NASCAR In Richmond: Denny Hamlin Wins The Last Race Before The Chase

Saturday night's Richmond race was billed as one of the few times drivers would be willing to go all-out with a chance to earn a valuable 10 bonus points for the Chase.

After all, only one driver had to worry about falling out of the Chase. The rest could theoretically drive as hard as possible and do whatever it took to win with no fear of losing points.

But when Kyle Busch had a chance to put a bumper to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin late in the race, he didn't.

Why not?

Because as Busch basically said, team unity was more valuable than those 10 points.

"We caught up to him and I thought we had something for him," Busch said. "In traffic, I could have made a ballsy move and gotten through him, but it would have made contact. I would rather have seen the Joe Gibbs cars finish 1-2."

Busch said he wanted to win (of course), but "racing teammates clean like that and not laying a bumper" to Hamlin was important in making sure everything was smooth with the JGR cars entering the Chase.

So the drama wasn't meant to be at Richmond. At Homestead, though, things might be different.

"If it does, it's going to be no holds barred," Busch said. "...If it comes down to me having to win the race in order to win the championship or if he wins the race he wins the championship, it's going to be whatever happens."

Maybe that'll make up for a disappointing night at Richmond.

Richmond turned out to be as drama-free for Clint Bowyer as promised, as the Richard Childress Racing driver easily made the Chase with a top-10 run.

Bowyer actually moved into 11th place during the race (and was 142 points ahead of 13th-place Ryan Newman), leaving Greg Biffle as the bubble driver in 12th.

But Biffle was locked in after the first start-and-park driver retired from the race and was never threatened. Bowyer still had to finish the race without trouble – and he did.

"I never was points racing, because that board is hard to read for some reason," Bowyer said of Richmond's high-tech scoring pylon. "I was trying to, and I was having trouble under caution."

Oh well. As it turned out, he was better off not worrying about it.

Bowyer ran up front for most of the night and even led 33 laps – also his car number. Though his team repeatedly told him not to be nervous, Bowyer shrugged off the pressure.

"Told me about 20 times before the race started," Bowyer said. "I said, 'Who is nervous here?'"

Ryan Newman (13th in points) finished 11th and Jamie McMurray (14th in points) was 17th. Mark Martin was eliminated early in the evening.

Newman said he was "disappointed, obviously" but was glad to have somewhat of a fresh start for the remainder of the season.

"The spotlight is off of us now and we have a chance to win 10 more," he said.

During the race, Newman said the only thing he could do was hope something bad happened to Bowyer's car.

"You hope for misfortune for somebody else, even though that's not nice," he said. "That's all we could do. Try to create our own destiny, and it wasn't good enough."

Newman had a top-10 run going and lost it on a slow pit stop by his crew, which caused him to express frustration after the race.

"We came in seventh or whatever in the pits and lost four spots," he said. "Story of my season. I can't make up for what they lose me. It's disappointing. It's been like that most of the season, it just doesn't get much spotlight when you're running 15th."

As for Martin, he said there was only one focus for his team heading into the final 10 races.

"Get running better – that's it," Martin said after finishing 20th. "I think we had a great race tonight, we just didn't run good enough. ... We raced our heart out."

Martin said he and Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team – the Nos. 5 and 88 teams for Hendrick Motorsports both missed the Chase – would probably try to "do different things and try to get one car going better."

"We've got to go through these corners faster," Martin said. "We'll keep working."

While fans of the top 12 drivers celebrated the end of NASCAR's regular season and looked ahead to the Chase, things hit rock bottom for Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans.

The sport's most popular driver suffered through what he called "one of my worst performances," finishing five laps down in 34th place and behind even Red Bull's Mattias Ekstrom, who had never run an oval race before.

After the race, he spent nearly 30 minutes inside his No. 88 team transporter talking with crew chief Lance McGrew before emerging to speak with a couple reporters in a near-empty garage.

"I'm just really, really disappointed," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I'm pretty upset, you know? And I think Lance feels the same way. Me and him sat in there and talked for awhile. We're both pretty beat up about how the car performed after what we saw in practice and everything."

Earnhardt Jr. and his Hendrick Motorsports team had tested at the Gresham Motorsports Park short track in preparation for Richmond and felt optimistic they had hit on something positive. When Earnhardt Jr. qualified ninth for Saturday's race, the team's optimism only grew.

And then the race started.

Earnhardt Jr. went backward and backward some more. He said his car was so tight off of Turn 4, "I was just getting killed. The guys were beating the shit out of me."

The team tried to make changes, but Earnhardt Jr. knew it was going to be an impossible battle within the first few laps.

"We did everything we could trying to get the car even mediocre at best, but couldn't do anything with it," he said. "... Even though we were going to try to fix it, I knew the chances of us hitting on anything were real slim to zero."

