Kyle Busch has transferred much of his off-track frustrations to wins on the track. Getty Images

The three combatants toddled into the media center of Richmond International Raceway on Friday, plopped behind a smallish table and instinctively checked to see if their microphones were live.

Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson. The top three drivers in the Sprint Cup standings were clad in street clothes and relaxed, already secure in their positions for the upcoming Chase for the Championship and sufficiently idled-down knowing that Tropical Storm Hanna was about to postpone the final race of the regular season the next evening.

Busch was disarmed and smiling, offering a rare pinhole into the young man behind the nefarious façade when he sheepishly was forced to admit he didn't know the definition of the word 'crescendo.'

Edwards was animated and confident, in keeping with a six-week burst in which he had won three times -- once moving Busch out of the way late in the race to win at Bristol -- and made himself very much a championship contender.

Johnson was placid, witty. It was as if knew something they didn't. He did, of course. He knew how to win a Sprint Cup championship. He'd done it the past two seasons, after all. He'd come from farther back with less time. These boys were good, but they weren't Chase-good yet. Of course, he didn't say any of that. He might not have even been thinking it. But he should have been.

Ten races remain to settle the Sprint Cup championship. Busch was the undisputed master of the regular season with eight victories. Pre-Chase, this thing might be over. But it's not. His 20-point lead over Edwards and 40 over Johnson is the difference of a bobble, a bad pit call, a few positions in a race.

Any one of the 12 Chase-eligibles could raise the trophy when the season concludes at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but if it is anyone but those three men on the stage at Richmond, it would be a surprise. Each has a case to believe it will be his.

The Case For Kyle Busch

The 23-year-old younger brother of 2004 series champion Kurt Busch is in many ways the refreshing new character NASCAR so craves. He's outspoken, brash, punkish if your demographic skews older, and maddening to detractors in that he backs up everything he says with the type of race-changing talent that comes along so rarely.

Expelled from one of the best rides in racing when he was replaced at Hendrick Motorsports with Dale Earnhardt Jr. this season, he has competed all season like a driver scorned, and his phenomenal abilities have allowed him to channel that aggression into winning -- a lot -- instead of running off the rails. He leads the Sprint Cup series with eight wins, added seven in the Nationwide Series and three more in trucks.

A 10-race sprint to the finish would seemingly be the easiest part, but a 208-point lead was erased when points were reset for the Chase and one of the attributes that makes him special -- unmitigated brazenness -- could make him vulnerable when every move, every point is exponentially more important. Busch entered the Chase in fourth in 2006, but finished 38th at New Hampshire and 40th at Dover with an engine issue and sulked to a 10th-place finish in the standings. He started the Chase third last season, but sank to fifth after being involved in a major crash at Talladega.