Greg Biffle says he won. NASCAR agrees. No one else does.

Three races into the Chase and things are only getting murkier. Jimmie Johnson, sure, that one we could see coming. Jeff Gordon – that one was easy enough to predict. Clint Bowyer though? A fine season, sure, but Bowyer had yet to even win a race before making the Chase, and he led more laps at New Hampshire than he had all season combined. So to see him still in the hunt is rather shocking.

How did we get to this point though? For that, we have this week’s shortened race in Kansas City to thank. It was your classic race, with rain, crashes, and controversy marring the end. Well, I guess it was not much of a classic then…

Greg Biffle was the winner when all was said and done, even that was far from clean. With the final caution of the night out – and there were plenty before it – Biffle was in the lead, and looked ready for his first win after a 28-race winless streak. With the race ending under caution, the field was frozen, bailing out Biffle and his crew as he slowed due to running out of gas. As he ran out and the race ended, both Bowyer and Johnson passed him. While all eyes saw that happen, we are told by NASCAR to pretend it never did. Nice way to end a race with the importance of this one.

Bowyer does not even need to speak up for himself, as Johnson has done a nice job of that for him. Looking at Bowyer, Johnson said, “I feel bad for the 16, but in my opinion that’s your winner.”

The end is only part of the story. An even bigger part is what it did to the Chase. As we said in the lead, it is Johnson, Gordon, Bowyer, and everyone else. Tony Stewart entered the day just a couple of points out of the lead. Now, he is 117 points out thanks to a 39th-place finish. A crash at Lap 176 would bring an end to his hopes of gaining on the lead, and Carl Edwards would only last a few more laps after his collision with Stewart.

This was not even the first crash Stewart had been involved in, as he had been part of a collision at lap 157 involving Bobby Labonte, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, David Gilliland, David Reutimann, and Ken Schrader, making it out of there with just a bump. Truex would make it just one lap further than Stewart did in the race, so it was far from a good day for his chances in the quest for the Cup.

In the category of New Hendrick taking care of Old Hendrick, Kyle Busch got taken out of the race early by being spun out by Dale Earnhardt Jr. on lap 29. Junior of course apologized, but that would not fix the mangled No. 5 car, nor help close the huge gap that now exists between the Hendrick driver on the way out and the two in the lead. Are we suggesting conspiracy? No, of course not, but if Junior ended up in the same bar Johnson and/or Gordon were at last night, we doubt he paid.

Then there was the Paul Menard/Jamie McMurray/Denny Hamlin crash, with may or may not have been Menard’s fault and, if so, may or may not have been retribution for grudges held over from the Busch Cup race. Need another reason for hating Buschwhackers? Boys and their toys are already bad enough without extra grudges piling up along the way.

If it was not crashes slowing things down, it was the rain, which caused two rain delays of three hours, so there was more idling at the track by the cars than racing. The race would be shortened from 400 laps to 267 to 225 to ultimately down to 210, with the race called due to darkness. Funny what a multiple hour delay late in the season when the sun begins to set earlier will do to the number of laps.

Damaged cars, damaged point standings, and hours standing around doing nothing – there are more Cup Chasers that lost money just showing up for the race than they would have skipping it. Sad but true, and certainly not what NASCAR was hoping the storyline would be when this race was done.

Race Results

Current Chase for the Cup Standings

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