Told Ya...

The race at Talladega in the fall has always been a wild-card sort of undertaking. You could race all day without contact of any kind and wind up sliding across the finish line on the roof, or beat and bang and spin and end up winning the darn thing.

For seven of the Chase drivers, it was a points graveyard, as they finished 24^th or worse. For five of them, it was separation city…they put themselves in a position to be the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion not named Jimmie Johnson since 2006.

Carl Edwards finished 11^th, but since the rest of the Chasers collectively swallowed an eight-pound golf ball, wound up with 14-point lead over teammate Matt Kenseth. Brad Keselowski spent all day pushing Dave Blaney to third place and wound up third in the Chase after finishing fourth.

Tony Stewart had a great day going until the final restart, when he got suckered in the draft and finished seventh. He’s fourth in points, and Kevin Harvick had an awful day and dropped from second to fifth in the points.

Johnson finished 23^rd and fell 50 points out of the lead with four to go. That’s long odds even for Five-Time.

So ends another season of plate racing, where you had better have at least one friend with the nerve to race two-by-two at breakneck speed without being able to see anything but the rear spoiler of your car. Two would be better.

Now, we go to Wild Card #2…the shortest track on the circuit and just as much of a crapshoot as the longest track is. Martinsville is about brakes, keeping the fenders clean and not getting lapped.

It’s also about winning the pole, because the first pit stall is a ginormous advantage there. If you can win the pole, you have a better than even chance of winning the race. Of course, you also have a better than even chance of getting punted in the late going, too.

Contact is mother’s milk at Martinsville. If you aren’t tapping on someone’s bumper, you aren’t racing. Move a guy? If you want to pass, you’d better be able to do it.

If you can get through Martinsville in the top three, you have three races to unseat whoever happens to be in front of you. If you can’t, thanks for playing, and hope you have plans for all the time you won’t be up on stage in Las Vegas.

In other news, JTG Daugherty Racing will move back to its shops in Harrisburg, NC next season, with Todd Berrier as the crew chief and Bobby Labonte the driver. The sponsor lineup returns intact, too.

Clint Bowyer’s new ride, the 15, takes over the space occupied by the No. 47 for the past several seasons. The team will stay with Toyota.

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