Fryer's Five: Former champs fight back

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Just like that, folks, we've got a title race on our hands.

A week after Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson schooled the field at Dover to turn the Chase into an apparent two-man race, it was blown wide open again at Kansas Speedway. Only three drivers went into Sunday's race within 100 points of Martin.

Now there are six, and seventh-place driver Jeff Gordon is only 103 points out.

"I think that's why they made the Chase," said Gordon, who turned an ill-handling race car into a second-place finish Sunday. "They made the Chase to have a playoff-type system, and all year long it's been anybody that can win races and comes on strong. Now, that's what we've got. There's a lot of racing left to go."

Thank Gordon and race-winner Tony Stewart for that. Neither could afford another mediocre run Sunday without risking losing even more ground to Martin and Johnson, who swept the first two Chase races.

It was a disappointing start to the Chase for both Stewart and Gordon, but they refused to concede even after the leaders did their best to demoralize the other 10 drivers.

For Stewart, it meant finding a positive in seven weeks of underachievement. Since winning at Watkins Glen in August, Stewart had five finishes outside the top 10. He had a mechanical issue in the Chase opener at New Hampshire and finished 14th, then damage from the contact that sent Joey Logano rolling at Dover forced the No. 14 team to rally to a ninth-place finish.

Subpar, by their standards, for sure, but crew chief Darian Grubb refused to let his team get discouraged.

"The last two performances we had, they weren't what we wanted, but it's what our team needed to do," Grubb said. "We came back from 36th to ninth at Dover, and we came back from 33rd to 14th at Loudon in very short amounts of time. We were able to salvage what we could out of those races, and we actually became a stronger team and fixed some problems and we're working a little harder. We know what details we're missing now to become a strong championship contending team.

"You have to take a positive out of it every week. If you don't, you're never going to be moving forward. If you just take negatives, all you're going to be doing is beating yourself down."

So Stewart, who was 106 points behind Martin at the start of the day, now finds himself just 67 points out. In all, five drivers gained points on Martin, who did widen his lead over Johnson, from 10 points to 18, but wasn't satisfied.

"Look at it however you want," said Martin, who finished seventh. "What is there, seven more to go? I don't think we should be getting all hyped up about the tally right now, you know. We've got a lot of racing to go."

Yes they do.

Now onto the Five:

1. Be honest, who thought Juan Pablo Montoya was going to be this good in the Chase?

Through three Chase races, Montoya is the only driver with three top-five finishes. Montoya finished fourth on Sunday and made a significant gain in the points by cutting his deficit from 65 to 33.

His reaction?

Juan Pablo Montoya and crew chief Brian Pattie are the only tandem in the Chase with three top-five finishes.

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"It was pretty average," he offered.

Average? Really, JPM? Have you seen your NASCAR statistics?

Get this: Before the Chase began, Montoya had a whopping total of two top-five finishes this season. For his short NASCAR career, he had seven in 99 starts.

Now here he is mixing it up with the leaders and racing for his first career victory on an oval. He and his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team outsmarted the system by favoring consistency over victories just to earn their first Chase berth. It required an intensive plan for the first 26 races. But since just being a part of the championship field was the payoff for Montoya and his team, no one was convinced crew chief Brian Pattie had a solid plan for a title push.

Apparently, he does, one that's working rather well.

"Three top-five finishes in the first three Chase races is huge, you know," Montoya said. "And it's what we need to do every weekend.''

Not many people figured he'd be able to ride a wave of consistency to a title, figuring that he'd need to pick up a win or two somewhere to legitimately contend.

Well, he's putting himself in position to win races. Eventually, one is going to fall Montoya's way. And if he ever does find the path to victory lane, he just may be able to make a run at the title.

2. The Hendrick cars were not cheating at Dover:

But they were pushing the envelope, as the Hendrick crew chiefs are prone to do. In pushing the bodies of their Chevrolets right to the edge of the NASCAR allowances, the crew chiefs for Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin got a warning that going forward they need to watch their measurements.

That prompted speculation that roared like wildfire that the teams were cheating, again. It's a perception HMS has a hard time fighting, particularly since Johnson crew chief Chad Knaus has been penalized 10 times over his career.

