It was a fairly notable accomplishment, a Virginia-born driver securing a high starting position on a Virginia racetrack. Jeff Burton slid out of his racecar after qualifying fifth at Richmond International Raceway in the late summer of 2004, waited for the usual cluster of reporters to come over to him -- and waited, and waited, and waited. That was when it hit him, as squarely as a collision with the outside wall.

He had been rendered insignificant by the Chase.

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I think some guys in the Chase expect special consideration. I don't think that's right. I think just because you're in the Chase doesn't change the fact that the guys not in the Chase, he has as much right to the racetrack as you do.

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JEFF BURTON

"I parked my car after the qualifying lap, and not one person from the media was standing there," remembered Burton, who missed the Chase in 2004 and '05. "And I was like, we just did pretty good, you know what I mean? Nobody seemed to care. That's just how it is. If you're not in the Chase, people just don't pay you a whole lot of attention. You have to do something dramatic to bring that attention in."

One byproduct of NASCAR's five-year-old playoff is that it creates an unfortunate caste system, one that separates the 12 drivers vying for the championship from everybody else. The top 12 have NASCAR-mandated interview sessions every week. Reporters dissect and fans fret over their championship chances. Television broadcasts naturally place more focus on teams with title aspirations, giving the sponsors of those organizations more air time in the process. The other 31 drivers in the starting field become minor players in a drama that completely revolves around who will be left clutching the Sprint Cup trophy on Nov. 16 outside Miami.

The majority of teams that are excluded from the title hunt almost feel as if they're competing in a vacuum. "You feel left out," said Burton, who's experienced it from both sides. When the Chase was first implemented five years ago, there were fears that teams that didn't qualify would lose sponsorship, or be forced to settle for deals that would be contingent upon playoff berths. While the worst-case scenarios haven't materialized, it's clear that many non-Chase teams have a more difficult time securing sponsorship, and that the bulk of media attention is slanted toward teams with championship hopes.

Some would like to see that change.

"That's one thing that I think we could work on to help our sport and sponsors for all the teams -- besides the 12 guys who are running for the Chase each week, let's pick three guys each week randomly and cover those guys throughout the field and target them as much as the guys in the Chase," said Robbie Loomis, vice president at Petty Enterprises. "For me personally, the job is the same. We're trying to improve the product for the 43 and 45 cars and get the Petty Enterprise cars to Victory Lane. I measure our success each week. It doesn't matter if it's a Chase race or an all-star race on Saturday night, I look at what lap time is No. 1 and how far we are off to that lap time. It doesn't matter who's up there or what organization they're from, we've got to get to that lap time, and that's what should be No. 1." (Continued)