MOTORSPORTS DEPT

MOVING TARGET

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Edwards is on top after racing hard, while also making sure he keeps his car underneath him.

Every week, teams must change how they race the Chase.

By Ed Hinton

After stumbling out of the gate with finishes of 34th and 43rd, Kyle Busch has fallen completely out of the Chase. Now, points leader Carl Edwards must run somewhere between cautiously aggressive and aggressively cautious through the next few races. "If we had a 60- or 70-point lead, the strategy would change," says his crew chief, Bob Osborne. As it is, with Edwards just 10 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle heading into Kansas, Osborne is thinking less about the points race and more about the next race. "We have to make sure we're running top-five every week."

That means changing strategies weekly to adjust to the variety of track types in the Chase, which is run at 10 different venues, all with different dimensions and configurations. Look for the leaders to be most cautious at the largest and the smallest tracks. "I just hope we survive Talladega and Martinsville," says Jack Roush, team owner for Edwards and Biffle. Talladega, with its high banks and tight drafting packs, and Martinsville, with its cramped slam-banging, can take a racer from first to 43rd in a flash. But at intermediate-size tracks, "you can be a little bit more aggressive," Osborne says. "From week to week, you're bouncing back and forth on how you're going to race."

Crew chief Chad Knaus is trying to make Johnson the first three-peat champ since Cale Yarborough (1976-78). Knaus says that his strategy "changes every lap, depending on what's happening on the race track." But the big picture doesn't change for him: "We go out there every time trying to win, and if we're not in position to win, we have to get the best finish we can."

It's one thing to gamble during the regular season, when the goal is a top-12 points position, but taking a risk during the Chase isn't always worth the reward. "When a team pushes a car that's not capable of winning or running in the top five," Knaus says, "you're just going to end up with a disaster." Especially when one bad finish during the Chase can kill a driver's chances. And two will bury them.

Just ask Kyle Busch.

OPEN QUESTIONS

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by David Higdon

Strolling through the Chicagoland Speedway paddock, Dario Franchitti beamed as IRL suits and crews slapped his back, happy to see the 2007 series and Indy 500 champ visit after his nine-month failed run in NASCAR. And Franchitti was happy with what he saw too. "The car count used to be a big problem, but here we are at the season finale with 28 cars," he said.

Franchitti will drive an IndyCar for Target Chip Ganassi Racing in 2009. But if the series wants to keep the good times rolling, its drivers and owners must first answer these big questions.

CAN CHAMP CAR CONVERTS CONTEND?
Not yet. The Champ Car circuit abandoned ovals years ago, and "they just killed us," says '08 convert Will Power of KV Racing. Oriol Servia was the only Champ Car driver to crack the top 10 in points. "Sure, there's a fear factor in going flat out on an oval, but it's more about engineering," Power says. Look for teams to poach eggheads this off-season.

WHAT'S UP WITH AGR?
Andretti Green Racing, once dominant, slipped big-time in 2008. This off-season, Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick will reportedly race in A1GP—a move one owner says is an overdue admission by AGR co-owner Michael Andretti that his son and the popular female driver need seasoning. Ganassi, with Franchitti and Scott Dixon, will be the team to beat.

WHERE'S THE MONEY?
It's a struggle. Funding for the usual IndyCar back markers is still race to race, and Champ Car teams are barely hanging on. Case in point: Graham Rahal did not have a primary sponsor all season. "Unification wasn't a silver bullet," says dad Bobby Rahal of Rahal Letterman Racing. "We've all got our work cut out for us to make ends meet."

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