Rating the Tums Fast Relief 500: 4 Stars ****

The final short-track race of the season brought plenty of tight racing that led to a tight championship battle. Martinsville gets a 4 Star Rating.

Throughout the race, cars bounced off of each other left and right. Jimmie Johnson sent Marcos Ambrose’s day down the tubes when they collided early in the race, and once again, teammates got frustrated with each other. This time Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton traded bumps a few times throughout the race. Burton drove his car incredibly hard all day, but it may have cost him in the end, as he faded to ninth after leading the most laps.

However, it was nice to see the beating and banging at Martinsville. The first half of the Chase was incredibly clean, but the cautions started to fly last week at Charlotte and the flag man carried that momentum into Martinsville, throwing the yellow 15 times for 90 laps, or 18 percent of the race. Up to this race, only about 11 percent of the laps had been run under caution.

While the race was good, it also continued the championship intrigue. After Charlotte, the standings showed only three drivers to have a realistic shot at the title, and only two with a chance to beat Johnson. So what do Denny Hamlin and Harvick do? They come out with a win and a third-place finish, respectively.

So, maybe wins actually do matter enough in the current points system. Had Hamlin finished second, he would have been 21 points behind Johnson instead of six. That’s quite a difference for just one position and is equivalent to five positions back in the field. I think most people would agree there is a fairly large difference between finishing 15th and 20th. Well, in terms of points, that’s the same difference between first and second.

The six-point margin that separates Johnson and Hamlin is the smallest lead a driver has had at this point in the season in Chase history. The thing is, Johnson still had a top-five finish. Since his 25th-place finish at New Hampshire to start the Chase, Johnson has finished first, second, third, third and fifth in the following five races. Yet, he only has a six-point advantage. The competition this year may well be the toughest Johnson has faced in the past five seasons.

Now the intensity ratchets up even another notch as the series heads to Talladega Superspeedway, the largest track on the schedule. Everything in the Chase up to this point has been qualified with the “wait until after Talladega” disclaimer. Well, that time has come.

After a race in the spring that had a record 88 lead changes and the driver who now sits third in the standings as the winner, the excitement/intensity level for this race may be unmatched except for the Daytona 500. This race could decide the championship. NASCAR said they wanted “Game Seven” moments, and here it is. The championship trophy won’t be handed out Sunday, but the engraver will likely be able to start buying templates.