IS LEARNING THE PRINCETON OFFENSE
Bill Fleischman's observations about the dozen drivers competing in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship. Drivers are listed in order of their seeding (2008 Chase finishes are in parentheses; x indicates the driver was not in last year's Chase).
Mark Martin (x): Will NASCAR's elder statesman finally win a championship? The 50-year-old has been runner-up four times.
Tony Stewart (9): The two-time Cup champion has won two of the last nine races.
Jimmie Johnson (1): Seeking an unprecedented four consecutive titles, he rarely makes mistakes on the race track.
Denny Hamlin (8): He won Saturday at Richmond; with his win at Pocono in early August, he has taken two of the last six races.
Kasey Kahne (x): He has two wins in the last 11 races; could be a dark horse.
Jeff Gordon (7): Although he hasn't won a title since 2001, he's a formidable presence.
Kurt Busch (x): The 2004 Cup champion has the experience to win again. One question will be whether the impending move of crew chief Pat Tryson to Martin Truex Jr.'s team next year will be a distraction.
Brian Vickers (x): He climbed past several drivers, including Matt Kenseth, to qualify for his first Chase. Vickers was 17th in points following the early June race at Pocono.
Carl Edwards (2): He is due to win after going winless in the first 26 races. He collected a series-high nine wins last year.
Ryan Newman (x): The risk in joining the new Stewart-Haas team has paid off, but he has only one top-five finish (the first Pocono race) in the last 13 races.
Juan Pablo Montoya (x): He made racing history as the first Hispanic driver to be a Chaser. He is winless this year, but in his third year in the Cup series, he's settled in as a top-10 finisher.
Greg Biffle (3): He is another Chaser with no wins this year. Last year's strong showing and his comfort level at New Hampshire suggest he could be a threat this year.i
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