It's all over but the hat dance and picture taking.  Well there is a party to be had as well, but that will have to wait until the season is officially over.

We said Talladega was a crap shoot.  Well Jimmie Johnson rolled a six and is poised to win all the money.  In fact, he could sit out of the Texas race and still have a 23 point lead over Mark Martin.  Mark lost the 1990 Championship to Dale Earnhardt by 26 points. 

Of course, Jimmie isn't going to sit out any races.  He and Chad Knaus continue to go about their every day business - being where it counts at the end of the race.  Mark, on the other hand, spent the last part of the Talladega race flipping - and yes, I mean actually flipping, not figuratively, although he did a bit of that as well when the race was over

Discussion on the airwaves has been all about how awful the racing was at Talladega.  Yes, NASCAR is trying to keep drivers safe, but this was ridiculous.  The ruined the racing and had not only one car, but two flip.  Ryan Newman was outspoken in his post accident interview and apparently, so were some announcers.  NASCAR has, according to Joe Menzer, demanded the firing of a "trio of broadcasters" who dared to criticise them at Talladega.  Well, guess you better fire all the fans too, make them sit in their corners, not allowed to watch any more races this year.  What a load of crap.

The racing at Talladega stunk, with a capital S.  I'm not going to get into what is necessary to fix it, suffice to say Ryan Newman has let them know he is anxiously waiting for a call, because he wants to fix it and has offered to work with NASCAR to get it right.

In any case, off the soap box, and back to the Chase.  Oh wait, there isn't one. 

NASCAR created the Chase for a variety of reasons.  There's the Matt Kenseth rule - wins only one race, but had a season so consistent, he walked away with the Championship.  So the Chase was born.  Originally, ten drivers, OR those within 400 markers of first place after the first 26 races got in, then it was expanded to twelve (the Jeff Gordon/Dale Earnhardt Jr. rule).  Then they awarded bonus points for wins, after the Chase began.  What do you want o bet next year it will change again (it should) to award bonus points at the time of the win?

In any case, Mark Martin truthfully is the only driver with any kind of a chance to catch and pass Jimmie, and that's so slim, I'm not sure why I'm mentioning it.  As I said above, Jimmie could finish 43rd and still have the lead, even if Mark led the most laps and won the race. 

With three races left, I sure hope the TV stations focus on the racing, and never mind all the "Chase" crap.  Let the teams work on 2010 and comment on that. 

David Stremme is out of the 12 car, and Brad Keselowski (with Dale Earnhardt Jr's blessing) will step into it, to get a start on 2010 with his new Cup team. Richard Petty Motorsports is going to continue looking at the Fords, and AJ Allmendinger will drive a Ford for the rest of the season.  Earnhardt Ganassi Racing is looking at running Toyotas for 2010, a move I say is stupid, based on Juan Pablo's performance this year - don't fix what ain't broke, to quote Danny "Chocolate" Meyers.

Texas Motor Speedway is an exciting track.  Let's look forward to some quality racing, and never mind the Chase.  It's all over but the money counting anyway.