It is Wednesday and I am still bored from the Talladega race Sunday afternoon. What an embarrassment for NASCAR. Many of NASCAR's critics already knock the "left turn only circuit" for being akin to watching the dryers at the laundramat.

After NASCAR dropped the "no bump drafting in the turns" bomb at last weekend, it seems the drivers collectively decided to make the race as boring as possible by falling in line quickly and just riding out the 500 miles "at 50% throttle," according to Jimmy Johnson during the race. It was boring. No exciting position battles, and very few 2, 3 or even 4 wide battles.

The draw to restrictor plate races like, Talladega and Daytona, is the mass of machinery racing by at nearly 200 mph. If the fans get nervous watching cars race 6 inches from each other, 3 wide, 10 rows deep going into the corners at 180 mph, then they can only imagine what the drivers must be going through. That's fun. That's what racing is all about. I can put a grandma in a stock car, tell her to put her foot to the floor, get in line, and just follow the car in front of you. Where's the fun in that?

Of course fans like to see wrecks. That is just like fans wanting to see a fight at a hockey game. It's exciting. It's fun. NO ONE should ever WANT to see Ryan Newman get cut out of his car. But fans like to see a little more action than Max Papis spinning out alone in turn 3 because his team isn't good enough to give him a competitive car and he is overdriving it at every turn.

The bump drafting in the corners is obviously a safety issue, but I think the drivers made their point and the fans echoed that point Sunday, that the drivers are smart enough and responsible enough to take care of business among themselves and keep it "in house" and not have Big Daddy NASCAR threaten to penalize someone for RACING hard in the corners.

I think NASCAR made one rule modification too many this weekend and we all suffered for it.

MR Pressbox

The Chase for the Cup is more than halfway complete and everything seems to be in order for a controversy-free finish.

And, NO, Junior fans; "We would have won the championship if our engines didn't keep blowing up," isn't a valid controversy - it is sad reminder that DEI just isn't up to Tier 1 competition yet and a lame excuse.

Teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson (-53) are running away with the title - fighting over it back and forth (figuratively and literally) as the Chase continues. Clint Bowyer (-115), however, is still lurking in striking distance, but is one bad race away from leaving Gordon and Johnson alone at the top.

Farther back are Tony Stewart (-249), Carl Edwards (-285), and Kyle Busch (-290) - who are all hoping for a Holiday Miracle to get them back into the Chase. But anything short of a Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan repeat pretty much means these guys are done.

Then there is the rest of the best; Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., and Matt Kenseth. I believe the OSCARs calls this the "Just happy to be nominated" group.

But things are falling into place, just as they should.

Gordon has six wins, Johnson has seven, and no one else has more than three wins.

Gordon has 20 top 5 finishes, Johnson 17, with Denny Hamlin (11) the only other racer with more than 10.

Gordon has 26 top 10 finishes, Johnson has 20, and only Tony Stewart (22) has more than 20 top 10s.

Gordon leads all racers with 1280 laps led to date, and Johnson has 1216. No other racer has topped 1000 laps led, although Tony Stewart is close with 980.

Not that money has anything to do with Championships (right) but Gordon has $6,531,278 and Johnson has $6,455,627. Kevin Harvick leads all racers with $6,934,224 - due to no DNFs and has completed the most laps - no other racer has earned more than $6 million so far.

Barring some epic 2004 Yankees-like collapse to the Red Sox, Gordon will either grab his fifth career title or Johnson will walk home with back-to-back titles.

And who said the Chase didn't work? Now qualifying - that's a whole different story.