If Kyle Busch Wins at the Brickyard, Is the Chase Already Over?

Can anyone stop Kyle Busch from running away with the 2008 Sprint Cup Series championship?  That’s the question I read and heard most during the so-called week off just passed.

It’s the same question that was on most lips this time last year as the Cupsters cruised into Indy.  The difference is that in 2007, the can’t miss winner was Jeff Gordon.  How’d that work out?

The guy who won the ‘07 Cup was the same one who kissed the Bricks at Indianapolis—Jimmy Johnson.  In fact, taking the checkered flag at the Brickyard has been a good predictor of that year’s champ.  Six of the winners in the 14-year history of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard have gone on to win the series the same year.

Now six out of 14 isn’t all of them.  But if Kyle Busch wins this week at Indy, my money goes on him in the Chase for sure. 

Chase these four, sharp, flat lefties as you wait for the the Greatest Spectacle in…. oh…sorry….The Brickyard 4…..what, it’s not that either?  Here is your weekly Fast Lap assignment:

1:  Jeremy Mayfield’s PR guy has been working overtime this week trying to get his boy on owners' lips for some of the openings for 2009. As a car owner, would his good outweigh his bad?

2:  Matt Kenseth won the race at his hometown track—Slinger Speedway in Wisconsin—on the off weekend. Other drivers spread themselves around the country doing the same thing to relax. As a car owner, wouldn’t you be a bit worried?

3:  Is this year’s rookie pool disappointing, and who is your Rookie of the Year candidate now?

4:  Does NASCAR belong at Indy?

Remember, no more than 100 words per answer.  We will be using the best stuff ON PIT ROW and in a new, regular video segment on Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie.