“You can’t win a pissing contest with a skunk.” Richard Childress

DOVER, DE – In only the second race, The Chase is firming up to be a competitive contest in 2010. After Clint Bowyer’s win at Las Vegas last week, NASCAR impounded the car and was concerned that the rear left was out-of-spec. Following a meeting at RCR last Wednesday, NASCAR imposed some strict fines on Bowyer and RCR including a deduction of 150 driver points (dropping Bowyer from 2nd to last place in the Chase), 150 owner points, a $150,000 penalty, and 6-race suspension of Crew Chief Shane Wilson. Car Chief Chad Haney was also suspended for 6 races. RCR has appealed the decision. But the excitement didn’t end there. During a press conference on Friday, Denny Hamlin commented on the integrity of the RCR organization. “Everyone has known it for months… they knew it was wrong” stated Hamlin. He continued, “They are lucky to be in The Chase.” In a seemingly retaliatory move, Kevin Harvick, clipped Hamlin’s rear bumper and cut him off in practice resulting in both cars return to the garage area for repairs. Tempers flew as Harvick and Hamlin exchanged curse words. Commenting on the incident, Richard Childress stated "When you're talking about comments, you can't win a pissing match with a skunk," Childress said in obvious reference to Hamlin. "There are two things I've learned. One thing is that. The other is that you don't throw stones if you live in a glass house."


On Sunday, it appeared that the incident may have affected Hamlin as he was only able to finish ninth. Good enough to remain in first place, but only 35 points of race-winner Jimmie Johnson. AJ Allmendinger ran an impressive race leading 143 laps until a leaking rear tire knocked him from the lead and sending him two laps down and a 10th place finish. Clint Bowyer had a bad day with a 12th place finish. Tony Stewart incurred a pit-speeding penalty and a pit strategy error dropping him to 21st place.

But the real story was Jimmie Johnson. It seemed to be a picture-perfect weekend. Qualifying for the pole, Johnson was never out of the top tem positions. “Qualifying went well,” Johnson said of his Dover weekend. “Our goal was to come in and qualify well. It starts the ball in motion. It starts kind of the trend for the team, just the arc of what the team is going to deal with. If you qualify badly, you're in such a hole from pit-road pick to what takes place on track, its stuff to overcome. We met our goals this weekend, moved up a lot today.”
Denny Hamlin remains in the Top of The Chase 35 points ahead of Johnson. Kurt Busch is in third place followed by Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. Next week should be exciting with Denny Hamlin in the sights of Jimmie Johnson and the other Chase contenders.