NASCAR NOTEBOOK

updated 9:24 p.m. ET Nov. 12, 2006

AVONDALE, Ariz. - Matt Kenseth is second in the Nextel Cup standings, trailing Jimmie Johnson by 63 points heading into the season finale at Homestead.

But Kenseth has had a poor Chase for the championship and thinks he has little chance of catching Johnson.

“Only if he blows up,” Kenseth said. “And then we’re running so bad right now that I don’t feel like we can beat anybody. He’s going to have to have problems and we’re going to have to have a lot of good luck to get in there. We can’t do it on performance. We can’t run 25th on performance right now.”

Kenseth won the Busch Series race Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway but never contended Sunday in the Checker Auto Parts 500, finishing 13th.

“We’ve just got some terribly awful-handling cars right now for some reason,” Kenseth said. “We can’t get out of our own way. I don’t know why we’re so bad. We just got off somewhere and it’s not much fun right now.”

Hamlin needs "extreme luck"
Rookie Denny Hamlin finished third Sunday, which left him tied for third with Kevin Harvick in the Nextel Cup standings. But Hamlin harbors no illusions about winning the championship next week.

“The 48 (Jimmie Johnson’s car) didn’t make any mistakes,” Hamlin said. “Honestly, they’re championship material right now.

“We’re just not to that level,” Hamlin said. “If we come out of Homestead and we end up winning the championship, it’s going to be by extreme luck. That’s the bottom line, because we’re not performing at the level that they are.”

Tiebreakers
Johnson will win the championship if he finishes 12th or better and doesn’t lead any laps; finishes 13th or better and leads at least one lap; or finishes 15th or better and leads most laps.

If Kenseth wins the Ford 400 and he and Johnson finish tied in the standings, they would also tie in the first tiebreaker, with five wins apiece. The second tiebreaker is second-place finishes, and that would go to Johnson, who has six runner-up finishes, three more than Kenseth.

Busch knocks Stewart
Kyle Busch, who won the race last year, blamed Tony Stewart for a crash that sidelined Busch late in the race.

Busch, who finished 38th, said Stewart ran into the back of Jamie McMurray’s No. 26 car “for no reason whatsoever. McMurray looked like he was going to change lanes and get on the outside of a lapped car and Stewart kept his nose in there instead of being his normal give-and-take self.”

Stewart said he didn’t mean to run into McMurray.

“I’ll call him and talk to him about it, but it was just a weird situation,” Stewart said. “I saw him dart across at the last second and then I thought I was just following him.”

Bad day for Junior
Dale Earnhardt Jr. opened the day in third place in the standings, 78 points behind Johnson. Earnhardt finished it fifth, 115 points off the pace.

Earnhardt, who finished ninth Sunday, said his tires cooled during the many yellow flags late in the race, and that slowed him coming out of restarts.

“I’m still proud of my guys,” Earnhardt said. “We managed a top 10 finish despite all of that. We’re a lot further behind in the points than what we wanted to be leaving this place, but we’ll get back home and get ready to try to win Homestead.”

From two wheels to four

Slide show   Week in Sports Pictures Flying on the hardwood, racing on the rink, getting physical on the gridiron, and much more. more photos

Car owner Bobby Ginn said motocross champion Ricky Carmichael will compete in late model events and select ARCA races, and hasn’t ruled out entering him in Craftsman Truck Series events. Carmichael said he will begin testing some of Mark Martin’s late models in Florida next month.

“It is definitely different than motorcycles,” said Carmichael, who attended the race. “On motorcycles you are out in the open, where it definitely felt foreign to me in the beginning. But every time I got in the car, in the seat and strapped in, it felt more and more comfortable.”

Pit stops
Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards had a couple of run-ins during the race, but Gordon said he had no hard feels after talking to Edwards afterward. “I’ve probably been racing a little harder than I normally would,” Gordon said. “He’s a great racer. He got in the back of me over there off the two and on the restart I got in the back of him, and I think that everything’s settled.” ... Stewart had won the last two races but was never a factor Sunday. He finished 14th. “We just haven’t been able to get our car to cut the whole weekend,” Stewart said. ... Gum and candy maker Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. will sponsor Chip Ganassi Racing’s team in 2007. ... Ameriquest will serve as Greg Biffle’s primary sponsor in 2007, replacing The National Guard.

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