Old vs. young in chase for Cup

After two of 10 races in NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship, it’s the new breed against the almost retired in the battle for the top spot.

Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson, stock car racing’s pinup boy, leads the Chase, with Dodge veteran Rusty Wallace second, seven points back. Ryan Newman (Dodge) is third and ageless Mark Martin (Ford) is fourth as the Nextel Cup series rumbles into Talladega Superspeedway this weekend.

Johnson, 30, is in his fourth full season in Cup competition, having finished runner-up in the points race the last two years. Wallace, 49, began his Cup career in 1980, when Johnson was riding tricycles around the neighborhood in El Cajon, Calif. (Actually, Johnson began racing motocross at age 4.)

Newman, 27, joined Penske Racing South in 2000 and has been running Cup full-time since 2002. Martin, 46, a four-time series runner-up, broke into Cup racing in 1981. Any of the four could win at Talladega, but Martin, who drives the No. 6 Viagra Ford, has enjoyed the most success at the super-speedway. He won Cup races there in 1995 and 1997 and set a race record (188.354 mph) in ‘97.

Martin, who finished fourth Sunday at Dover, could vault into the Chase lead at Talladega. He trails Johnson by 21 points. Had Martin taken four tires instead of two on a late restart Sunday, he might already have the lead.

Wallace, third at Dover, continues to amaze the NASCAR garage and himself with his consistency this season, his last in Cup racing.

“The crazy thing is, I’m probably driving better right now than I ever drove in my life,” said Wallace, who has eight top-five and 16 top-10 finishes. “I guess I don’t need to retire, but, hey, I’ve made the decision to do that.”

Can Wallace, the Cup champion in 1989, squeeze everything out of the final eight starts of his career and win a second title in his Last Call tour?

“I’m excited and calm, too,” Wallace said of his chances. “I’ve told everybody I’m just treating every single race like it’s the last race. I’m not looking three or four races down the road. I’m not looking at next year, because there is no next year. I want to go out a winner now.”