One down, nine to go.

The Sylvania 300 at Loudon, New Hampshire was unremarkable, except for four things:
It was the first race of the Chase for the Championship.
Seven of the twelve Chase drivers finished in the top seven positions.
Clint Bowyer won his first NASCAR Cup race, making him the fourth driver this year to celebrate a first victory in the series.
The HMS advantage in the Formula N (CoT) cars seems to have diminished lately.
One more thing: Richard and Kyle Petty, Robin Miller, and Dave Despain all seem to have forgotten that Tony Stewart entered his NASCAR career while holding the IRL championship.
And another: People who think Stewart may defect from Joe Gibbs Racing after his contract expires in 2009 haven't been paying attention to him. He will either get a career contract or retire from NASCAR.
I have been preoccupied by some bad news I received yesterday morning--news that has affected me more profoundly than I would have expected or that it should, so please excuse the brevity and terseness of this post.