It's probably easy to save the following line than to type it again this season, since it's almost certain we'll see it again:
Martin Truex Jr. won another NASCAR race on Sunday, and he's still the favorite to win the championship in November at Homestead.
The only difference between this race, Truex's league-leading seventh win this season, and the other wins is that Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 was the second cutdown race of these NASCAR playoffs. Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch were the lucky survivors, while Matt Kenseth and Kyle Larson _ whose engine blew early and unexpectedly knocked him out of the playoffs _ were eliminated.
Larson's elimination was the biggest wrench in the entire race, as it paved the way for Johnson to continue on. Had he not suffered that catastrophic blow, Johnson would likely be heading home and Larson would still have a shot at winning his first NASCAR championship.
