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NASCAR SPRINT CUP FORD ECOBOOST 400 | Commentary Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth have made the underhanded tactics in the final regular-season race irrelevant.

Ford Championship weekend

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Special to the Miami Herald

The scandal has become a footnote, nothing more.

The designation "2013 Sprint Cup champion" in NASCAR's record book will warrant no asterisk despite the furor provoked by spur-of-the-moment but lamentably corrupt team tactics in the closing laps of the final "regular-season" race at Richmond, Va., on Sept. 7.

Yes, serious ramifications will linger for a few after a storm of controversy excessively described initially as everything from a "seedy underbelly" of stock car racing to a "crisis of credibility." But the storm has been downgraded to a swiftly passing shower.

For that, NASCAR owes a debt of gratitude to five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and 2003 champion Matt Kenseth, both squeaky-clean competitors and neither remotely connected to the firestorm that erupted after the Federated Auto Parts 400.

With only the Advocare 500 at Phoenix on Sunday and the climactic Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway next Sunday remaining, Johnson and Kenseth have compressed the Chase to a hell-bent and untainted duel toward the Homestead finish line and the championship.

Meanwhile, principals in "Spingate," including instigators, beneficiaries and victims, have - one by one - inconspicuously retreated into championship irrelevance. That has helped give the unseemly episode a short shelf life.

The 26th and final "regular-season" race at Richmond traditionally maximizes prime-time drama on a star-spangled Saturday night because it finalizes the 12-driver lineup for the Chase. Only it didn't.

To recap, NASCAR officials two days later cast out Martin Truex Jr., by all indications an innocent in Michael Waltrip Racing's manipulation of the Richmond results to his benefit. (MWR received a $300,000 fine, as well.)

The sanctioning body replaced Truex with Ryan Newman, deprived a near-certain Richmond victory by MWR's departure from ethical competition.

Officials weren't done. On the Friday before the 10-race Chase opener at Chicagoland, they tardily added four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, also victimized by late-race events, as a 13th Chaser.

Both executive actions were rational and laudable. They helped douse the most inflammatory reactions to a clearly intentional spin by Clint Bowyer to give Waltrip teammate Truex a last-gasp chance to get into the Chase. Subsequent radio communications and baffling strategy actually provided more actual evidence of skullduggery than Bowyer's spin.

Briefly, condensed, here is how it played out:

The Chase lineup is comprised of the top 10 points earners in the first 26 races of a 36-race season, plus wild cards for the two drivers ranked from 11 to 20 with most victories. Through 25 races, Kasey Kahne had a wild card locked up with two victories. Truex and Newman, though outside the top 10, each had one victory.

Newman took the lead from Carl Edwards with 10 laps remaining. As was clear by one recorded in-call message to Bowyer, "[No.] 39's going to win the race." That was followed shortly by the words, "Is your arm starting to hurt? I bet it's getting hot in there."

Moments later, an in-car camera shows Bowyer, having been put into the untenable position of taking the hint or not appearing to be a team player, twisting the steering wheel and skidding sideways. Out came the yellow flag, freezing the field with seven laps left.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP FORD ECOBOOST 400 | Commentary

Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth have made the underhanded tactics in the final regular-season race irrelevant.

1. (1) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 200 laps, 150 rating, 0 points, $58,100.

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