Clint Bowyer

For those who found the first three races of NASCAR's Chase for the Cup title playoff wanting for excitement -- and some post-race articles and reader comments showed there were more than a few -- your race is at hand. Talladega awaits. Race No. 4 in the Chase is Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, the longest (2.66 miles), wildest and most unpredictable event in the 10-race title playoff. Talladega, 50 miles east of Birmingham, is one of two high-banked, restrictor-plate tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule (Daytona is the other)

In his nearly 20-year career driving in NASCAR's top series, Jeff Gordon has won four championships, 86 races (third highest in the sport), $127 million in race purses and millions more in endorsements. But as long as the 41-year-old Gordon is in a race car, all that matters is winning the next race or capturing the next title. And that was wholly evident this weekend at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. Gordon needed a strong finish in Saturday night's race to snag the 12th and final berth in NASCAR's Chase for the Cup, its 10-race championship playoff that starts next week.

Clint Bowyer raced to his first victory on a road course, and first with Michael Waltrip Racing, by holding off Kurt Busch at Sonoma, Calif. Bowyer dominated Sunday's race by leading 70 of the 112 laps. Defending race winner Busch, in an unsponsored car, was all over the bumper of Bowyer's Toyota late and got a final shot at taking the win away when caution flew with four laps remaining. Only Busch damaged his car with roughly eight laps to go, and he worried the entire caution period whether his Chevrolet was ruined and had no chance of catching Bowyer through the two-lap overtime sprint to the finish.

Brad Keselowski got a huge push from Kyle Busch to take the lead with a lap to go Sunday, then used a calculated move to prevent Busch from taking the win away from him at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. A nine-car accident with four laps remaining brought out the yellow flag, setting up a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish. Keselowski ended up in Victory Lane for the second time this season, and continued a hot streak for team owner Roger Penske , who won for the first time in the Sprint Cup Series at Talladega.

Kyle Busch was the halfway leader Sunday in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. On a postcard-perfect day with temperatures in the 80s, Kevin Harvick was second and pole-sitter Mark Martin was third in the 312-lap race. Jimmie Johnson, the only four-time winner at Phoenix, led 55 laps but later suffered a right-rear wheel problem that dropped him to 19th. The biggest crash came on Lap 131 when A.J. Allmendinger, Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray made contact coming out of Turn 4, sending Allmendinger and Menard into the wall.

NASCAR fans might need a program this year to get accustomed to a flurry of off-season driver changes by teams. It's common for some Sprint Cup Series drivers to switch rides in the winter, but the amount of shuffling ahead of the season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday was unusually high. Several crew chiefs also moved. A look at the how the major Cup teams shape up for 2012: Hendrick Motorsports: Kasey Kahne becomes the fourth driver in Hendrick's stable, as planned, after the departure of veteran Mark Martin.

Could Delaware be Jimmie Johnson's Waterloo? Johnson is trying to win a record sixth consecutive championship in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series, but he is in trouble as racing resumes Sunday at Dover International Speedway. After two races in NASCAR's 10-race Chase for the Cup playoff, Johnson is 10th among the 12 Chase drivers, a sizable 29 points behind leader Tony Stewart, a two-time champion who won both races. It's the lowest Johnson has ever been in the Chase standings, and he needs a strong showing at Dover to improve his position because if he doesn't, the El Cajon native nicknamed "Five Time" could end up remaining just that at season's end. "I don't think we're in a position where it's win or nothing," Johnson told reporters at Dover on Friday, but he added that "we need to get a top-three run here.

Masters champion Charl Schwartzel turned anger into a string of birdies for a five-under 66 on Saturday that put him in a three-way tie for the lead with Adam Scott and Bubba Watson in the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston in Norton, Mass. Watson, who finally put some attention back on his golf, played in the morning and produced what he called a "boring" round of 64 that included an eagle on the seventh hole for the second straight day. Scott, who won on the TPC Boston eight years, shot 63 in the afternoon.

True to the name, the two wild-card drivers who reach NASCAR's title playoff this year could be surprising. The latest candidate: Paul Menard, who scored the first Sprint Cup Series win of his career Sunday in the Brickyard 400 and suddenly finds himself in playoff contention. NASCAR tweaked its Chase for the Cup playoff this year to include the top 10 drivers in points after the first 26 races, along with two wild-card drivers who were 11th to 20th in points and had the most wins.

About all Tiger Woods could say Tuesday about the injuries to his knee and Achilles' tendon is that he is "good enough to play" in the Players Championship. Woods says he practiced on the range Monday for the first time since the Masters. His first round of golf since he tied for fourth at Augusta National was on Tuesday at the TPC Sawgrass, though that was only nine holes. He says his left knee and right Achilles' tendon are better, but he'll have to wait and see how it responds in his first tournament in a month.