by Darrell Waltrip

Sign up now and create your free fantasy team and league. More NASCAR

Will it be Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. again this year? Will Greg Biffle miss out?

These drivers are on the bubble in this 12-man race for 10 places right now. It just depends on which drivers get up and go in these last six races. Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon have to race smart, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. has to be careful. A few weeks ago, you would have said Stewart was a shoo-in for the Chase so we see how quickly fortunes can turn around.

With several stars of the sport involved in the Race to the Chase, it's making the Chase a little more interesting this year than in the previous two seasons. I don't know who the two drivers will be. I've got no crystal ball to look into and see, but look at the records of these guys, where they've got to go and what they've got to do.

Earnhardt, Gordon and Stewart are three big stars on the bubble that need to be in the Chase. The reason that NASCAR is talking about tweaking the Chase for next year is because of what happened last year. If two of those three drivers happen to miss the Chase again this year, there's going to be some pandemonium.

That's worse than panic, you know.

Stars: Then and now

Drivers today are rock stars. When they show up at the race tracks, they've got their entourage. They come and go in a fashion that you would expect from movie stars and rock stars. They limo in and helicopter out. They jet back to their lake home or their second house or their apartment in New York. Their lifestyle is a whole lot different than ours used to be.

When I was at my best, I was the team's on-board computer. I made the calls to change shocks, springs and swaybars, driving by the seat of my pants. Aerodynamics were never a factor. We thought aero push was when somebody got behind you and pushed you. We didn't know it was when the front end raised up in the air and the car wouldn't turn. That's the biggest thing.

Ask DW
AskDW Subject: Comment/Question: Name:  Email:  Hometown:

Today, drivers run these race tracks on their X-Boxes. They've got a lot of technology that we never had. They know a lot more about what they're facing than we ever did. My problem was I was a reverse engineer. I said, "Let me get it like I want it, and you tell me how I did it."

That's not how it works anymore. The engineer says, "We've been on the shaker machine and the chassis dyno, and we know how much power we have. We know what springs and shocks we need. Now go out there and drive it."

The driver can't complain or whine about changing springs or shocks. He just tells the engineers what the car does.