iNSIDE SCOOP: Cataclysmic Day at Martinsville

If you were a Chase driver, you dreaded two races: Talladega and Martinsville. Talladega was the cutoff of the Contender Round and Martinsville began the Eliminator, and if you weren’t in the top eight and you hadn’t won, you were gone like Donkey Kong.

That caught up Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne. On Sunday at Martinsville, no one was eliminated, for sure, but there were some indicators that Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski might be on that bubble.

Harvick, for his part, was caught up when Matt Kenseth wheel-hopped into Turn 1 and collected Harvick, sending him to the wall for some significant damage.

Harvick, who had started 33rd but driven to the top 10, was not happy. 

"He will not win this championship. I can promise you that," Harvick growled. Harvick was in the garage for 40 laps, then came out and played brake-check with Kenseth on several occasions. "He's trying to knock my radiator out," said Kenseth.

Kenseth understood why Harvick was being a pain.

"I don't blame (Harvick) for feeling that way, honestly," Kenseth said. "It was a mistake - he was an innocent bystander and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I totally understand how he feels and I totally understand why he would say that. I totally get it. He knows it was a mistake, too, but that doesn't really help him. I don't really blame him. He got taken out of the race for being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

After it was over, after he finished 33rd, Harvick relented a bit. "The good thing about this format is you have two more weeks and two race tracks that we can win on," Harvick said. "Everybody was so worried about us starting in the back and we wrecked at the front. Unfortunate."

Brad Keselowski, who pulled a Hail Mary at Talladega by winning to make it to the Eliminator Round, lost a rear differential and caused a huge pileup off Turn 4. He finished 31st. Out of the big, deep hole and into another big, deep hole for the 2012 champ, who trails point leader Jeff Gordon by 31 points with two races left until Homestead.

This is going to be a killer weekend at Texas. You’ve got Harvick and Keselowski set on stun to get to the finale. Both are capable of winning there, and at Phoenix, though Harvick has the advantage at PIR. 

Gordon has to be happy, emerging with the point lead and avoiding the big sucking noise of a bad finish. Ryan Newman, who hasn’t won yet this year, is equally happy after finishing third. The rest? Some good, some bad. We’ll see in the Lone Star Showdown this weekend.