iNSIDE SCOOP: Now What?

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Well, the Eliminator Round is fixing to commence this weekend at Martinsville, and Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be just one of the guys.

I hate it when I’m right.

Not really, but in this case…yeah, I hate it when I’m right.

The six-time champ and the most popular driver in NASCAR can’t win the championship this year. They tried to advance, but the three-race Chase section known as the Contender Round was too tough to tame for Johnson and Earnhardt.

Bad finishes did them in, and Sunday’s go-for-broke application was too little, too late. Brad Keselowski, in the same boat as the Hendrick duo, won the race to advance. In the process, he knocked out a third HMS car, Kasey Kahne. 

Three-quarters of Hendrick’s team was eliminated Sunday at Talladega, along with a third of the Joe Gibbs team in Kyle Busch. All of Team Penske is still title-hopeful, along with two JGR cars, one each from Roush Fenway, Richard Childress, Hendrick and Stewart-Haas. Of these eight still standing, four will go to Homestead next month for all the marbles.

Jeff Gordon is probably the biggest star left, along with Kevin Harvick, Keselowski and Kenseth. Carl Edwards is still kicking, as are Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano. I said earlier this year that the road to the title no longer runs through Concord; it’s in Mooresville now, home of Team Penske.

That makes sense, because Team Penske has won 11 races so far, and all of the ones they had to win to advance. Logano (5) and Keselowski (6) are at the top of the heap. 

Without the 48 and 88, though, what kind of interest is the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup going to generate? It will get its share, but without those two, it won’t be as big as it could have been, in my opinion.

Is that a bad thing? Yes and no, because Kenseth, Keselowski and Gordon have all won titles. Newman, Edwards, Harvick, Hamlin and Logano have not. New blood sells well these days.

There exists the possibility that a driver without a victory will win the 2014 title. If Newman or Kenseth advances, it is a certainty.

That is going to bear watching. NASCAR fans clamored for a playoff because Kenseth won the Winston Cup in 2003 despite only winning one race, early in the season. Now there’s a playoff, and the top-five 

It will be interesting at Martinsville with Johnson not in the title mix. It used to be a mortal lock that either he or Hamlin would win, and that was the kick-start to Texas and Phoenix, which set up Homestead’s finale.