Well, it’s Chase time again, and this year’s group is probably one of the strongest fields, top to bottom, since this whole ludicrosity kicked off.
It’s pretty clearly going to be a three-man race between Jimmie “Sincere Emotion? Never!” Johnson, Carl “Eddie Haskell” Edwards and Kyle “Dumbo laughs at MY ears” Busch. Junior has an outside shot at contending if Tony Jr. has a sudden burst of clear thinking, but the rest are racing for better tables at the banquet.
It looks like it’s pretty clearly going to be Busch’s to lose, IMO. Edwards is good, but everyone’s figured out their tricks from the 1.5-milers he was so strong on early, so he won’t run away when we get back to Texas and Atlanta. Johnson’s peaking at about the right time, but he’s on the wrong side of history trying to win three in a row (ask anyone not named Cale Yarborough.)
Smoke’s not going to be competitive because Gibbs is already marking time until they can put Logano in that seat, the Gordon-Letarte duo seems to have run out of steam (paging Brian Whitesell) and the RCR boys are just a little off the pace compared to the big hitters in the Chase.
Anyone think the Franklin Mint shouldn’t be engraving Kyle Busch’s name on the trophy as we speak?