NO DRAMA; Ryan Newman dominates Dover.(Motorsports)(Dover International Speedway)

Byline: AL PEARCE

Most series watchers figure this year's NASCAR champion can afford one poor finish during the 10-race Chase for the Championship playoff. Two bad finishes will likely eliminate a driver, and three will absolutely, positively, no-chance him. Which is why the 10 Nextel Cup finalists felt some jitters going to Dover.

In round one at Loudon the week before, Tony Stewart, Jeremy Mayfield and Ryan Newman had poor finishes. In June at Dover Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Elliott Sadler had poor finishes. And last fall at Dover Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kurt Busch had poor finishes. Indeed, along with the crapshoot that is Talladega, most of the top-10 felt Dover would be especially treacherous. It was, but for only two of the top-10.

Newman won the 400-lap, 400-mile race without suspense, mercy or apology. He led five times for 325 laps, including the first 32 and the final 135 after the race's only green-flag pit stop. Kenseth led twice for 58 laps before crashing on pit road; Busch led twice for 12 laps; Martin, Earnhardt Jr., Gordon and Ken Schrader once each. Nine of the 13 lead changes came while service stops cycled through on pit road.

"I ran the first 395 laps hard,'' Newman said after his second win this season and the 11th of his career. "After that, I relaxed.'' Martin, the June winner at Dover, finished second, then Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Busch, Stewart, May-field and Jamie McMurray. Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson were ninth and 10th, each a lap down. Sadler dropped from a cinch top-10 finish to 20th with a late pit stop and speeding penalty. Kenseth went from top-five to 32nd after his careless accident cost him 50 laps in the garage. Johnson was a likely top-five finisher until losing a lap to a disputed speeding penalty near halfway.

Gordon took the points lead, one ahead of Busch, 18 ahead of Earnhardt Jr. and 57 ahead of Johnson and Martin. Sadler and Kenseth are 96 and 99 behind, Newman trails by 107, Stewart by 135 and Mayfield by 157. The last eight races are on consecutive weekends at Talladega, Kansas City, Charlotte, Martinsville, Atlanta, Phoenix, Darlington and Homestead.

"Nobody's out of it yet,'' said Don Miller, general manager of Newman's Dodge team, "but it's gonna be hard to make up 150 or 160 points once we get four or five races into this thing. When you get the equivalent of one race behind [about 150 points], you're probably not going to make it up. By then, you have to count on everybody ahead of you having trouble. Everybody gets one mulligan, but that's it.''