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What a couple weeks it's been for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.
The Chase opens with Clint Bowyer dominating at New Hampshire to score his first career Nextel Cup win and then Carl Edwards scores his first career Chase win at Dover.
I said at the beginning of the season that this Chase would be wide open and it turns out I was correct. The top five (Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Bowyer) are within 28 points of each other, while Martin Truex and Jeff Burton (seventh and eighth) are just 46 and 75 points out respectively.
I said in the first column I wrote this year that Jeff Burton would claim his first Nextel Cup Series Title and present car owner Richard Childress with his seventh title as an owner (long-time NASCAR fans know Childress won six with the late Dale Earnhardt) and I'm still sticking with Burton, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Bowyer raising the Nextel Cup when the season ends at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
With that in mind, Bowyer joined the media on Tuesday for the annual weekly teleconference leading up to the Life Lock 400 at Kansas Speedway (which is Bowyer's home track).
"The win at New Hampshire makes it a lot more exciting heading home and not being in search of my first win," Bowyer said. "I would have loved to have been in the points lead heading into this. That was my goal and I think it would've been so cool to be able to head to my home track in the pint's lead."
Bowyer says the feeling of being in the middle of a championship battle heading to his home state is awesome.
"It's really exciting just to think about even having a shot at the championship," Bowyer said. "This is only our second year at Richard Childress Racing in the Jack Daniels Chevrolet so it's a dream come true.
"We escaped Dover with a decent finish and dodged a lot of bullets," Bowyer continued. "By doing that, it enabled us to stay in the hunt and be able to roll into our home track right in the thick of things, which is a lot of fun."
Bowyer said there's a ton of pressure in competing for the title.
"It's a huge deal, you're racing for the Nextel Cup Championship," he said. "Winning your first race or any race is very prestigious so it was very exciting for me."
Bowyer relayed his thoughts on the crash between Kyle Petty and Denny Hamlin where he picked up collateral damage.
"There are things you can't afford to do when you're racing for a championship," he said. "It was just a dumb thing that could've taken both of us out of championship contention and it could've been avoided. It ruined any chance I had of a win.
"Give and take goes a long way on a racetrack and I had caught Denny," he continued. "but he flat out made a mistake and everybody makes them at one time or another. He flat out ran over Kyle.
"Other driver's don't have to get out of your way on the racetrack, it's call racing," he said.
"Kyle has just as much right as Denny does to be on the track."
There you have it folks, some very interesting comments by Bowyer. There was a lot more to it, but I touched on the major issues.
GREEN FLAG:
I have to disagree with NASCAR on its decision to dock Carl Edwards 25 points for being to low in the right rear area after his win at Dover.
I mean come on, how can NASCAR tell if it was intentional or accidental.
According to Edwards it could've happened at the end of the race.
"The only thing I can think of is (teammate) Greg (Biffle) came up and gave me a couple love taps to say 'good job, good race' and hopefully they find that bent the tail of the car down a little bit," he told reporters after the race.
"There are some braces bent under the decklid so hopefully that's what it is."
I don't know what happened, but I, for one, don't think it was anything intentional, especially since Dover is a downforce track and the rear area isn't as prevalent as it is at other places.
CHECKERED FLAG:
He picked up his first career win at New Hampshire and he's returning home this weekend. My pick is the driver of the #07 Jack Daniels, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driven by Clint Bowyer
Potts can be reached at jpotts@timesleaderonline.com