Following the September 8th Busch Series race at Richmond International Raceway, driver Kevin Grubb refused a random drug test request, resulting in a suspension for an indefinite period of time by NASCAR. In doing so, the 28-year old Mechanicsville, Va. native may have effectively ended his career as a stock car driver within the sanctioning body, despite the controversy surrounding his latest suspension. Unfortunately for Grubb, it's a career NASCAR had every right to grind to a halt.

The biggest controversy of the week - perhaps of the season - started late Sunday evening when SPEED TV reporter Bob Dillner told viewers, "As darkness falls upon New Hampshire International Speedway, we have learned that there was an issue with the winning car of Kevin Harvick and also his teammate, Jeff Burton, in post-race tech." Trust me, guys, this story has legs.

With the driver points for the top 10 reset so that everyone was separated by just five points, Sunday's race caused each Chaser to leave in a different position in the point standings than where they started. For some teams, that was good news; they withstood the first test of the championship battle and came out of Sunday's race intact. For others, though, the day turned out to be anything but sunny, and they now find themselves in jeopardy of staring at an empty trophy case far earlier than they should be.

0.777 Kevin Harvick's margin of victory, in seconds, over Tony Stewart Sunday at New Hampshire.

Can we spend just a few minutes mentioning the non-Chasers, please? Otherwise, sponsors will leave, and we will end up with fewer quality teams in a few years!

Now that the field is set, who will win the 2006 Chase for the Championship? Read on to find out who your favorite Frontstretch writer picked... and why.

Hidden behind the big story to come out of Richmond this past weekend, it was announced Tuesday that Kevin Grubb had been suspended indefinitely from NASCAR a second time for failure to follow the sport's drug policy.

What Jeff Burton or Mark Martin may or may not do in the coming weeks is irrelevant. They're in the Chase because they took care of business the first 26 weeks and Stewart didn't; end of story. If I had to guess, you've probably got a "20" decal on your vehicle, and while I can sympathize with you from a fan standpoint, everyone knows the rules and every driver knows what they have to do. Stewart just didn't do it.

At the end of 2005, Dale Jr. apologized to his fans for a disappointing season, and promised to give them something to cheer about this year. A man of his word, Junior is sixth heading into the Chase, and would likely be higher in the standings if not for back-to-back last place finishes at Loudon and Pocono.

10. A slight miscalculation by team staff on the "driver weight vs. horsepower" ratio for the back-up car.