At Kansas, it boiled down to a chase within the Chase

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Sometimes, it seemed like they were the only cars on the racetrack.

Two vehicles, one red and one blue, with an open ribbon of asphalt extending out from either side of them. For 45 laps they circled the 1.5-mile expanse of Kansas Speedway, hunter and hunted, their own personal duel becoming representative of the larger championship quest. They led the rest of the field by more than 4 seconds. Other cars appeared on the horizon every now and then, but none of them mattered.

This was all about Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson.

This was the chase within the Chase.

They're not the only ones in this championship battle, mind you -- Greg Biffle would certainly have something to say about that -- but they're certainly the standards, the only drivers able to carry sustained excellence from the regular season into NASCAR's playoff without rallying in the former or falling back in the latter. What could very well be a two-man contest all the way to Homestead was crystallized on one gorgeous Sunday afternoon near the bluffs of the Missouri River, when Edwards threw everything he had at Johnson, who in turn did all he could to fend it off.

It was great theatre. And it ended with Johnson in front, and Edwards' car scraped and spent from a radical last-ditch attempt at a winning pass. It ended with the two-time defending champion back in the points lead for the first time since the last race of last year (watch video), 10 ahead of the driver fast becoming his closest rival. It ended with Edwards, likely more frustrated than he was willing to admit, lamenting a missed attempt at a first Sprint Cup victory at the racetrack just across the border from his home state.

"Man, I just wanted to win this race," he said. "I wish we could start it again right now and run it again. But it is a good points day. That's the bright side."

In a Chase with so many contenders running up front, with point gaps so narrow, a winning margin like the .280 seconds that Johnson squeaked out Sunday might very well mean the difference between a big silver trophy and a wintertime of the disappointment Edwards felt at Kansas. How close is it right now? In the final laps, Biffle charged as hard as he could to overtake Jeff Gordon -- for third place. "Coming down to Homestead, it will be five points, and I just wanted to get by him so bad," he said. Johnson, when he realized he had led the most laps, translating into five-point bonus: "Sweet!"

But the real drama was on the racetrack, and at times it was galvanizing. Edwards led Johnson during a caution that came out after Travis Kvapil pancaked the wall. The ensuing pit stop turned in by the No. 99 team was a solid one, but crew chief Bob Osborne had to hold his driver for an additional second or two because A.J. Allmendinger was pulling into the stall ahead of them. That extra beat was all Johnson, who as the pole winner had the advantage of pitting in the first pit box, needed to seize a lead he would never relinquish.

"Anytime you have to pull around a car, and you can't shoot straight out, you don't get the best exit off your box," Osborne said later, leaning against a toolbox in the teardown area, while his counterpart on the No. 48 team, Chad Knaus, celebrated in Victory Lane. "That didn't help it. Even if we had a clean stall leaving, it would be hard to say whether we'd beat the first pit box."

The showdown began in earnest on the restart with 45 laps to go. Each time around the tri-oval, Osborne radioed Edwards his lap time compared with Johnson's. The differences were only fractions, but the No. 99's were consistently lower. "Just be patient," Osborne told his driver. "It will come to you. You will run him down."

It certainly seemed that way. Little by little Edwards closed the gap, the two cars running a race of their own, the remainder of the field rendered insignificant by their dominance. The Roush Fenway team could feel it. "You're better than he is now," spotter Jason Hedlesky told Edwards. "Just pick him apart." (Continued)