This Week In Auto Racing October 28 - October 30...

At last week's race in Martinsville, Tony Stewart did everything right except win the race. He dominated the early and middle parts of the event, leading a race-high 283 laps en route to a second-place finish. But his No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet was not as good as Jeff Gordon's Chevrolet down the stretch and he was forced to settle for a runner-up finish.

Still, his 16th top-10 in the last 18 starts earned him a 15-point lead over Jimmie Johnson in the "Chase" with four races left in the season.

Johnson finished just behind Stewart at Martinsville, but could never get up front to lead a lap and get the five-point bonus. Despite having his teammate in the lead, Johnson, who got as high as second, was not quick enough to catch his teammate who agreed to let him get the bonus if he could have reached Gordon's rear bumper. Come Homestead-Miami on the third week of November, that failure could come back to haunt him.

"At this point I think everybody looks at Jimmie and I as two of the guys," said Stewart on his team's website. "But you can't count any of the other guys out either. Anything can happen."

One thing that has happened through the first six events is that the Roush Racing team has slumped at just the wrong time. With five of 10 "Chase" drivers on one team, Jack Roush thought they were in great shape to win its third consecutive championship. But through the first six races only Greg Biffle (-83) is within 140 points of Stewart.

"We expected to be good here," said Martin, who finished a distant 34th after suffering brake problems at Martinsville. Martin's teammates Carl Edwards (26th), Biffle (20th) and Matt Kenseth (12th) could not compete with Stewart or Gordon on the Virginia short track.

However, the good news is that three of the last four events are on 1.5-mile speedways where the Roush Racing team has been very good.

Edwards won the spring event at Atlanta with a dramatic last corner pass of Johnson. Biffle and Martin both finished in the top-five.

At Texas in April, Biffle won by a dominant 3.244 seconds and at the series finale at Homestead in 2004 Biffle also took the trip to Victory Lane. Martin's only win in 2005 was at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway two weeks ago.

Of course, Roush Racing is not the only team to race well on 1.5-mile ovals. Johnson has wins at Las Vegas and at the Lowe's Motor Speedway and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was victorious at the Chicagoland Speedway.

The quiet man of the "Chase" has been Ryan Newman. Though he has collected a win (Loudon) and five top-10s in the first six events, "Rocketman" is still being overlooked in the championship battle. Just 63 points behind Stewart, Newman is in great shape to make a run at the title. In April, the No.12 Penske Dodge won the pole in Atlanta (when doesn't he win the pole?) before finishing a disappointing 14th.

We had a change in the lead of the Craftsman Truck Series at last weekend's Martinsville event. Dennis Setzer entered the race with a five-point lead, but two accidents and a 19th-place finish left him 54 points behind Ted Musgrave.

For Musgrave, who has finished either second or third in the championship the last four seasons, it is his best chance to finally grab a series title.

The No.1 Ultra Motorsports driver has put on quite a show down the stretch, finishing no worse than sixth over the last two months. He has turned around his season which saw him 227 points behind Setzer after the race at IRP in early August.

"After Indy it was like 'engrave the trophy and give it to him,'" said Musgrave. "We just wanted to keep working real hard. It's very seldom that a driver gets good luck all year long and we still had the capability to come back."

"We've been having some tough luck this fall and we can't get out from under it," said Setzer. "Maybe it's going to be better to be the chaser in these last four races.

Last year, Bobby Hamilton, who won the 2004 EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200, held a 79-point margin over Setzer with four races to go and held on to win the title by 46 points.

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