.

• I expect we'll see Scott Riggs, Tony Raines and David Stremme in the Craftsman Truck Series next season. That's not a put-down. Not by a long shot. The competition in the CTS isn't for the faint-hearted, and although these drivers will have to take a cut in pay (while still earning a pretty good living), they will be racing regularly and will be at home with their families on Sundays.

• I'm still on the A.J. Allmendinger bandwagon. It was another impressive performance Saturday night by the rookie driver (he finished 23rd).

It's no secret that the California native is a talented driver and that the lack of seat time this year, in part due to a gross error by a former employee with the Red Bull organization that kept him out of a Busch car, has hurt him. Now that Allmendinger has been getting more laps in both a Busch car (for Chip Ganassi) and his Cup car, he's proving he belongs with the stock car crowd.

Postscript

The Chase is on!

Unfortunately, until NASCAR tweaks the rules for the Chase, the title will still go to the team that makes the fewest mistakes and not necessarily the team that wins the most races.

Still, Brian France's great experiment – that has since spawned several imitators – enters its fourth edition with undoubtedly the best field ever.

Only once before has the driver who won the first race (Kurt Busch in 2004) gone on to win the title. Somehow, that won't deter any of the 12 from trying to win at New Hampshire next weekend.

What will be the best (read: most entertaining) race of the Chase? Talladega, with the new car and a bigger restrictor plate.