Updated Sept. 8
In the coming days and weeks you'll hear plenty about the championship combatants, but today I'd like to note some of the drivers who missed the Chase.
The list includes two who made it a year ago -- Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch.
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| David Ragan improved upon his rookie season, but it wasn't enough. (Getty Images) |
Former champions (who still race full-time) missing from title contention? Busch is on that list too, along with Bobby Labonte.
Busch, Newman, Kahne and Labonte have another thing in common. All four drive a Dodge, the only manufacturer without a driver in the Chase.
And the season started so well for the Dodge camp, which finished 1-2 in the Daytona 500.
Kahne still had a mathematical shot of making the Chase at Richmond, but was never able to mount a charge on Clint Bowyer for the 12th and final spot.
"I feel like I drove everything I could all day," said Kahne, whose hopes took a big hit with back-to-back 40th-place finishes in mid-August. "I tried to take chances. I tried to be smart at the same time to get what we could get.
"Track position hurt us all day. I was trapped in between a couple of Roush cars on pit road and it didn't matter where I came in (to the pits), I was trapped. It was a long day in the pits. I came out about last every single time it seemed like. That didn't help, but either way, we weren't going to beat Clint."
Roush-Fenway Racing's David Ragan was the only other driver outside the top 12 with hopes of racing his way into the Chase, but it wasn't meant to be for the second-year driver.
"It's very disappointing," said Ragan, who finished 32nd in large part because of a wreck on Lap 122. "We've got 10 more races to try and get a win and certainly to finish 13th in points is our goal now, but running back there 30th and 25th, you don't deserve to make the Chase running like that."
That Ragan was even in position to make the Chase was a testament as to how much he has matured and improved since finishing 23rd in points in his rookie season.
"Regardless of how we ended up today, I told everyone before the race that whether we made the Chase or not wasn't going to be solely be on the Richmond race," Ragain said. "I can look back at three or four races earlier in the year we didn't do a good job that resulted in the loss of a few points.
"Our speed has been in the race car, it's just a matter of making good decisions on Saturday or Sunday."
Power Rankings after Richmond:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Next to Martinsville, there probably isn't a better track for Johnson and his 48 team to try to rebound than Phoenix, where he has three wins, seven top fives, 10 top 10s and an average finish of fifth in 12 starts. | ||
| 2 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| Martin was OK in the first half of Sunday's race but really came on in the second half to snag a top five. That allowed him to close the gap on Johnson from 184 to 73 points. And there's even more good news for the 5 team as the series shifts Phoenix: Martin won at the track in April. | ||
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| Troubles at Talladega and Texas left him outside the top 10 in back-to-back races for the first time since May. | ||
| 4 | Tony Stewart | 5 |
| A good, solid effort from the 14 team throughout at Texas, just didn't have enough to challenge the Busch brothers for supremacy. | ||
| 5 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 4 |
| He started 20th and had made gains into the top 10 until he got loose running next to Carl Edwards, taking them both out. | ||
| 6 | Denny Hamlin | 6 |
| He was stout early, racing from 25th into the top five, but poor pit stops and contact with the wall had the 11 car reeling in the second half of the race. So his team gambled and won on fuel mileage to pull out second. | ||
| 7 | Kurt Busch | 7 |
| Not only did he have a great car, but great fuel mileage as well. He was always one of the last to pit after every long green-flag run at Texas. | ||
| 8 | Kyle Busch | 10 |
| On the verge of an historical triple victory weekend at Texas, he runs out of fuel just a couple laps from the finish. Tough way to end Dave Rogers' first race as crew chief of the 18 car. | ||
| 9 | Ryan Newman | 9 |
| Struggled with a loose car at Texas, running just 61 laps in the top 15. | ||
| 10 | Matt Kenseth | 12 |
| His 17 team continues to show late-season improvement. He had the best finish (third) of those who pitted for gas instead of gambling. | ||
| 11 | Clint Bowyer | 14 |
| A steady run for Bowyer, who finishes in the top 10 at Texas for the third time in his past four visits. | ||
| 12 | Greg Biffle | 13 |
| Notched his second consecutive top 10 and third of the Chase. | ||
| 13 | Kasey Kahne | 8 |
| After starting second, he dropped like a rock. Ran in the teens most of the day until his engine went sour in the waning laps, leading to a 33rd-place finish. | ||
| 14 | Carl Edwards | 11 |
| Four consecutive finishes outside the top 10 including two finishes of 39th. There wasn't a whole lot he could do to avoid Montoya getting up into him Sunday at Texas. | ||
| 15 | Kevin Harvick | 15 |
| Earns his fourth top five of the season at Texas, his first since a second-place run at Atlanta in early September. | ||
