Kyle Busch pits during the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. (Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Some other thoughts on Indy:

• For everyone concerned that Kyle Busch has been winning too much and running away with the season, Jimmie Johnson served notice that he is back in the game in a big way, as he kicked everyone’s tail all weekend long. I see the championship shaping up to be a three-way battle among Busch, Johnson and Brickyard runner-up Carl Edwards.

• Elliott Sadler (fourth), Jamie McMurray (sixth) and AJ Allmendinger (10th) all had their best finishes of the year at the Brickyard, with Allmendinger earning the best of his still-young NASCAR Sprint Cup career. Well done, men.

• With just six races left until the field is set for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the top five drivers in points — Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. (-253), Jeff Burton (-271), Johnson (-315) and Edwards (-320) are safely in the field. Barring a catastrophe, sixth-place Jeff Gordon (-460) probably is, too.

Behind them is where it gets interesting. The gap from seventh-place Greg Biffle (-544) to 13th place Kevin Harvick (-644) is exactly 100 points. Between them are Denny Hamlin (-551), Kasey Kahne (-563), Tony Stewart (-605), Matt Kenseth (-638) and Clint Bowyer (-642).

In addition to Harvick, the only other driver outside the top 12 with a good shot of making the Chase is David Ragan (-698), who is just 56 points out of 12th place. Brian Vickers (-774) blew an engine and finished 42nd on Sunday, which might have ended his shot at the Chase.

• Last but not least, shortly after the Brickyard race ended, and angry drivers, crew chiefs and team owners were still fuming about the conditions, NASCAR issued a press release headlined, “Challenging Circumstances At Brickyard Balanced By Increase In Green-Flag Passing.” The release went on to note, “With teams clearly responding to the challenges presented by tire wear during Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, the race produced a solid increase in green-flag passing compared to last year.”

Feel better, race fans? Nah, me neither.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to


The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED