On Friday afternoon in Fontana, California the Sprint Cup drivers took to the track, qualifying for Sunday's Pepsi 500.

Five of the first six drivers were Chase drivers and of those drivers, Denny Hamlin sat on the pole with a lap of 183.8 mph. That lap was never contested and Hamlin will lead the field to green on Sunday.

 Dale Earnhardt Jr. whose car looked good in the first practice struggled in qualifying with a lap of 179.1mph. He will have to drive his way through the pack starting in 38th.

One driver who had a very good qualifying run was Richard Petty Motorsports driver A.J. Allmendinger who laid down a fast lap 181.4 mph. Allmendinger will start 13th on Sunday and is the highest starting Dodge.

Kevin Harvick continued his team's turnaround with a strong qualifying run that had him starting seventh on Sunday.

The king of pole's in 2009 Mark Martin, who has seven going into today's qualifying did not win the pole but did qualify ninth.

Juan Pablo Montoya who is considered the dark horse by many smacked the wall pretty hard during his qualifying lap but still will start in the fourth position.

David Reutimann was the first and only driver to really threaten Hamlin for the pole he was able to lay down a lap of 183.1 mph. His fast lap earned him a start on the outside pole.

During post qualifying inspection Reutimann's time was disallowed for illegal rear shocks. Instead of starting on the outside pole, he will start 42nd.

 Kyle Busch has been battling the flu will go to the rear on Sunday after losing an engine during the first practice. They qualified 19th.

The final threat for the pole was Jimmie Johnson, but Johnson was unable to snag the pole. He ran a lap of 183.6 mph good enough for starting third on Sunday.

For the rest of the Chasers starting in the top 12, Greg Biffle will start second, Jeff Gordon in 10th, Carl Edwards in 11th.

The rest of the Chasers starting with Tony Stewart, will start 20th, Kurt Busch in 24th, Kasey Kahne in 25th, Brian Vickers in 33rd and Ryan Newman in 37th.

A interesting observationduring qualifying. At first you would think that an early draw would be a disadvantage to the drivers, but as we saw some of the later qualifiers really struggled with their cars.

One of the constant comments that we heard throughout qualifying was the track lack of grip and turn one. The drivers who could find grip during their qualifying they ran better laps.

Track position is so important on Sunday, that a solid qualifying run will go a long way on Friday.

For the Chasers it's even more important to start in or near the top 10.  For seven of those drivers they accomplished just that.

For the remaining five drivers, Saturday's two practices will be very important for them.

Of the go or go homers only Mike Wallace and Tony Raines will be heading back east tonight.

Now all the teams look to Saturday and getting the cars ready for Sunday.

With the chilly weather of fall approaching us, we are reminded that October is breast cancer awareness month.

NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte and his sponsor Ask.com have teamed up with Susan G. Komen, to promote awareness and raise money to find a cure.

Just like in NASCAR, the numbers do not lie. Breast cancer is fatal, but if caught in the early stages, there is still hope.

Statistics state that one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer.

Within a year, 40,170 women will die, making breast cancer the second leading killer among women.

Men can also be diagnosed with breast cancer. This year alone 1,910 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 440 of those men will die.

To honor all the those who have been affected by cancer, on October 1^st NASCAR fans can log on to Ask.com and register a woman’sor a man's name to be put on Labonte’s car.

You can also submit a tribute to your loved one in the process. The paint scheme will debut for the upcoming race at Lowes Motorspeedway in October.

It is a free tribute to honor survivors, those living with breast cancer or in memoriam of those who lost the battle against breast cancer.

Ask.com has committed that one million dollars of the money raised will go towards finding a cure.

The sooner a cure is found, the sooner one less daughter loses a mother one less mother loses a sister, and one less wife loses a husband to breast cancer.

No matter what number your favorite driver is, one less victim of breast cancer is a number we all should be rooting for.

Please, log on to Ask.com on October 1^st and submit your loved ones’ names to honor them.

 

 

Finally the actual race and all the talk of championships and pressure and strategy is put to the side at least for the drivers. They get to work and do what they do best, that's race to win.

With all the anticipation and the buzz surrounding what is a wide open Chase, see which drivers were the winners and which were the losers.

Winners

Mark Martin

Leading the points in the first race of the Chase is not always the best position to be in. For Mark Martin though he was relaxed and wasn't worrying about points, he was focused on the race.

Martin started 14th after a disappointing qualifying. They weren't the best car early in the race. Martin dropped back early to as far back as 16th but a stellar first pit stop put them into the top 10. After that stop they never ran outside the top again.

Martin gave feedback when needed and worked traffic perfectly. He survived the multiple late race cautions and a hard charging Juan Pablo Montoya. 

The win secured him the top position in the chase and only lost him five points from where he started on Sunday.

Martin gives credit to everyone around him, but face it, he is the favorite for the Championship right now.

That is all that matters.

Points: First

Clint Bowyer

For Clint Bowyer not making the Chase was a tough blow to a driver who had made the las two Chase. This year he can play spoiler without the pressure the Chase brings. On Sunday Bowyer quietly ran a great race, and a top 10 finish to show for it.

Bowyer started a little off on their setup. They were struggled with a loose race car early but Bowyer was able to give good information on what he needed in his car. Bowyer got great track position after a series of solid pit stops.

At one point he was running in the top three battling for the lead. He fell back in the end to 10th but let it be known Bowyer won't go down quietly even if he won't win a championship.

His impressive today should only fuel this team not only for the remainder of this year, but to get them back into the Chase next year.

Points: 15th

Elliott Sadler

What a run for Elliott Sadler, we know he can run well on the restrictor plate tracks. Sadler hasn't shown strength on intermediate and short tracks. Today though they struggled with a race car early but Sadler was able to give solid feedback to his crew.

They battled track position all day long but when it counted and mattered most they were able to hold position through the late restarts. An eighth place finish is exactly what this team needed to change momentum.

Sadler has a lot riding on the final 10 races and even though he has a ride secured he has never been a contender for a championship.

That starts right now for Sadler.

Points: 24th

Losers

Kasey Kahne

During Kasey Kahne weekly press conference he seemed a bit unsure of who was in charge at Richard Petty Motorsports. With many questions unanswered and no real leadership Kahne could only name Kenny Francis as the one he turns to.

One of the questions was the engine department, this week the engine shop director was let go and that was not was the reason for an engine failure. Let's be honest though this engine failure should make Kahne nervous going forward. 

What momentum they had coming into today has all but disappeared.

Kahne early on was moving forward but sensed there was an issue on the backstretch he could hear the engine missing. Few seconds later the engine blew and their day was over.

They dropped all the way to 12th in the standings and that would be the best they would be able to do.They would finish 38th.

Kahne needs leadership and while Francis is a strong leader, if they want to have success in the chase there needs to be a man pulling the strings from behind the curtain.

Otherwise Kahne might be an afterthought in the Chase.

Points: 12th

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

With all the focus on the Chase drivers, there are a few drivers that are already looking to improve for next year. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is one of those drivers, but in recent weeks they have been showing improvement on the track.

Earnhardt started mid pack but quickly was moving forward, in 50 laps he was in the top 10. He was running in the top five before halfway.

This team has seen a turnaround and they are running better. Earnhardt had flawless pit stops and the feedback to the team allowed them to keep up on the car.

Earnhardt and his team are communicating the best he has all year long with his Lance McGrew his crew chief.

The results though don't show that.As we have seen throughout the year trouble on a late restart David Reutimann got into Earnhardt who went hard into the wall.

This should have been a solid top 10 finish turn into a 27th place finish. This was not of his doing with drivers checking up in front of him, he had nowhere to go.

Earnhardt fans should start to feel better progress is being made, albeit too late for 2009.

Points: 21st

David Stremme

As we took the green flag on Sunday the top ten was covered with Chase drivers but a couple drivers had surprising qualifying laps and one of them was David Stremme.

They were using the same setup that Kurt Busch had in his car, and the speed proved that. They were top five in practice, and were looking forward to racing on Sunday.

He ran up front for the first 100 laps but soon began to fall backwards. The handling on this car was going away and the adjustments on pit road were sending them backward.

Then on lap 193 there was contact with AJ Allmendinger sent him spinning. He ended up two laps down and finished 28th.

Stremme is out of a ride at the end of this year and is auditioning for his future in this sport.

Points: 31st

Lucky Dog...

