In a NASCAR world where change comes seemingly every day, it's good to know there are certain constants one can always rely on:

• Richard Petty's smile and cowboy hat;
• Fans displaying the Stars and Stripes during the national anthem;
• Terry Blount being a moron.

Silly me... I thought people won championships because they, oh, accumulated more points than everyone else.  Which the Chase has absolutely nothing to do with.

Actually, the sun is far more likely to explode than implode, but this isn't a science lesson.  What this is actually an example of is Blount once again being NASCAR's toady boy parroting the party line.  I already said this isn't science, but there is some math involved here.  By Blount's "logic," any driver in the pre-Chase era who won the title but didn't score the most points in the last ten races is undeserving of the championship.  Yeahright.

Because he's won (or at least is winning) the Chase, yes.  Without it, he'd be applauding Gordon who would have already pocketed the trophy.

That's nice.  I remember one year, 1993 to be precise, that the San Francisco Giants won 103 games... and didn't make the playoffs because the Braves who at that time were in the National League Western Division (there was no Central Division or wild card back then) won 104.  Certainly the Giants "earned" the right to play in the post-season that year; after all, the Phillies who were the Eastern Division champions won "only" 97 games that season.  Did they play in the post-season?  No.  So don't tell me a late season surge "earns" anything when everything that took place before then was whisked away; a 317 point lead magically transformed into a twenty point deficit.  I take it Gordon didn't "earn" that points lead because he did it at the wrong time of year, eh Blount?

And everyone else in the Chase played turtle?

It would have looked like... oh, you know... sports.  How many Super Bowls have been blowouts?  By Blount's logic, the score would be reset to a tie with five minutes remaining in the fourth period in order to make things more "exciting."  Guess what, lugnut head?  Sometimes the score is lopsided.  Artificially manipulating it to generate some "excitement" is a moronic falsehood.  No wonder Blount likes it so much.

Is there any doubt which team was the best throughout the entire season?  No.  It was Gordon's.

Ah... now we go from being stupid to...

Submitted below for your consideration is a post written by yours truly on November fourth of this year:

In mulling over today's Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, won by one Jimmie Johnson as crew chiefed by Chad Knaus, it's well nigh impossible to not have another sports duo come to mind, namely Tom Brady and Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots.

Consider the similarities.  First, Brady and Johnson:

• The ability to perform in whatever manner the situation dictates, be it domination from start to finish or at their best when under pressure.  Need a six touchdowns in the first half blowout or a last minute desperation drive for a score?  Brady.  Need someone to lap the field before the pace car gets off the track or a closing lap did-you-see-that maneuver for the win?  Johnson.  In any of the above, as close to automatic as it gets.
  
• The ability to thoroughly annoy opponents with a "not my fault I'm that much better than you" attitude.
  
• A personality that depending on whether you're a fan or not is either refreshingly unpretentious and down to earth, or voted most likely to be mistaken for stale oatmeal.

Now, Belichick and Knaus:

• Complete knowledge of their own team's strengths and weaknesses, along with those of their opponents, which when combined with unquestioned genius-level comprehension into their chosen field allows full exploitation of any shortcomings by others while minimizing any potential damage from their own.
  
• The ability to adjust on the fly to any given scenario as the game or race develops.
  
• Having the words "I'm sorry" surgically removed from their being.
  
• Pushing the envelope of what is legal as far as it will go, then acting surprised when caught going beyond accepted boundaries.

Oh, one other thing all four have in common...

... near-universal enmity because they're currently impossible to defeat.

Right now, the championship is Johnson's to lose after yet another superior team performance over Gordon's.  For whatever reason, Gordon's crew chief Steve Letarte is incapable of getting it right until near the end of a race, at which point Gordon has to make a mad chase toward the front while Johnson pretty much lives there from the drop of the green flag.  When you don't have to expend the majority of your energy playing catch-up, you have the resources to pull off dramatic race-ending passes for the win such as was the case today.

It's not a matter of who is the better driver.  Gordon is better by far than Johnson.  That duly noted, when you're being forced in race after race to mount a comeback after keeping your car in contention through sheer will and skill as in the hands of any lesser a talent said car would be in the "oh are they in the race today" category ten laps into the event, how can you realistically be expected to accomplish any more than you are?

So yes, with the penultimate event of the season this coming weekend at Phoenix, nothing stands between Johnson and back to back titles except random fate -- a tire or part failure, being at the wrong place on the track at the wrong time.  Hardly something to pin any hopes on.  The only thing at this point more certain than another trophy for the #48 is his completion of the process none-too affectionately labeled replacing Gordon as the driver the greatest number of fans love to hate.  Until somebody comes along to beat him, it'll stay that way.  And expect it to stay that way for a good long while.  Johnson is NASCAR's new dynasty.  And dynasties all have one thing in common: they last far longer than those who despise them care to contemplate.

Blount's story is dated November thirteenth of this year.

I'm not calling him out just for being a NASCAR-bootlicking imbecile.  I'm calling him out for blatantly ripping me off and not giving me a lick of credit for it.  And I defy him or anyone else at ESPN to prove otherwise.  Because they can't.

Anyway, let's finish up with the plagiarist's piffle:

How nice of you to notice.

And everything that happened during the first twenty-six weeks?  Pffft!  Totally unimportant.

And didn't win the championship.  It happens.  Deal.

Wrong when he first said it, wrong every time he's said it, and wrong this time as well.

And there you have it.  Theft and stupidity all in one column.  Congratulations, Mr. Blount.  You've done professional journalism proud.