Will NASCAR See a New Champion This Year?

It's possible.

Currently, Kyle Busch is leading by 253 points over Dale Earnhardt Jr. Neither has ever won a cup championship before. In third place, only 18 points behind Dale Jr., is another driver that has never won the cup, Jeff Burton.

When the Chase for the Cup starts after the second Richmond race, the points will be reset, but Kyle Busch will have an obvious advantage—currently he has 70 bonus points, 10 each for each race won so far.

As we saw yesterday at Indianapolis, Kyle Busch is not invincible. Kyle Busch can be beaten, and there are a lot of drivers that are perfectly capable of beating Kyle at any given racetrack.

I don't do lists here, or top 10 picks, but in my humble opinion, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., David Ragan, and Brian Vickers are the most improved drivers in 2008, compared to their 2007 seasons.

Kyle, obviously, has found much success with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota. Dale Jr. has found a way to improve; in the way of more consistent finishes at Hendrick Motorsports.

Brian Vickers and David Ragan are finishing much more consistently than they have in recent years. Jimmie Johnson is moving closer to the top of the standings because he currently has two wins for HMS. There are a lot of drivers in play for the championship this year.

I have a personal favorite for the Cup Champion of 2008. It's personal, and it's biased, but I do believe that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is making major progress in getting a handle on the new car and all the troublesome things that have come with it.

While Chad Knaus and Steve Letarte were competing for a championship last year, Tony Eury Jr. and Darien Grubb were concentrating on figuring out the new car. It's possible that, by concentrating on winning the championship in 2007, the 24 and 48 teams got behind on their strategy of winning in 2008.

Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson seem to have caught up, at least somewhat. The disaster that passed for a race yesterday at Indianapolis is hardly a true test of what exactly the Lowe's Chevrolet team has actually accomplished, though.

It's pie in the sky time. I believe that Kyle Busch's domination of the top series in NASCAR will dwindle as crunch time gets closer. Kyle appears to be a pretty emotional guy, and those emotions will eventually get him in trouble. One of these days, in the heat of the moment, Kyle will do something that even NASCAR can't ignore.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., in contrast, seems to have a lot of ice water in his veins this year. He doesn't ruffle easily. He gets frustrated, but he takes it out by cursing on the radio, and not by wrecking other cars on the track. In my opinion, Dale Jr. has truly achieved cool. Let Kyle Busch sew his own curtain of defeat.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a definite shot at the Cup Championship this year. I will be cheering him on, because the guy currently in first place makes me want to vomit.