 

Bobby Labonte

When the weekend began Bobby Labonte was fighting to get into the race. After a stellar qualifying lap that put him eighth, Labonte was in.

The question that remained was would he race all 300 laps? With limited sponsorship they didn't have enough money for pit crew or tires.

Labonte a former champion went to work and through negotiations he was able to secure enough money to complete the race. It paid off as he ended up leading the race at one point.

You know it's a tough economy when a former champion is struggling to run a full race. Labonte shouldn't have been in this position but a sponsorship deal with his other car No. 96 saw him in a car he hasn't driven before late in the year.

For Labonte if he had a great ride who knows what the results would be, but that is one too many ifs at this point in his career.

Points: 29th

Final Lap...

The first race is over and the standings had a major shakeup and this won't be the last time this happens.

We saw what was expected the Chase drivers dominated both the good and the bad stories on Sunday.The race was pretty good we saw some great battles throughout the field..

The coverage though was less than impressive, for the first race of the playoffs. ESPN seemed to be struggling with covering not only the Chasers but everyone else.

Sometimes they were so focused on the Chasers they were missing the good racing back in the pack.

The post race coverage was pitiful by ESPN.

I know it is football season but if you want to make the Chase relevant the TV coverage needs to improve. NASCAR fans want to hear from their drivers. The least they could do is talk to the Chase drivers if nothing else.

Don't want to miss football coverage then cut the pre race show down that way NASCAR fans get everything they want also.

Next up is Dover, who will rebound? Who will play spoiler? Who will take checkers?

See you next Sunday.

For Michael Waltrip, the final 10 races are the final act, as he prepares for a part-time ride in 2010. Waltrip is handing over not only a full-time ride but a sponsor in

NAPA that has been loyal to not only Waltrip but to the organization as a whole.

NAPA moved from a well-established Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Waltrip and his struggling, young organization that was started from the ground up. NAPA watched the organization struggle and now as they build toward the future.

The future really does start this week, as this team prepares for not only the rest of 2009 but next year.

 Sunday marked Waltrip's 750th career start, a incredible accomplishment in a sport where you can be the "It" driver one year and without a ride the next.

On Friday, Waltrip struggled in qualifying trim; he ran a fast lap of 20.2 seconds. Running 24 laps he was sitting 31st on the speed charts.

 Waltrip had an early draw for qualifying going out fifth. He had a decent qualifying that scored them 21st in the lineup. A decent starting position should have given them something to build off. In the second practice of the weekend, the team was working on race trim and finding the handling and setup for the car.

 They ran 26 laps and their fastest lap was on lap 16. They ran 20.5 second lap was good enough for 19th on the charts. Signs of improvement as the practice wore on. With final practice coming up like everyone else, it’s all about race trim and getting a game plan.

Waltrip, though, struggled in final practice. They ran only 22 laps and their fastest lap was his second lap of the final practice. With a time of 29.8 seconds, Waltrip was only 38th fastest at the end of the hour.

Not a good way to head to the green on Sunday, struggling with the handling of the car late in practice. After the green flag waved on Sunday the car quickly started slipping backwards.

On Lap 23, Waltrip told his crew chief the “car is as bad as it could possibly handle.” He was loose in, chattering in the center, and too much air in the front tires.

 On Lap 34, Waltrip was 33rd and was in danger of going a lap down. Just a handflul of laps later, he was one lap down.

When the first caution came out, he was 33rd and one lap down; after air pressure adjustments he came out exactly in the same position. On the second caution for debris, the car was still loose, but it had good drive off and better in the center.

 Waltrip was frustrated but they were the first car one lap down and were hoping for a quick caution to get them back on the lead lap and back in the hunt. The cars’ handling, though, had them going backwards, and they went down two laps.

On lap 168, Waltrip got caught up in a chain-reaction wreck with Joey Logano and Elliott Sadler causing slight damage to the car. Waltrip was able to change tires make repairs and stay just two laps down.

With no other cars one lap down, they were in line to get one of the laps back if a caution came out. When caution came out, they got the lucky dog and were the second car one lap down, behind Scott Speed.

They soon fell back down two laps; effectively their day was over. Waltrip was never able to get back on the lead lap, and with a poor handling race car, the results was a 27th-place finish and the first car two laps down.

