by Jeff Hammond

Highlight of the Day Kurt Busch captures the 2004 Nextel Cup Championship. More NASCAR Video

Jeff Hammond: It's easy to second guess what was said or wasn't said, but my whole point is that, right now, mistakes are costing the 8 team opportunities to win this championship.

If he finished where he was running (fourth), he would have earned 160 points, and he would be two points behind leader Kurt Busch. At one point in Sunday's race, he was going to wind up leading the championship. Now Busch can basically say, "I dodged a big one. I threw the door wide open and said, 'Come and get me.' And you didn't."

Granted, the 25 points that Earnhardt Jr. lost at Talladega may or may not be a factor when this thing is all said and done, but if you combine the 25 points with a fourth-place finish at Atlanta, he would be 23 points ahead of Busch. When you look at the mechanical issues that Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth experienced plus Elliott Sadler's situation on pit road with Joe Nemechek, these problems have got to be killing the guys chasing Busch.

I'm not jumping on Earnhardt Jr. by any stretch of the imagination because it's always easy to go back and ask, "Why wasn't he doing something?" Then answer, "Well, he should have." But it's obvious right now that his move at Atlanta and his use of a word at Talladega could come back to haunt him in the Chase for the Championship.

Caution for pit road stall was right call

Glen from Hopewell, Va.: I almost feel that Mark Martin's comment on that late caution was valid. Did the officials not want a car running away with the race and not have an exciting finish? Kevin Harvick's car was clearly off the track on pit road where it could have been easily pushed behind the wall. It was not interferring with the race in any way shape or form. I feel this cost Martin 10 points in the chase for no good reason.

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Jeff Hammond: Again, it's always easy to go back and play Monday Morning Quarterback. Yes, Martin is going to be frustrated, but the question is would that car roll or did it need the help of a wrecker? If the rear end broke, the car will lock up and quit rolling as broken pieces get in there and keep a car from moving. I didn't have a clear enough view on television so I understand that you might wonder. But I don't think that was the case. I think it was a legitimate reason to throw the caution.

When it comes to decisions, it's always easy to go back and say we could have, should have, would have. But with the number of laps to go, as I said on SPEED News (Sunday, 7 p.m. ET on SPEED Channel), I would have gotten tires for the 6 car and said beat me. You've got 20-some laps left, and all day long, you've been able to come from the back and drive to the front. There's no reason for me to think that anything would have been any different on that set of tires than they were with eight or nine laps to go when he drove through the same number of guys that he had to go around to get back to second place.

That's my whole point. Why do you want to put yourself in that position? With fresher tires, you would have been the mack daddy anyway. Let the drivers behind you stop or not stop. It shouldn't matter. If you go down and get some tires, you're still the mack daddy. If you don't, you put those guys back on a level playing field with you.

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FOX race analyst Jeff Hammond led Darrell Waltrip to two of DW's three Winston Cup championships as his crew chief. They also teamed to win the 1989 Daytona 500.

For Jeff Hammond's "Real Men Work in the Pits" magnets, Hollywood Hotel hats and more, check out www.dwstore.com.

For photos and appearances, visit Jeff's web site www.jeffhammond.com.