FanHouse Dover

It took just 3 hours, 24 minutes and 20 seconds of racing action Sunday at Dover International Speedway to allow "Superman" to reassert his dominance over NASCAR Sprint Cup racing.

Jimmie Johnson pounded the field around the concrete one-mile oval for his fifth career win at Dover and fourth of the season to take home the AAA 400 trophy. Johnson led some 271 laps and never looked back despite late cautions that brought the competition back to his bumper three times in final 100 laps.

In doing so, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus served notice that they don't expect a change from recent years at the celebration following the season's final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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Since we're a little late on this week's edition of Sprint Cup Notes & Quotes, we're gonna do both a rewind of last weekend's festivities at Dover and a bit on Wednesday night's Prelude to the Dream. Capisce? Capisce.

Prelude to the Twitter - Can't be in or around the booming metropolis that is Rossburg, Oh., (Pop: 224) for Wednesday night's Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway? No problem, FH has you covered with live twittering from the fourth row up behind the start/finish line just for you! Follow us here: www.twitter.com/FanHouseRacing

Rain, for the love of Pete, go away - What happens when you invite 20-plus NASCAR drivers to compete in a charity race at a half-mile dirt oval? Well, they bring rain -- just as they have for three of the past four NASCAR event weekends.

Sure, he didn't get the race win and he certainly didn't challenge for it. The No. 88 didn't finish in the Top-10 and it never led a lap.

But was Sunday's Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway a rousing improvement for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s, uh, lackluster season? Can we really say a 12th-place finish is a good thing for a Hendrick Motorsports driver?

Well, in this situation, your darn right we can -- even though driver No. 88 may not exactly agree.

A five-day span of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing couldn't have any better for David Reutimann and his suddenly surging Michael Waltrip Racing.

Friday afternoon, the driver of the No. 00 Toyota scored the pole for Sunday's Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Raceway, just days after his Monday win in the rain-delayed and then shortened Coca-Cola 600.

And to hear Reutimann tell the story earlier this week, there was a time when this type of success for MWR was not only unexpected, but the whole operation of MWR appeared to on the brink of closure.

The second race of the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup is now finished and that means it's time for just one thing: checking out the progress of the Chase field, FanHouse style.

Last week, I put Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, and Kevin Harvick into the "Winners" list while Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, and Kyle Busch made the "Losers" list.

Well, another week in means it's time to update those rankings, and this time around we're throwing in another category because some of these guys improved their positions slightly above "Losers" with their runs at Dover. As a result, they are going to get the classification of "Tweeners" for their in-between status.

First, for the winners:
Greg Biffle (Finished 1st) - Does it get anymore obvious than two wins in a row to start the Chase? One word: impressive.

Carl Edwards (Finished 3rd) - Carl's consistency has proven more valuable in the points standings than Biffle's two wins. That's championship-caliber work.

Jimmie Johnson (Finished 5th) - Can you ever rule a guy out that's not only getting top-5s but also going for his third title?

Note: BFF = Best Friends Forever. Use it and you'll impress your kids.

Kyle Busch is doing his best impersonation of the New England Patriots from last February's Super Bowl XLII.

In other words, he's falling over his own feet when it really matters most.

Busch, who's season-leading eight wins in 2008's regular season Sprint Cup action earned him a significant anti-Kyle fan base, has simply plummeted to the bottom of the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings when he was supposed to be cementing his status at the top.

And that drop -- as Sunday's race at Dover proved -- isn't just a one-time thing. It's turning into a reoccurring theme.

It could be bad karma (he didn't make many friends on-track this season) or it could (and likely is) just bad luck, but one thing is for sure: Kyle Busch is dead-last in the championship standings battle after finishes of 34th and 43rd.

That yellow brick road he was walking during NASCAR's summer swing has seemingly taken a hard right towards a deep, dark cliff.

Ouch.

It wouldn't have been too incredulous to say that season-long favorites Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards or Jimmie Johnson would have won the first two races of the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

But Greg Biffle? Come on.

I would have called it a crazy guess, and after Sunday's race at Dover, I would have looked like the dumber person in the conversation, though that's not much a surprise. Biffle, though, definitely fits the "surprise" bill.

Here's a quick look at how each contender in the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup will start when the field takes the green flag Sunday afternoon at Dover International Raceway for the second race in the ten race run.

Jeff Gordon - Starting: 1st - Chase Spot: 11th - A pole for Gordon is best way to start off a weekend that is as close to a must-win situation as he'll get in the Chase if he wants to find himself in any sort of contention to be in position to win the championship.

Denny Hamlin - Starting: 3rd - Chase Spot: 6th - It's been a year and a half since Hamlin has had a good run at Dover. He'll need to find one after slipping back late in the race last week at New Hampshire.

Greg Biffle - Starting: 5th - Chase Spot: 3rd - Biffle's win a week ago should serve as a warning to the rest of the field, especially coming to Dover where he has a win and four top-5 finishes in his career.

Clint Bowyer - Starting: 6th - Chase Spot: 9th - FanHouse classified Bowyer as a "Chase loser" after last week's race at New Hampshire thanks to a lower-than-anticpated finish. He'll need to capitalize on his high starting spot Sunday to get out of that hole.

It's been an interesting week in the NASCAR Sprint Cup world, and by interesting I mean pretty doggone slow. It feels like every team in the business -- especially the ones in the Chase -- just put their collective heads down and went to work for a week without distraction.

Luckily, Friday afternoon brought something to talk about as the Sprint Cup teams headed to Dover for second race of the Chase for the Championship, and luckily for a struggling Jeff Gordon, he earned the right to start out front for Sunday's race.