Denny Hamlin

Before you completely write my credibility off, or think I've totally gone of the deep end, hear me out. If I was betting the farm, I would take Jimmie Johnson. Luckily, there is no money on this, so I decided to go out on a limb, I mean Johnson has lose a championship at some point right? Seriously though, he will probably find another way to win his 6th straight title, but how boring would that be. It's more fun to talk about how last season showed, he does have some weaknesses.

Denny Hamlin won at Texas for the second time this season to take over the lead in the closest three-way Chase for the Sprint Cup yet with two races left. Hamlin moved in front with 29 laps to go, then got a push from Matt Kenseth on the final restart with three laps to go Sunday. Kenseth pushed ahead momentarily before Hamlin got right back in front and went on to his series-best eighth victory of the season. Emporia Native Clint Bowyer finished seventh at the race. His #33 car finished just over 300 laps of the race, but still hangs back 367 points of the Sprint Cup lead.

NASCAR heads to the home of horse power this weekend Detroit, Michigan. Okay, technically it's Brooklyn, but its close enough that this a big deal for all the manufactures, as they are racing in the shadow of the big 3. The track went through a repaving before the June race and it had mixed results. "There was virtually no passing, and there was only one groove," said Kevin Harvick. Kasey Kahne agreed, but has hope for this weekend's return, "The repaving made the groove a lot narrower.

So NASCAR heads to my home track, the Kansas Speedway. I still remember what this area was like before they built this monstrous track on the gateway to the great plains. They will be repaving and reconfigure this track as soon as the race is over on Sunday. And this is the only time that this race will be run in the spring (the normal dates are summer and fall). So I asked a couple of the drivers, can you use the notes you have and will you learn any thing this week that they can us when they return?

Welcome to the half-way point in the chase. It seems almost poetic that we will race at what is almost the half-way point in the country the Kansas Speedway this season and that the Chase field has been cut nearly in half. Only six of the 12 drivers that qualified for the chase for the championship are with in the points you can make up in one race, with sixth place Greg Biffle 43 points back. (The most points you can make up in one race is 47, you win and lead the most laps and the leader finishes 43rd, 48-1 is 47)

Making excellent use of a fresh set of tires, Denny Hamlin drove through the field after a pit stop on Lap 134 and won Saturday's Kroger 200 Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway in his only start this year. Ron Hornaday Jr. ran second to make a small dent in the advantage on series points leader Austin Dillon, who finished third. Johnny Sauter ran fourth, followed by rookie Joey Coulter and Kevin Harvick. The victory was Hamlin's first in the series in 12 starts, adding the driver of the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota to the list of drivers, now 23 in number, who have won at least one race in each of NASCAR's top three series.

There's two things you know about me if you read this blog on a regular basis. First, I'm a Denny Hamlin fan. I don't talk about it a lot, I mean I am a professional reporter. But all of us, whether we admit it or not have our favorites. We are, after all human. Second, I am a big believer that the key to winning a championship is the crew chief. I mean all the cars at the top teams are top flight, all the drivers can drive. In today's NASCAR winning a championship has become more and more about making critical calls.

Sunday's race at the Auto Club Speedway was quite an exciting affair or so I heard. I didn't actually get to watch the race. I was instead listing as I was driving back from covering the Wichita State women in the NCAA tournament. And I didn't get to hear the end of the race. Believe it or not there is no radio station in the beautiful town of Oklahoma City that carries the race and I lost both the radio signal and 3G service at the same time. Just my luck. Thankfully, I had enough of a signal to see Twitter.

So if you have seen some of the series top drivers like say Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton or Jamie McMurray, please let me know. There might just be a reward for their whereabouts. In all seriousness, each has shown a flash of the greatness they have shown in recent season.but all three are already in serious trouble when it comes to the points. And I don't know about you, but for me it's really kind of a shock. After all Hamlin, came with in a hair of winning the championship, Biffle is constant contender, Burton is the pillar of constancy and McMurray is most peoples eyes is the reason the changed the chase rules.