HAMPTON, Ga. – As I listened to one driver after another talking about the Chase and simultaneously contradict each other, it occurred to me that drivers may or may not need momentum, but NASCAR certainly does.

            Exit polling at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday revealed that the citizen drivers are about as polarized as citizens in general. Sixty-two percent think momentum is crucial, and 38 percent don’t think it means anything at all. Fifty-four percent may not actually say they are looking ahead to the Chase, but that’s all they talk about. Forty-two percent take them one race at a time. Polling in this category was limited to the candidates.

            Slightly more attention was paid the next race, Sept. 11 at Richmond, than this one. Track officials here say they expect “a spirited walk-up sale,” which is a positive spin on “thousands upon thousands of good seats available.”

            There didn’t seem to be much passion in evidence, or maybe it was just I.

            Some evidence exists, however, to support my suspicion. Based on the transcript, Tony Stewart didn’t bite one reporter’s head off. Or perhaps he just didn’t talk about it. Maybe he just quietly bit someone’s head off. Has Stewart just decided to back off? Had he been sedated? Or was he just naturally bored? Was it an armistice or was Stewart just waiting for the reinforcements to arrive? Stewart usually has a reporter for lunch. Is he on a diet?

            Parallel questions await this race. Does the proximity of the Chase increase or decrease the hunger for winning … this week? Some drivers use the “same as always” spin, suggesting that since they are so accustomed to sports’ proverbial “110 percent,” all-race, every-race banality, they couldn’t possibly back off and turn this into a Chase trial run. Those at the top of the point standings say all they have to race for is a win (and secure valuable Chase bonus points), this despite the fact that they all know better than to ever admit they are trying to do anything other than win.

            Of course, the Chase field is all but set, so everyone with the possible exception of Clint Bowyer has every reason to seek those bonus points, which, relatively speaking, carry almost as much value as “green stamps” once did.

            A driver says, “The championship could be decided by those 10 points,” where once upon a time, a housewife despaired that her husband just bought some new lawn furniture while, in the pantry, she had accumulated almost enough green stamps to get it for free.

            As for those who aren’t going to make the Chase, the only avoidance of obscurity from here until Thanksgiving is to win a race.

            In other words, everyone is going to be what, in NASCAR, relates to the cowboy term “hellbent for leather.” It just seems a wee bit tepid.

            It’s all based on what’s on the record.

You may contact Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.