Overall, Earnhardt Jr. said, "We were trying something new and it just didn't work out."

The team had a new rear spring package and front spindles it had never run before, he said, all in attempt to find something – anything – that would improve the team.

"Running like we've been running all year long ain't good enough, so we figured we'd try to go in a different direction, and it was a bad choice tonight," he said. "We're going testing on Monday (at Homestead), and we'll do as much testing as we can do the rest of the year to figure out what's wrong and to get a package that will work."

In the meantime? Earnhardt Jr. said he didn't know what else to say.

"You've got to go home and figure out how to get over it real quick," he said. "Show up and go to work Monday.

"I'm going to go to the Redskins game (Sunday). Maybe that will cheer me up. If they get their ass kicked, that's not going to be good. Monday will be a bad day."

This is it. It's time for the Chase field to be set, and we're live at Richmond overlooking all the action.

Chat with other fans and compare notes on the race, the TV broadcast and anything else you want to talk about.

Make sure you have the auto-refresh box clicked to see the latest comments from other fans and SB Nation's Jeff Gluck.

Enjoy the Saturday night racing under the lights!

Landon Cassill, who had until now been a start-and-park driver at the Sprint Cup level, will attempt his first full Sprint Cup race tonight at Richmond.

Cassill, driving for TRG Motorsports, has sponsorship on the No. 71 car from the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill.

"It does feel a little different," Cassill said. "We actually worked on the car in race trim. I'm preparing for a long night – that's the mindset I have."

Cassill said he feels the Chase cutoff race is the biggest event he's been in, other than Indianapolis. His family is on hand for the race.

"I want to prove to myself that I can race smart," he said. "I've always felt that I would be better at these longer races, and this is my opportunity to reap the benefits for all the hard work."

His goals for the 400-lap race are modest: Stay on the lead lap, as close to the leader is possible.

"I really want to run all the laps," he said.

Following several weeks of appearing frustrated and discouraged, a more upbeat Dale Earnhardt Jr. greeted reporters at Richmond after qualifying ninth for Saturday night's race.

Earnhardt Jr. answered questions about his goals for the rest of the season, and said he's determined to show that his team "is not a lost cause."

"I'm taking everybody's advice that's close and around me that sees what's going on – trying to do what I can to be a part of the solution, not part of the problem," he said. "Nothing's really clicking right yet. But it's not a lost cause. I still feel like there's some potential in our team. We've worked hard enough to deserve it."

Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 team began the season with high hopes after missing the Chase last season and making some personnel moves in the offseason that everyone at Hendrick Motorsports hoped would pay dividends.

And Earnhardt Jr. said particularly in the first part of the season, the team felt like, "OK, yeah, here's some things happening that are good."

"But from the halfway point on, we've been the same team we were last year," he said. "So hopefully in the next 10 races, we can try to see what it is that's missing."

Whether it's trying a setup Chase teammates Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson have requested or experimenting with a setup crew chief Lance McGrew wants to try for the 88 car, Earnhardt Jr. said fans should expect to see his team "really going crazy, trying all kinds of stuff."

"We're going to do as much testing as we can and just try to be a better team," he said. "I don't really know what the answer is to make ourselves better yet. Hopefully in the next couple months, we can figure out some of those things."

Asked if Earnhardt Jr. felt his team was perhaps only one personnel move away from winning races again, he shook his head no.

"I don't think so," he said. "I'm not sure about that. I don't have that feeling."

Because he doesn't feel close to running up front again and because of his prolonged slump, Earnhardt Jr. said it's been "real hard" to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But he said he looks at the drivers who are around him in points and feels he's in good company in terms of talent.

"I don't think I'm flailing about in the back of the pack," he said. "It's just real hard to get better for some reason."

NASCAR has reportedly told teams it is considering expanding the Chase to 15 teams next season, leading some to say officials would institute such a rule in order to get Earnhardt Jr.'s team in the playoff field.

The driver said he understands why people would say the rule is to get his team in the Chase, but called such talk "a big burden for me."

"We've been struggling and we sort of put ourselves in position to be the scapegoat for all that," he said. "...We put ourselves in position to be the punchline to that joke – and a lot of other jokes, to be honest.

"We've just gotta work harder and even if they make it 15 next year, try to finish in the top 10 and make that argument a moot point."

Earnhardt Jr. said he's willing to do whatever it takes to get better and said he remains committed to NASCAR ("I love this sport and I love being around it," he said).

"You listen to (advice from) the people that are close, and people in the (Hendrick) company – other drivers, other crew chiefs," he said. "I believe in whatever any of those guys say. I'll do whatever they tell me to do. I want to get our team better, so you're going to listen to people around you.

"Really the people that know the most about it are the people in the organization. So I trust what they tell me."

