Full Throttle

What used to be Kansas is now called “Roushville” and Mark Martin led a three car Roush sweep of the top spots and four of the top five in the Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Martin bounced back from a costly crash last week in Talladega with a dominating victory Sunday - at a record-speed of 137.774 mph - maintaining a slim chance to win his first Championship.

Greg Biffle, another of the 10 drivers in the 10-race Chase, passed Tony Stewart for second place 30 laps from the end and went after Martin, cutting the lead to about 10 car lengths but couldn’t close any further.

But Martin was able to hold on, leading Biffle and Carl Edwards to the finish line. Martin jumped from ninth to seventh in the standings, 113 points behind Stewart with six races left in the Chase.

But the last laugh might belong to Tony Stewart, who finished fourth and extended his Chase lead from four points to 75. It was Stewart’s 15th top-10 finish in the last 16 races. And with only six events left all he has to do is stay out of trouble. It will take one bad finish and someone to go on a run like Jimmie Johnson’s 4 for 6 streak last year to threaten Smoke at this point.

Ryan Newman remained second in points but made a transmission change after qualifying that forced Newman to start at the rear of the field. The perfect place to get caught in an early crash, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brandon Ash obliged and Newman paid the price.

Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Rusty Wallace, Casey Mears, Ricky Rudd and Jeff Gordon to filled out the top-ten. It was Mears second top ten in the last two events. Rusty Wallace started the day from the back and drove like it was a crap shoot, he rolled sevens all day. Kansas was start number [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/700.jpg]700[/avatar] and he finished 7^th.

As you can see by the image there has been an addition to those I’m calling out of the race for the [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/cup.jpg]NEXTEL Cup[/avatar]. Kurt Busch was the first to be X’ed out and Jeremy Mayfield gets the axe this week. Mayfield’s 16^th place finish coupled with a 157 point deficit to Smoke seals the deal this year.

Things to look for in Charlotte:

• Jimmie Johnson has scored victories in his last three races at Lowe