Despite the red-hot three-man championship chase, NASCAR's TV ratings down again

  Did Jimmie Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, demoralize his own team by 'benching' his pit crew and bringing over Jeff Gordon's crew? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

That's a drop of 20 percent over last fall's chase 500, and that's in line with this fall's major decline in TV viewers, for whatever reason. The highest rated chase event this season was Talladega's 3.1, which itself was down 25 percent from the 2009 race.
    The Saturday Texas Nationwide race, with its controversial finish between winner Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch, pulled a 1.1 TV rating on ESPN2. That's about average for this year's Nationwide tour events.

    -- Johnson will once again have Jeff Gordon's over-the-wall crew for Sunday's Phoenix race. Crew chief Chad Knaus benched Johnson's own crew midway through the Texas race, a stunning move that rival crew chief Mike Ford, Hamlin's team boss, says probably cost Johnson the championship.
  Knaus conceded "It's a difficult decision for sure. There's always emotions involved."
  But he tried to downplay the implications: "The thing everybody has to realize is when we set up this team it was a one team situation.
   "We've had crew members from the 24 pit the 48, we've had crew members and mechanics on the 48 pit the 24.
   "We set it up at the beginning of the year that we were going to have five or six tire changers, we were going to have three or four jackmen for the two teams, and that was explained to the guys at the beginning of the year, and everyone understands that, and that's the way it is."
   This particular shakeup, Knaus said, was "a collective decision," which also included Steve Letarte, Gordon's crew chief. "there's a lot of positive in it, to be honest," Knaus insists.
   One twist: Johnson and Knaus have won 12 tour races since Gordon's last Sprint Cup win.
  
   -- Kyle Busch was slapped with a $25,000 fine and probation for making an obscene gesture, caught on an in-car TV camera at Texas.
   "I accept NASCAR's penalty and realize what I did during Sunday's race at Texas was inappropriate," Busch said.
    "Even in my relatively short time here in NASCAR, it's pretty obvious to everyone that I wear my emotions on my sleeve. Sometimes that passion has allowed me to find that little something extra I needed to win, and other times it's made me cross the line. Sunday at Texas was one of those days.
   "I lost my cool, plain and simple. It's not acceptable, and I know that. I apologize to NASCAR, its fans, all the partners who support Joe Gibbs Racing, and all the people who work so hard to give me a racecar that's capable of winning races every week. All of those people deserve better from me, and I owe it to them to keep my emotions in check."