On the outside looking in

~ Non-Chase drivers try to stay motivated and begin planning for 2007.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Greg Biffle briefly flirted with the Nextel Cup championship last season, while teammate Carl Edwards made a surprising push of his own toward the title. Although both fell short, they started this season prepared -- and perhaps even predicted -- to finish the job.

But it's not going to happen for either of them.

Or Kurt Busch, the 2004 Chase for the championship winner.

Or Ryan Newman, a two-time Chase qualifier.

They all find themselves stuck in a group of 33 drivers locked out of the championship hunt, shoved aside for the rest of the season as the spotlight focuses on the lucky 10 racing for the title. Unless they win a race, or wreck a Chase contender, they'll get little attention from here on out.

Biffle, runner-up to Tony Stewart in last year's Chase, knows that firsthand.

He failed to make the Chase in 2004, and struggled for any type of recognition that season. He'd rack up solid finishes, then wait around dumbfounded for the celebratory salutations that never came.

"If you're not in the Chase, you're nobody," Biffle said. "Those are kind of harsh words, but that's what everybody wants -- they want to be in the Chase. I finished third at Kansas [in 2004] and automatically a storm of media goes over to Jeff Gordon's car because he got fifth. We finished third and you're like, 'I'm over here!'

"That's the big difference -- you're somebody if you make the Chase."

That's the downside of NASCAR's new championship format. It's generated interest in the sport, and put the focus on the 10 drivers racing for the title, but in some respects it's come at the expense of the rest of the field.

The Chase is the end-all in NASCAR, beginning with January's preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway. Drivers arrive focused on qualifying for the postseason, knowing a solid run in the season opener sets the tone for the rest of the year.

Any bobble at the beginning of the season can sabotage an entire year -- just ask Jeremy Mayfield.

His team was so far out of whack only eight weeks into the season that everyone at Evernham Motorsports knew he wouldn't make the Chase for the third consecutive season. With tensions running high between driver and car owner, Ray Evernham gave him permission in July to look for another job and lined up Elliott Sadler to replace him.

But when Evernham and Mayfield couldn't coexist a minute longer, he fired him and moved Sadler in 14 races early.

"The sport is changing and the Chase has changed it," Evernham said.

The Chase has allowed the also-rans to focus on next year much earlier then they would have before. When Edwards, who finished third in last season's Chase, was eliminated from contention Saturday night in Bristol, Tenn., he climbed out of his car ready to work on 2007.

"We're going to use these next 12 or 13 races to test for '07," he sighed. "We've kind of had a long, rough year with the luck, so we'll just make the most of it and go on and have a good time."