NASCAR's Chase for the Championship: Who's in and Who's Out

Halfway through NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship, it's still anybody's to take. Jimmie Johnson and his seemingly unstoppable #48 Lowes Chevy Team, sit atop the point standing forty one points ahead of second place. The drive for five is still alive for the Hendrick driver.

Denny Hamlin, the Virginia native, takes his home tracks seriously. He is looking for a great finish this weekend to keep his momentum going and gain some points on first place. He started the weekend off right putting his #11 FedEx Toyota on the pole for Sunday's Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville. He will share the front row with the #47 Toyota of Marcos Ambrose who has been in the headlines this week as a possible replacement for Kasey Kahne in the vacated #9 RPM Ford. Ambrose went on the record to say he would finish the season with JTG/Daugherty and join Richard Petty Motorsports next season as scheduled.

Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and the Richard Childress Racing teams have swapped crews this week in an attempt to sure up Harvick's chances of running for his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Bowyer's chances were practically thrashed when NASCAR fined the team $150,000 as well as docking them 150 drivers points and 150 owners points when Bowyer's car was found to be too high after his chase win at New Hampshire. Harvick sits thirds in the Chase for the Championship. He will have to make up a lot of positions on the track as well as pit road. He is starting in the thirty sixth spot on the field.

Jeff Gordon sits fourth in the standings, 156 points behind his Hendrick teammate. Gordon starts this race in the eleventh spot and qualified eight one thousandths behind pole sitter Hamlin. Kyle Busch who is fifth in the standings looks to make up some points as well this week. He took the pole for the Camping World Truck Series race scheduled for today and will start twenty sixth on the grid Sunday.

Tony Stewart starts Sunday's Tums Fast Relief 500 in sixth position. He sits tied for fifth in the Chase for The Championship with Kyle Busch and is looking to regain the momentum he had after winning the race two weeks ago in Fontana. Carl Edwards, who still has not won a race in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, is slowly seeing his chances fade. He sits seventh in the Chase points and starts seventh on the track at Martinsville.

Eighth through eleventh in the Chase for NASCAR's Sprint Cup Championship are separated by only 31 points. It's anybody's game there. Biffle in eighth has won a chase race. He starts third on the grid on Sunday and could have a good run. Kurt Busch in ninth, has won several times this season, but seems to have run out of luck in NASCAR's post season. He will have a lot of positions to make up on the paperclip at Martinsville. He starts in twenty ninth.

Jeff Burton is tenth in the point standings. He has not had a great Chase this year, but he has ten top fives including one win at his home track in Virginia. He starts in the middle of the field in eighteenth. Matt Kenseth has had some strong runs this year, but has not been able to get the job done and bring home a win in the Roush-Fenway Racing #17. He will also have to have some good runs to remain in the running for a championship. It will be a hard race starting his Ford from the back of the field in thirty second place.

Clint Bowyer rounds out the top twelve in NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase points, just three hundred points behind first place. With five races left in the Chase, Bowyer is not completely out of it statistically, but he would have to have some phenomenal races along with some other drivers having some terrible luck early in the next few races to gain enough points at all. The crew swap at Richard Childress Racing, with the #33 crew switching with the #29 crew, is the writing on the wall for Bowyer's championship hopes this year.

Martinsville is always a great race. The Tums Fast Relief 500 runs Sunday. The green flag will drop at 1:13pm and ESPN will cover the race.