Big Guys Keep It Interesting

If NASCAR officials could run the world like Adam Sandler in “Remote Control,” they would have hit the pause button on Lap 160 Sunday, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon were charging down California Speedway, fighting each other for the lead.

In a sport of names and numbers, these are the two biggest. Junior and Jeff, 8 and 24. NASCAR Nation’s favorite son and favorite target for boos.

It was a fleeting moment, as Kyle Busch took to the inside and passed them both. But after the checkered flag dropped, both Earnhardt and Gordon were very much in the picture.

So yes, it was a big weekend for Kasey Kahne. He won the Busch race Saturday night, then came back and won the showcase Nextel Cup race Sunday. But it was bigger for NASCAR.

Earnhardt and Gordon are in the thick of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, the 10-race playoff for the drivers among the top 10 in the points standings after next week’s race in Richmond, Va. Earnhardt finished second Sunday and gained three spots in the rankings, up to No. 6. Gordon finished fifth and moved up a spot to No. 4. A top-24 finish for Gordon and a top-16 finish for Earnhardt next week will clinch Chase spots.

NASCAR can’t afford a repeat of last year, when the two glamour boys finished out of the Chase. The sport has stalled coming out of the pits this year, reporting a 5% decrease in TV ratings, and its biggest breakthrough driver has been the fictional Ricky Bobby. It still has trouble selling out California Speedway in the midst of one of the nation’s largest population bases. It still hasn’t broken into the general sports conversation, gaining its best shot at mainstream talk shows when the drivers spin each other’s cars out on the track or push each other in the garage.

It risked turning into a WWE sideshow but now perhaps the focus can return to the actual competition -- and just in time to keep NASCAR relevant now that the NFL is back to take over Sundays and baseball heads toward the playoffs. It might be just enough to keep NASCAR from getting completely obliterated in the coverage of the NFL’s opening weekend and hourly updates on Terrell Owens’ hamstring.

No one in places three to 10 has locked up a spot yet, and 11th-place Kahne still has a chance to crack the Chase at someone’s expense.

“It’s doing what it was intended to do, and that’s create a lot of drama and excitement, particularly in the boring part of the season,” Earnhardt said. “It’s really made it pretty exciting.”

But seeing Kahne in the middle of Victory Lane but still sitting outside the Chase club is a reminder of what’s wrong with the system. Kahne has five victories and still doesn’t have a guaranteed spot in the Chase -- in part because he also has six finishes of 31st or worse.

“To me, it penalizes you more when you have problems that are out of your control than it rewards you when you have a good night like tonight,” said Ray Evernham, Kahne’s team owner. “It looks like every time you have problems and you finish 35th, it takes you three good finishes to make up for it.”

The other illustration came in the late laps, when those already eliminated from the Chase went for broke and stayed out on the track, while Cup-chasers made quick pit stops for a splash of gas and a couple of tires and adopted the driving equivalent of the four-corner offense.

“Those are the instances where you’re maybe not taking it easy but just being conservative,” Earnhardt said. “Don’t give up track position. If you lose to Clint Bowyer and a couple of other guys, at least you finished ahead of who you need to be ahead of. You race as hard as you ever do on the track itself, but [pit row is] where you might make different decisions. Early in the season you might go for it. Now you’ve got to be pretty conservative on the pit calls.”

Gordon decided to come back in after believing he might have some loose lug nuts after a pit stop. That took him off the lead and dropped him back into the 20s, with Earnhardt emerging at the top of the board.

You should have heard the roar from the fans when they saw that No. 8 take the top spot. (I’m sure they were listening back in NASCAR’s home office in Daytona Beach, Fla.)

I was happy to see Gordon fight his way back into the top five. I’ve been a Gordon guy ever since I met him last year and he’d have some bass-heavy rap in his CD changer if his race car came equipped with a stereo. That’s my kind of driver. Plus I love the fact that whenever he wins it ticks off all the Confederate flag-wavers who hate him because he’s more Madison Avenue than Tobacco Road.

Kahne “was going to be tough to beat, so was the No. 8,” said Gordon, who led for 42 laps. “But I think would we not have had our problems, we would have been close and had a shot at them. Hey, it was a solid night for us.”

A solid night all around. NASCAR even got to keep its version of an Andre Agassi story line. Mark Martin, 47, who is scaling back, finished 12th Sunday to move up to the ninth spot in the point standings. I asked him whether he watched Agassi’s U.S. Open swan song earlier in the day.

“Yeah,” Martin said. “It’s sad you have to get old.”

The key thing from this weekend, though, was nobody had to say goodbye to the people who matter most.

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Out in front

The top five finishers in Sunday’s HD Sony 500 race and the top five drivers in the Nextel Cup Championship chase (*-qualified):

*--* SONY HD 500 RESULTS PL DRIVER START CAR 1 Kasey Kahne 9 Dodge 2 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 6 Chevrolet 3 Clint Bowyer 3 Chevrolet 4 Carl Edwards 24 Ford 5 Jeff Gordon 14 Chevrolet

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*--* NEXTEL CUP STANDINGS PL DRIVER POINTS BEHIND 1 Matt Kenseth* 3,638 -- 2 Jimmie Johnson* 3,629 9 3 Kevin Harvick 3,296 342 4 Jeff Gordon 3,251 387 5 Kyle Busch 3,244 394

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* Complete standings...D10