I'm not sure what the percentages are, but a lot of NASCAR fans don't like the Chase.

They want NASCAR to scrap the playoff system and revert to a season-long format (which will never happen, of course, but they want it anyway).

Personally, I think the Chase is a great idea for the sport, even if it hasn't worked out aside from the excitement of 2004, when it came down to the last lap at Homestead. If Jimmie Johnson hadn't been so dominant, perhaps the Chase would have been viewed more favorably.

A lot of fans don't share my enthusiasm. Some even get angry when I say I like the Chase.

But just when I was feeling in the minority, along came Jeff Burton to fire things up. His comments about the Chase on Friday at Richmond reminded me why NASCAR's playoff is worth following.

Read Burton's comments below and tell me if it gets you excited about the Chase. If not, perhaps we're just not meant to find common ground on this issue.

Burton on the Chase:

First of all, this is the most fun 10 weeks of the year. This is what you live for. Every time I get in the Chase, I tell myself I waited my whole life to be in this position, so that's a hell of a cool thing. It really is.

We tend to get caught up in the pressure of it, but man, we're playing a game and it's supposed to be fun. My deal is that I'm going to go race as hard as I know how to race. I'm going to ask my team to work as hard as they know how to work. We're going to work together and try to defeat problems, but we're going to have fun at it.

It's going to be intense. When you waited your whole life for something and it's in front of you, it's going to be intense, it's going to be full of emotion, and as it should be. There is going to be disappointment, there is going to be happiness, all those things and hell that's life. That's what we're doing.

I can't really say I've changed a lot other than my family knows that it's go-time. Racing is going to come first here for the next few months. My team members understand if we've got to build a car in a week-and-a-half, we're going to build a car in a week-and-a-half.

Whatever we've got to do, we're going to have to do. We ask that of everybody every week.

It's been well-documented that Jeff Gordon has yet to win a race this season. But why is that?

Why has Gordon, who has won 82 career races, failed to return to Victory Lane since the spring Texas race last year?

"I look at this season and it's strange because I feel like we're stronger this year than we've been in so many previous years – years that we've won a race or two or three," Gordon said Friday at Richmond. "Those races seem to come our way and this year they haven't. And you don't know really how to explain that.

"The racing gods? Luck on your side? Races are just more competitive? Who knows what it is. But, the facts are the facts."

Another fact is that no driver has ever won the championship without winning at least one race. And time is running out for Gordon to get to Victory Lane this season, despite being second in points.

Gordon said while it may be mathematically possible to win the title with no race victories, "realistically" it isn't.

"I think for us, for the No. 24 team, we're going to have to win," he said.

As many fans recall from earlier in the season, Gordon has been close. In several races, Gordon had what seemed like the dominant car, only to lose.

So in that respect, the four-time Cup champion believes he can "still win multiple races before this year is out."

"Rick Hendrick and I were having a conversation about this the other day," Gordon said. "We've won what, 82 times or something. You can go back through those 82 wins and think of several when you were sitting there as a third-, fourth- or fifth-place car and all of a sudden you're in Victory Lane. How the heck did we get here?

"And then you go through years like this year where I feel like Texas and Vegas and a bunch of tracks where we were the dominant car and here we are not in Victory Lane so far this year. That's just the way racing is, I guess."

Despite the negative attention that may come with a winless streak, Gordon isn't pouting. In addition to being second in the point standings, Gordon has the second-most top-five finishes, the third-best average finish and the fourth-most laps led.

"We're still on the upside with overall numbers so we're not complaining too much," he said, "but we just want to get it done this year."

Kyle Busch is pretty in pink.

Racing's bad boy, the one they call "Rowdy," is anything but that today in Richmond. Busch is wearing a pink Toyota Sponsafier race suit, the one supposedly designed by "Kimmy" in the well-known television ad.

Busch's suit is adorned with flowers, stars, butterflies and rainbow stripes, among other girly logos. And of course, the face of a kitten.

He doesn't seem to mind it one bit. In fact, he's been wearing it proudly – practically strutting – and will continue to do so if he breaks the single-season record for Nationwide victories tonight with his 11th win of the year.

"I think that would suit well for all the photos and everything," he said. "I wouldn't mind doing that."

Busch, who sat next to young actress Lennon Wynn (aka "Kimmy") in his morning media availability, will be driving the No. 18 car with a paint scheme from the commercial in the Nationwide Series race.

The ad has become well known among NASCAR fans for the line, "Who doesn't like kittens, bunnies and little baby seals?"

It's the same commercial where Kimmy tells her father "I love you," to which the dad responds appreciatively until she corrects him, "No, put that on the spoiler."

Said Busch: "Having Kimmy here to help celebrate would be pretty cool. We're looking forward to that and just being able to get going tonight. Should be fun."

Photos below: Jeff Gluck / SB Nation