Rating the Pepsi Max 400: 2 Stars **

After the race at Kansas it looked like as many as 10 drivers had a chance to make a run at the championship. Just one week later, that number has been cut in half. The final fall race at California gets a 2 Star Rating.

I said last week it would be important for every Chaser not named Jimmie Johnson to have a good week so they didn’t fall too far behind. Well, many of them are now too far behind. While Jimmie Johnson posted a third-place finish Sunday, every Chaser except Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin had significant issues throughout the day. Who said Johnson wouldn’t recover after New Hampshire? He has a win and an average finish of second in the three races since.

As for the race itself, it was typical NASCAR at California. The racing was pretty good for the first third of the race, but then drivers started to stretch out long leads and the cautions kept falling like leaves off of trees.

The three debris cautions are what they are. This race wasn’t good enough to have a lot of integrity to protect, and NASCAR had been doing a better job in the several races leading up to this point. Also, the debris-caution issue has come up in three of the last five races at California. Does NASCAR just come into these races knowing the race will have to be manipulated because the track is so darn boring? In any case, this one did not provide much drama. The ARCA race Saturday at Rockingham showed where the race should have been this weekend.

Once again, Stewart became the beneficiary of the debris caution pit stop, as he has been for his last three wins. Had he not run out of gas at New Hampshire, Stewart would be a major player in the Chase. He lost 94 points when he crawled across the finish line in 24th in that race. Had there been another half gallon or so in that tank, Stewart would be right on Johnson’s tail, just 12 points behind. But, such is the case in many aspects of racing. The gamble he took in the first Chase race was the correct call, even though things didn’t turn out the way they had hoped.

Finally, the three Roush-Fenway Racing Chasers all had issues Sunday and will need to be perfect the rest of the way just to get back into contention. Plus, Johnson, Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, the three drivers who are most likely to go into Homestead with a chance to win the title, will all have to get caught up in the Big One at Talladega.

Next week the series moves to the only night race of the Chase, and one of the best. Charlotte usually puts on a good show, and Johnson has had some issues at the track recently, which just means he will go out and dominate this week. But hey, there’s hope somewhere. Anyway, Chase or no Chase, the race at Charlotte should be a bit more fun than the last couple races have been. Have a great week.