Watkins Glen: DEI dilemma

Watkins Glen provided a wonderful day of exciting and eventful racing. Anyone who calls for the removal of Watkins Glen from the schedule has obviously never attended a race here. The setting is beautiful, including the northern approach to the town, driving through miles of vineyards down the shore of Lake Seneca. The facility is great, and improved in some matter every year. Access is relatively painless. Even the pre-race flyover is the best of any track I've been to.

Furthermore, the Car of Tomorrow seems to really suit road racing. Case in point being Tony Stewart, who was able to survive a mid-race spinout, and still have the chance to get his car back up through the field. If he had been running the old car style, there's no way he could have passed 20 cars in that span of time.

Jeff Gordon appeared to have the race won, but he made the same mistake Stewart did, wheel-hopping off the track in Turn 1. Unfortunately for Gordon, his mistake came with two laps left, and no time to recover.

The other excitement was provided by a late race skirmish between Montoya and Harvick. The real culprit being Truex, who nudged Montoya in the corner, causing him to take out Harvick in the process.

The untold story of the day is the situation with Junior, Truex, and DEI. Junior was already in danger of missing The Chase, and his blown engine on Sunday knocked him back to 14th place in the standings, 4 points behind Newman in 13th, and 100 points behind Kurt Busch in the 12th and final Chase spot. His teammate Truex is in 11th, 158 points ahead of Junior.

A 100 point deficit with 4 races before The Chase is not insurmountable, but it's also getting to the point where it has to be a big concern for DEI. Or is it? With Junior jumping ship at the end of the year, would DEI rather see its marquee #8 car in The Chase, or would it rather see Truex get in, given that Truex will likely still be driving for DEI in 2008 and beyond?

This is just a rhetorical question, since both teams will be battling to get in. DEI has always revolved around Junior, with the other drivers being "the other drivers". It will be interesting to see how it plays out over the next month or so. Will there be a shift in resources and rooting interests at DEI? Will the employees be happier to see their committed driver make The Chase? Is Junior already starting to be considered a lame duck driver in the DEI camp?

In an ideal world, DEI would get the #1 and the #8 in The Chase, but if it comes down to those two teams battling each other for the final position, it could be surprising to see where DEI loyalties fall.