Rawlings: This chase is over

MARTINSVILLE, Va. - On a crisp afternoon in these foothills of natural wonder, a chilling idea floated over Martinsville Speedway along with the white clouds and black helicopters.

NASCAR’s Chase for the Nextel Cup championship now resembles one of those Florida races in which panting dogs pursue a mechanical rabbit.

Jimmie Johnson is the rabbit, and nobody will catch him anytime soon.

Denny Hamlin, son of Virginia, beat Johnson to the checkered flag in the Tums 500 yesterday. He didn’t belch and didn’t burp, but during a reverse victory lap Hamlin nearly nailed Carl Edwards’ abandoned car in the first turn.

For Johnson, closing in on a fourth straight title, it was business as usual. He judged his car the second-best and cruised to second place, increasing his points lead to 118 over Mark Martin, 150 over Jeff Gordon, 192 over Tony Stewart and 200 over third-place finisher Juan Pablo Montoya.

“The way he’s running,“ Montoya said, “you’ve probably got to win the next five races and he’s got to have some bad luck.“

The fifth race in that string, the Daytona 500, will take place in February 2010. NASCAR has four stops left this season: Talladega, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead. Johnson gets a bit edgy about Talladega, where he has won just once and has watched 3,500-pound cars fly.

When a reporter mentioned Johnson’s sub-checkered history there, the cool and patient perennial champ bristled.

“I’m so tired of answering this question,“ he said. “I think you guys can all figure it out. Talladega, there’s no telling, and I feel good with the other tracks after that as long as we don’t have any mechanicals…. It’s the same stuff over and over again. The mechanicals, the stuff we can’t control, is the stuff I’m worried about. The stuff we can control, I feel we’re going to be great.“

All the drivers sound tired of points talk, which makes perfect sense but runs counter to the NASCAR strategy of marketing the Chase as the World Series of racing. If competitors are disinterested in the corporate plot, is anyone stunned when the public catches the same drift, when TV ratings and attendance recede?

Martinsville Speedway had empty seats scattered through the various grandstands but drew a solid crowd to the 60,000-seat track, especially considering the local economy. One reason: low-end tickets cost only $25. Yet, even in the midst of hillside parties and cheerful chatter, racing passion seemed muted.

The event followed a familiar pattern. Robby Gordon was involved in the first collision, Sam Hornish delivered his weekly solo spinout and Dale Earnhardt Jr. tagged the wall twice. When the race settled into roughly its final form, the monotonous laps threatened to induce hypnosis. Magically, a caution appeared with 15 laps left. The NASCAR call: debris on the front stretch.

Leader Hamlin squirmed in his seat. “I did see that debris, for sure,“ Hamlin said. “It was in Turn 1. However, it was there at lap 100. It was. I’m not kidding you. It was there. However, I don’t know if there was another piece of debris somewhere.“

Nothing altered the order. Johnson played it straight and guarded the points lead.

Hamlin, ninth in points, complained only that his sweet win would get buried under media reports emphasizing how Johnson increased his lead over Driver X and Driver Y. He’s also weary of this points deal, further evidence that the Chase has become a humorless exercise occasionally punctuated by human caution.

Edwards playfully threw his yellow flag long before walking away from his junked ride: “If the 48 team were to have a series of bad races, which would be for any reason - meteorite strike, something like that, anything - then something could change.“

You heard it straight from Driver Z, who recognizes a mechanical rabbit when he sees one.