GREAT WIDE OPEN; Everyone is still alive in the Chase for the Cup.(Competition)

Byline: AL PEARCE

Like it or not-you'll probably find more who do than don't-NASCAR's 10-race, 12-driver playoff is working like a charm. After two races, the top five drivers in the Chase for the Cup are separated by 10 points, the top seven by only 46. And leader Jeff Gordon is only 158 ahead of 12th-place Denny Hamlin, a deficit that could be overcome in one weekend. Under NASCAR's old "full-season'' system, Gordon would be about to clinch his fifth Cup with room to spare.

This is how close Nextel Cup is these days: Except for a mid-race accident, Hamlin may have finished the Dodge Dealers 400 at Dover first or second in points. If not for tire and wheel issues, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick might have been close to the top as well. Only a late-race 10-car accident kept Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch from challenging at the end. Matt Kenseth was set to finish in the top three until blowing up late.

Carl Edwards lapped all but five drivers to win the 400-miler over Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin and Kyle Busch. The win pulled him from eighth in points to third, but a post-race penalty almost certainly will push him back down. NASCAR took issue with the right rear of his Roush-Fenway Ford and will impose penalties on Sept. 25. With eight races left, though, that shouldn't ruin his shot at the Cup.

"I think this Chase will be what people predicted,'' Edwards said after his third victory this year, the seventh of his career and his first at Dover. "The depth is such that I think you'll have to win races [to win the Cup]. We're two races in, and guys have had bad luck and all, and to have the top seven within 30-something points [46, actually] is insane. I think it'll be an extremely tough Chase, and I wouldn't have said that before it started.''

Edwards and Kyle Busch were the only top-five- finishing Chasers, and Burton (seventh) and Tony Stewart (ninth) were the only others in the top 10. Gordon, Bowyer, Truex and Johnson were 11th to 14th; Harvick was 20th; Newman and Kurt Busch were 28th and 29th, and Hamlin was 38th. Even so, Hamlin is only slightly worse off than Johnson was after Dover last year, when he rallied to win the championship.

Neither Johnson nor Gordon-who came to Dover on top in points-distinguished himself. "It's too early to know what's going to make a difference,'' said Johnson, the pole winner, who led only the first lap. "That's why you've got to be consistent. [Kenseth] dominated [and] blew up. We thought we'd finish 33rd, but we're 14th, so who knows?''