Everybody sing! Weeeee are the champions...

The next 10 weeks should prove to be fairly interesting.

While he may be everyone’s darling. Everyone’s favorite to win a 5th straight title. America’s sweetheart (besides, of course, Sandra Bullock). Jimmie Johnson seems already being crowned. Already being bestowed the title of History’s Greatest Driver. Heck, they’ve probably already put his name on the trophy.

Cue Freddie Mercury; wave your arms back and forth. “Weeeee are the champions, my friend...”

More like, “We’ll keep on fighting, ‘till the end...” at least for 11 other drivers.

With 17 consecutive weeks on top of the NASCAR point standings, I wouldn’t count Happy Harvick out of the running.

OK, I don't have photos of me with Happy or DeLana, although I do follow them on Twitter. Here's a shot of me with car owner Richard Childress and my BFFs from California, Laura in the middle and Roberta on the right. (Yes, it's blatant self-promotion, but gosh, we had fun in All-Star Week.)

Harvick has been Mr. Consistent this season, otherwise his name wouldn’t have been on top of the board week in and week out for so long. Happy’s posted 11 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes in 2010. Not exactly slouch.

And after all, don’t series officials squawk about consistency, consistency, consistency?

But what does Kevin (and DeLana, let’s be real about it) get for this.

That’s right, nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Same thing that happened to TStew last year. Lead the standings all season long and get nothing. Not even a certificate. Only personal satisfaction.

Hoist that over your head in Victory Lane and pose for pictures.

At least give the guy a big, fat check with lots of zeros. Or maybe a trophy in honor of Big Bill.

Naturally, I’d like to see Tony win it all again. It wouldn’t be consecutive, but three IS a nice number.

Odds are pretty good for Richard Childress and Jack Roush this year, with three drivers each in the Chase. You realize, that’s half the field.

So let’s talk Roush for a minute. I’m thinking Greg Biffle. The Biff. Champion in the Busch Grand National Series and the Craftsman Truck Series. That would be pretty sweet for him to add a Sprint Cup title to that. And, in my humble opinion, he deserves it. My Netflix list has sent me Driven To Win lately. Biff was an unlikely sort to come to NASCAR. A little older than most, although he’s not old by any means, just older than most in the field today.

And he likes dogs. Big dogs. So he can’t be all bad. I met him at PetCo (where the pets go) during All-Star Week during a driver appearance. He autographed a few things for me and the NASCAR Pets calendar looks over my desk, October signed by the Biff. Yes, I'm wearing a Tony Stewart shirt here. And yes, again, blatant self-promotion.
But I digress.

Some people pick drivers by their colors or sponsor. I go by the pet. Which still doesn’t explain Tony Stewart, who at the time I came to racing, had Chihuahuas. And a monkey. Now, it’s cats. Siamese cats. I’m not fond of small, yippy dogs, nor do I especially like cats.

But I like Tony and never, never count him out when it matters. He has that determined look here and it was just for a million bucks at the All-Star Race, where he was defending his title from 2009. I was there then, too. Got a great burnout shot, the one on top of this post.

There you have it. My musings on the Chase. Happy, the Biff and TStew. Anybody but Johnson. Sorry Laura my west coast BFF, anybody but Jimmie.

Let the Chase begin!