Small World After Y’all

Hard-core NASCAR fans are bemoaning the loss of historic racetracks and dates, especially the Southern 500 at Darlington, but they may be missing a point: the Nextel Cup tilt westward.

The top three drivers in NASCAR’S Chase for the Championship, which will end Sunday with the Ford 400 on Homestead-Miami Speedway’s 1.5-mile oval, have West Coast backgrounds. Series leader Kurt Busch is from Las Vegas, and Jimmie Johnson is from El Cajon. Jeff Gordon was born and grew up in Vallejo before moving to Indiana.

Busch has an 18-point margin over Johnson, who is three up on Gordon. Still with mathematical hopes are Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin.

Busch took a strong step Friday toward winning his first championship for Jack Roush’s Ford stable when he took the pole with a lap of 179.319 mph.

Shockingly, Johnson was unable to find speed in his Chevrolet. His speed of 175.029 forced him to take a provisional starting position and he will start the 400-mile race from the 39th spot, which means he will have to get through a lot of traffic before he can run among the leaders.

Chevy driver Earnhardt, fourth in the standings, also qualified poorly, at 177.101, and will start 16th. He is 72 points behind Busch, however, and never has a driver come from more than 30 points behind in the final race to win it all.

Alan Kulwicki was 30 behind Davey Allison in 1992. Allison crashed in the last race, in Atlanta, leaving it to Kulwicki and Bill Elliott. Elliott won the race but Kulwicki finished second and won the title by 10 points, the bonus he got for having led the most laps. That 10-point margin remains the closest in NASCAR history.

Besides being from the West Coast, the three leading Chase contenders joined NASCAR with nontraditional backgrounds.

Busch tagged along after his racing father to the dirt-track bullrings in Southern Nevada before he began racing himself, at 14. He drove his first race in dwarf cars at Pahrump Valley Speedway, a dirt track west of Las Vegas.

“It’s definitely a unique opportunity to have the chance to come from the West Coast to the primary background where all of our racing began,” Busch said. “To grow up in Vegas, to race some of the dirt tracks and attract some attention that helped get me here is just an amazing story.”

Busch has no illusions, though, about becoming a Las Vegas icon if he wins the championship in only his fourth year in the series.

“I think if I were to obtain the championship and take the trophy back to Las Vegas, people would be more worried where the next buffet line was or where they could get some free slots than they would be about me and the trophy.”

Johnson became a racer as a teenager in desert races in Nevada and Baja California. His idols were Walker Evans and Ivan Stewart, legends of off-road desert racing.

“I was very happy racing trucks in the desert and the Mickey Thompson stadium races and really didn’t have my eye on anything else,” Johnson said. “It was only after the stadium series folded and there were cutbacks in desert racing that I started thinking about Indy cars. I figured that if Rick Mears could come from the desert to win in open-wheel cars that maybe I could it too.

“When nothing materialized in the IRL or CART, some Chevrolet people asked me if I would be interested in testing a stock car. That led to a few ASA races and then Jeff Gordon approached me about driving one of the Hendrick team cars.”

The personable youngster from El Cajon is in only his third Cup season and is only 18 points behind the leader. He is still pinching himself at his good fortune.

“A championship at this level is all that I’ve ever wanted since I was a kid,” Johnson said. “Growing up in Southern California racing in the desert, all I would do was watch and at the time it was Jeff Gordon winning the championships. I thought, ‘How in the world could I get there?’

“I was out there in the Nevada desert and it was 120 degrees and I was beating around in an off-road truck wondering what it would take to get to that level. I didn’t know the first thing about racing stock cars. I remember going to my first [stock car] race at Peach State [Speedway] and I spun out five times and didn’t hit anything.

“Now I’m getting ready for the biggest race of my life. I’m fortunate to have Jeff Gordon at my side. He keeps reminding me I’ve just got to go out and run my own race, put out my best effort and go from there. Considering we were 247 points behind after four races in the Chase, we’re just pleased with how far we’ve come back.”