It has been a long time since we have seen Waltrip run up front consistently and contend for wins. Sunday’s like this have come to often for Waltrip and has made his choice to go into semi-retirement a little bit easier. Waltrip is looking ahead to Dover and rebounding from another poor finish.

Check out Jen Preston's Lugnut Report on Kurt Busch.

For the last couple years the Chase has, to put it nicely, been lackluster.  With no drama leading up to the Chase and the fleeting drama during the first few races, the Chase has been  far from exciting. 

In recent years, two drivers end up pulling away from the rest of the field. In 2007 Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson battled the entire season and in the Chase, Johnson won it all.

In 2008 it was all about Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards until the Chase. When it came down to the final races of the year, Busch struggled and Edwards and Johnson were battling for the championship. Johnson won again but Edwards did not go down easy.

The Chase field is 12 drivers; the very best of this sport battling it out for the championship.

The result is through bad luck or poor runs, week by week the championship comes down to one or two drivers.

2009 will be different.  I believe what we have been seeing is the buildup for one of the best Chase series since its inception in 2004.

So far in 2009 the competition has been at its best, with 13 different winners.  35 different drivers have scored top 10 finishes.

When the Chase starts in a week, seven different organizations will be represented in the Chase, an increase from the four organizations that were represented in 2008.

The struggling car manufacturers in 2009 are all well represented with every manufacturer having a car in the playoffs.  In 2008 Dodge was the only manufacturer to not have a car represented.

Unlike years past, only 40 points could separate the first place seeded driver and the last place driver. That could change if Busch makes the Chase and wins at Richmond, or if Mark Martin wins then it will be 50.

With the possibility that only 50 points separate the Chase drivers at New Hampshire, every race in the Chase will be critical. Minimizing mistakes will be crucial for the contenders to keep in touch with the leader.

Now usually the point spread has been as large if not larger of a gap. The difference this year is the competition is at its best.

Last year after the point reset, five of the 12 drivers had not won a race.

Meanwhile, Kasey Kahne was on the outside looking in with two wins and still missed the Chase. This year Busch could be the driver looking in with four wins.

We will still run into the same issues that we have seen in past Chases For instance, one bad race can knock a driver out of contention, but one good race can put a driver back into contention.

Take the Atlanta race; if you look at the top 10, most of the drivers were Chase contenders, often including David Reutimann, Busch or Brian Vickers who all still have a shot at making the Chase.

The close competition also plays a lot into the fact of this new car, lack of testing and strict rules that put both the driver and the crew chief in a box.  Because of that the speeds and times are so close no team has an advantage.

Last year Edwards won the most races during the season and the Chase, but Johnson won the trophy. In 2007 Gordon was one of the most consistent drivers all year long, but in the Chase Johnson won the most races and won the trophy.

In 2009 to win the championship, a driver has to be both consistent and win a fair amount of races. For the first time in the Chase though, consistency might be the deciding factor.

With only two drivers having the possibility of not winning, the points spread is close and the 12th place driver coming in could be leading the standings by the checkered flag at Loudon.

This weekend’s race at Richmond will be the most important race of the year, for 15 drivers. Some drivers will be fighting for bonus points, while others will be fighting for their season.

History could be made this year.

Can Johnson win four in a row?

Will Tony Stewart be the first owner/driver since Alan Kulwicki to win the championship?

Can Gordon finally win his fifth title, in a hall of fame career?

Can Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman or Juan Pablo Montoya pull out an upset and win their first title?Can Kyle Busch race his way in? Or will Vickers?

These questions will have to be answered. Richmond this weekend begins to answer some of these questions.

Even so there will the critics who still are not happy with the current system.

Think about it without the Chase, Stewart has this title run all but finished.

Where is the drama in that?

There is no excitment when your driver is 400 points out of first and they are sitting in fourth, fifth, or sixth place.

Why tune in and watch, when it was over in September?

Criticizing the Chase has increased in popularity over the years for good reason. It’s not perfect and changes could be made, but this year the Chase might take us by surprise. 

As far as competition goes, it can make or break the success of the Chase, but in 2009, it could be the best we have seen yet.

The Chase brings drama and this year the drama has been building for the last two months. Now fans can sit back and cheer on their favorite drivers as they battle for our sports biggest prize.