This wreck of a Chase more about survival than ability

It stood out not only because it was so bold and daring and thrilling, but also because it was so rare. Jeff Gordon's last-lap, last-gasp maneuver Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway -- where he forced his way into the high lane, and shut the door on Jimmie Johnson like his teammate was an unwelcome encyclopedia salesman -- was the kind of fearless, winning move that great drivers are made of. Unfortunately, it's also the kind that's been scarce in this Chase for the Nextel Cup, where too many great drivers are never around to see the end.

• Send David your thoughts

They're too busy watching crewmen hammer the dents and divots out of their racecars, or walking out of the infield care center following the obligatory post-accident checkup, or riding the helicopter to the airport after being caught in one of the pileups that's plagued Nextel Cup events in the past three weeks. The location, the sponsor and the winner all change, but one thing remains the same -- too many ripped up racecars being rolled into the garage area, and too many drivers who never had a chance.

This isn't racing. This is an automotive Antietam, a three-week wave of motorsports mayhem that's turned NASCAR's premier championship into a simple battle of attrition. Drivers, cars, and hopes -- both of race wins and championships -- all emerge battered in a cycle of aggression and impatience that's repeated itself from Dover to Kansas City to Talladega, and shows no sign of slowing down. The Chase is supposed to determine which driver is best. But this one is determining which driver is most fortunate, lucky enough to not be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The official box scores tell the story. On Sept. 23 at Dover, in the second Chase event, 20 cars were involved in a spin or accident bad enough to bring out the caution flag. The next week at Kansas, 14 more cars fell victim. Sunday at Talladega claimed 20 more. In each race, there were pileups involving from five to 11 cars. It's the first time this season that 14 or more cars have been involved in accidents in three consecutive races. Prior to Dover, there hadn't been a non-short-track race claiming more than 10 cars since the July 29 event at Indianapolis, where 18 were involved in some type of accident or spin.

All told, 54 cars -- more than 41 percent of the cumulative starting field -- have been involved in accidents or spins in the past three races. In the same three events last year, that number was 29. Is this the product of adding two more drivers to the Chase field? Is this the result of non-Chasers desperate to stay inside the top 35? What exactly is going on here?

"You know, it's tough to say. The Chase last year was kind of filled with uneventful races, you could say. Guys were really playing it conservative," said Denny Hamlin, ninth in the Chase standings, 262 points behind the leader Gordon.

"But I think this year, guys that are outside the Chase are now starting to be maybe a little bit more aggressive. And even the guys in the Chase know that they are fighting 11 other guys now instead of nine. So they are maybe trying to get a little more aggressive because they know in order to keep up with [Gordon] and [Johnson], it's not going to take just consistent top-10, top-15 runs. They know they are going to have to get top-fives and top-threes. So I think the pressure is on in that sense. And I don't see the trend really changing that much, because now you've got a whole other group of guys, myself included, that feel like we've got to make something happen or else we are totally out of the championship picture. Us and probably the sixth and seventh on down, we are going to be more aggressive than what we normally would be."

Whatever is causing it, the results aren't pretty. Rather than see Kyle Busch compete for a title, we get to see him punted by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and then wrecked by a sliding Bobby Labonte. Rather than watch Hamlin vie for a championship, we get to see him tangle with Kyle Petty and spin out when Jamie McMurray and Paul Menard force it three-wide. Rather than watch Matt Kenseth make a run at a second crown, we see his No. 17 Ford torn to pieces in multi-car wrecks two weeks in a row. Oh, what fun.

It's a wearying, worrying, withering process. This Chase isn't a showcase for drivers, it's a showcase for fabricators. The Nextel Cup garage has turned into a salvage yard. Even that strange breed that watches racing just for the accidents has to be wincing. NASCAR designed this playoff format to stoke the intensity among the drivers vying for the championship. But nobody expected that intensity to manifest itself in a bloodbath of shredded tires and crumpled sheet metal, almost rendering insignificant all the talent and desire and ability that helped drivers reach this level to begin with.

It isn't over. The worst may come Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway outside Charlotte, a track where a season-high 28 cars limped away with damage in a spring race fraught with rash moves and calamitous consequences. Memorize Gordon's move at Talladega -- it may be next spring before you see anything like it again. And buy stock in duct tape. It's going to be a long six weeks until Homestead, if anybody makes it that far.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.