Gordon, who qualified his Chevy fifth, has been one of racing’s most precocious drivers. He began racing karts when he was 5, then went on to three-quarter midgets in Northern California. At 16, he was the youngest driver ever licensed by the U.S. Auto Club and when he was 19 he became USAC’s youngest champion in a midget.

“Growing up in Indiana, after we left Vallejo, I dreamed of racing in the Indianapolis 500,” Gordon said. “It was only after I got no invites from open-wheel car owners that I did what I thought was my best option. That turned out to be NASCAR and things couldn’t have worked out better.”

Not with four championships and close to $70 million in 11 years.

Before Kulwicki came from Wisconsin to win the Cup in 1992, it had been almost impossible for a driver to contend for the championship unless he was from the Carolinas, Tennessee or Alabama. Ernie Irvan and Richard Brooks came from California, but NASCAR drew most of its stars from the Southeast.

How things have changed. Of the 43 drivers qualified for Sunday’s Ford 400, 11 are Westerners. Greg Biffle, of Vancouver, Wash., will start alongside Busch on the front row. Others are Kasey Kahne, Enumclaw, Wash., fourth; Kevin Harvick, Bakersfield, ninth; Mike Bliss, Milwaukie, Ore., 12th; Brendan Gaughan, Las Vegas, 17th; Boris Said, Carlsbad, 32nd; Robby Gordon, Cerritos, 33rd; and Casey Mears, Bakersfield, provisional.

Southern racing sites have fared no better. North Carolina tracks of long standing at North Wilkesboro and Rockingham have been closed, and California Speedway and Phoenix have been given two races a year. Las Vegas and Infineon at Sears Point are NASCAR’s other western Cup tracks.

One of the losses that cut deeply into the old-timers’ psyches was the Southern 500. Darlington’s traditional Labor Day weekend date was given to California Speedway and although Darlington ran its traditional race last weekend, it was the last. Next year, not only will there be no Labor Day race for Darlington, there will be no Southern 500. Phoenix has what was Darlington’s second race, leaving only the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 in May for the South Carolina track.

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What It Takes to Win

The top five drivers in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup standings are separated by only 82 points. Kurt Busch holds an 18-point lead over Jimmie Johnson. The race winner earns 180 points, the 43rd and last finisher earns 34 points. There are two five-point bonuses, one for leading a lap, the other for leading the most laps.

Here is what it will take for the contenders to win the championship in Sunday’s Ford 400, the season finale at Miami-Homestead Speedway:

* Busch will be the champion, no matter who wins the race, if he finishes second and earns five bonus points.

* Johnson can win the Cup if he wins the race and gets 10 bonus points, and Busch finishes second without leading a lap, or finishes third without leading a lap, or finishes fourth or lower.

* Jeff Gordon can win if he wins the race and collects a maximum 10 bonus points, and Busch finishes third or lower and does not lead a lap, or finishes fourth or lower and leads a lap, or finishes fifth or lower.

* Dale Earnhardt Jr. can win if he wins the race and gets the 10 bonus points, and Busch finishes 15th or lower, Johnson 10th or lower and does not lead a lap, and Gordon finishes ninth or lower and does not lead a lap.

* If Mark Martin wins the race and gets 10 bonus points, he needs Busch to finish 19th or lower and not lead a lap, Johnson to finish 13th or lower and not lead a lap and Gordon to finish 12th or lower and not lead a lap.

How about a five-way tie?

It will happen if Martin wins but doesn’t lead the most laps, Earnhardt finishes second and leads a lap or finishes third and leads the most laps, Gordon finishes 13th, Johnson 14th and Busch 20th.

Each will then have 6,449 points.

In that scenario, Johnson will be the champion because he won the most races, eight. Earnhardt has won six, Gordon five and Martin one.

-- Shav Glick