iNSIDE SCOOP: Who Called This?

Now that Team Penske has delivered a really big beat-down to the rest of the Chase field, who saw the duo of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano as the class of the field so far?

Well...lots of people, including me.

Not to sound too smug or anything, but the handwriting was as clear as it could be. Keselowski won Richmond and Chicagoland. Logano has been wicked fast all year. They showed the late-season surge that has been the hallmark of Team Hendrick all these years.

That's not to say that Team Six-Time, Team Four-Time, Team Junior and Team Kahne won't have a say in the way the Chase plays out, especially with the three-races-and-reset nature of this beastie, but for now, Team Penske Rules.

Who doesn't rule? Right now it's Team JGR. All three cars got in, but all three wobbled onto the trailer at the end of Sunday's Sylvania 300 in various states of messed-up. I don't know why, but JGR just hasn't been able to compete with Team Penske and Team Hendrick. Shoot, Stewart-Haas has more victories, none by the team boss.

Speaking of SHR, Kurt Busch wadded his car up after a cut tire and Stewart spun late with help. Harvick was good, as he has been all year, and Danica was in the top 10 past halfway.

This is sure shaping up to be a strange Chase.

At this point, unless Six-Time wakes up at Dover, it's going to be a Team Penske runaway. Those two Fords have been the fastest cars on the track all season, and they have nine victories in 28 races. Team Hendrick has 10 among four cars.

More important, three of those nine from Penske have come in the last three races.

This is where Six-Time usually taps the turbo button and accelerates toward the title.

He might have to mash it a little harder, starting this week at Dover.

Feel-good Chasers Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger have yet to escape danger, but they sure are entertaining. Almirola blew an engine late at Chicagoland, but drove to sixth at NHMS and Allmendinger was 13th. Just 13 points separate eighth-place Kenseth from 16th-place Almirola with Dover yet to go.

That's tight, y'all.

Dover is not the place you want to go if you have to have a good finish. It's a self-cleaning oven that does a lot of cooking, if you know what I mean. 

We'll see what is on the plate once they leave the Monster Mile.

All we know right now is that there's a lot of stuff on the burner.