Frankly, team owner Rick Hendrick isn't going to waste any time worrying about what others think. When someone suggested to him that Johnson and Martin had used suspect Chevrolets to go 1-2 in Dover two races ago, he had an interesting resolution.

"I said, 'Why don't we just take it back to Dover and try it again?' " Hendrick quipped.

Rick Hendrick is so confident that his team is not bending the rules that he challenged NASCAR to inspect every one of his race cars through the end of the season.

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Sorry, folks, but the results would have been the same.

So confident that his cars are within bounds, Hendrick had zero concern about his crew chiefs potentially playing loose with the rules. In fact, he said he was willing to let his cars be inspected every week – not just when they win.

"When you've won, and run well – Jimmie and Chad are always going to know they are under the microscope – and that's part of it," Hendrick said. "We actually don't mind that. NASCAR is fair, and if they want to check us every week, that's OK. I understand. I really do."

As if taking Hendrick at his word, NASCAR added both Martin's No. 5 and Johnson's No. 48 to the cars it took back to its North Carolina Research and Development Center following Sunday's race. The cars will be scrutinized this week, and if they are even a hair over the limit, we'll hear about it.

I don't buy the argument that Hendrick teams receive preferential treatment, and that NASCAR refused to penalize the No. 48 team because it favors Johnson and Knaus. It's a fairly ludicrous argument, because penalties to Johnson and Martin would have made a far more interesting championship race.

NASCAR needs a good title run to liven up the end of its long season, and a Hendrick runaway doesn't help anyone but the Hendrick organization. So why would NASCAR sacrifice so much for just one man?

"The cars were right," Hendrick said with a shrug. "But I do appreciate [NASCAR] telling us, 'You are close to the tolerance, don't go any further.' I wish they would check every one of them before we even go, and then we wouldn't have this. But it's not a big deal. [The cars] were right, move on."

3. His stats don't show it, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been running a lot better.

Confidence plays such a vital role in this sport, and, it's no secret that Earnhardt's was shot earlier this season.

Now, after 16 races with Lance McGrew, it appears his faith has been restored and Earnhardt can see the light at the end of the most difficult season of his high-profile career.

Granted, he doesn't have the numbers to back it up. Earnhardt led 41 laps early Sunday, but a missing lug nut on his first pit stop cost him a shot at the victory. He had to pit for a penalty, dropped a lap down and it was all downhill from there. He got caught pitting under green when a caution came out, dropping him another lap down, and then the belt on his oil pump belt broke, resulting in a 36th-place finish.

It was Earnhardt's fifth consecutive finish of 17th or worse.

Still, there's progress. He qualified second, his best starting spot of the season, and the 41 laps were the most he's led in a race all season. Plus, he's finally found a rapport with McGrew, enough of one that Earnhardt heavily endorsed him to stay on as crew chief next season.

"We have had some great runs, and I feel like I can build on that type of success … more consistently with Lance," Earnhardt said Friday. "I hope that we're successful the rest of the year and that we go into next season with the same group of guys. But the decision isn't mine, and never will be mine."

It will be up to owner Rick Hendrick to decide whether the current crew on the No. 88 remains intact through next season. Hendrick said before Sunday's race that he'll sit down after the race in Charlotte in two weeks to talk about next season's personnel.

But he'll have a hard time going against Earnhardt since it's become so obvious that Junior has finally got some of his swagger back. Some of it. Not all of it. And yes, he's still stuck in a 50-race winless streak and has just one victory in has last 127 starts.

Still, Hendrick is pleased with what he's seen.

Not long after Hendrick replaced Tony Eury Jr. as crew chief, Earnhardt told me how mentally and emotionally draining this season has been. He also admitted to bouts of self-doubt, where he wondered if he'd ever win again.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out a guy in that frame of mind is most definitely not going to victory lane anytime soon. So it's taken a total rebuilding effort over the last four months to get Earnhardt back in the game.

He's now in cars built by McGrew, and they are taking a harder look at the setups and styles of the other three Hendrick drivers. Even without the finishes to show for it, there have been portions of races where the difference is noticeable enough to convince Earnhardt they are almost there.

"I've always felt like I belong in the upper percentage of our sport, and when you don't perform that way, it's definitely tough on you," he said. "But I've maintained my confidence and I've maintained good confidence in my team. We looked at the rest of the season as, any time we can get on the race track to try to prove ourselves and prove our worth to the rest of the sport, that's what we'll do for the rest of the year."

4. George Gillett is adamant Richard Petty Motorsports is not in chaos.

Gillett could have spent Sunday in London watching his Premier League club Liverpool drop a 2-0 decision to rival Chelsea in a match with championship implications. Instead, he stayed in Kansas and attempted to clear up the confusion surrounding his race team.

George Gillett is partnering with Prince Faisal, though Gillett says the partnership doesn't currently include RPM.

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It was a valiant effort, but Gillett left many questions unanswered after a rare at-track news conference. He tried to be honest and forthright, but there's so many issues confronting RPM right now, Gillett simply couldn't clear up everything.

The majority owner said a planned merger with Yates Racing is still moving forward, and either way, the team would move from Dodge to Ford next season. Gillett knows they'll field at least three cars but wouldn't give a lineup, which is a change from the Sept. 10 original statement when Kasey Kahne, AJ Allmendinger, Paul Menard and Elliott Sadler were announced as the 2010 drivers.

Also still pending is where the team will be based and who will be in charge. The only thing Gillett had a detailed explanation for was last week's announcement of a deal to work with a group that represents a Saudi prince. There are several elements of that deal, which could potentially lead to the sale of a small share in RPM and a much larger stake in Liverpool.

But Gillett was insistent no portion of RPM has been sold, and no negotiations have even been discussed.

In his mind, all is well with RPM and the team is moving forward with business decisions that are driven by the slumping economy.

"If we're in chaos, then a lot of other teams are in whatever the next step beyond chaos is," Gillett said. "I don't think that [characterization] is accurate. I think the changes that have occurred in our team are changes that any one of you would have concluded were the right things to do at that time."

Only time will tell if he's right. But, Gillett did himself no favors by giving his explanation of why Kahne, the star of the team, has felt a lack of organizational leadership this season.

Kahne said at New Hampshire two weeks ago that all the issues surrounding RPM had left him in search of who to turn to for answers. But Gillett countered that's untrue and even intimated that Kahne lied when he said that to get reporters to leave him alone.

"He is a very dear young man," Gillett said of Kahne. "He is not used to media. He doesn't particularly like the process, and I think he believed that he was trying to give an answer that would hopefully shut the conversation off.

"Kasey has been fully aware of and apprised of the conversations going on."

Add that slight to the growing list of head-scratching RPM decisions that Kahne has endured this season. Yes, he still won two races and made the Chase, and he finished sixth Sunday, though even that wasn't enough to help him too much in the points. He gained one spot, to 11th, and is 190 points out.

But a driver can only take so much drama, and as Kahne prepares for the final season of his contract with RPM, Gillett may find it very difficult to keep him.

5. Joey Logano isn't scared.

Much was made about Logano's mental state after his vicious accident last week at Dover.

Calm and cool at Kansas, Logano proved it was much ado about nothing.

The 19-year-old rookie rolled into the weekend with an overwhelming desire to move past the accident that sent his car rolling seven times at Dover. It was his first time flipping a stock car and it was scary and left him admittedly shaken. But shaken is different from scared, he insisted, and Logano was determined to put the issue to rest once and for all.

There didn't seem to be any hesitation as he got back in the saddle Friday, and he was confident he'd hit his first turns with a clear mind and no thoughts at all to the accident. Anyone who has ever watched "Days of Thunder" knows drivers allegedly struggle that first time back on the track, but Logano insisted it was everyone else who thought that would be a problem for him, and until he was asked, it had never even crossed his mind.

"I was fine. I went to sleep fine that night. No problems," he said before his first practice. "I've forgotten all about it. Everybody else is wanting to talk about it, not me."

It's easy to talk a big game, another to actually step up and produce, and Logano did the first chance he got, diving inside to run three-wide in the Nationwide Series race, then beating teammate Kyle Busch in a three-lap sprint to the finish to grab his fourth Nationwide win of the year.

"If you can barrel roll a race car like that and come out OK, it's going to give you confidence to drive it harder," Logano said after. "I didn't think it was a big deal at all coming into [the race]. I knew a lot of people did and were wondering how I was going to be. This should put it all to rest, I hope."

It certainly did.