Happy Hour: Who wins the Chase in a single-elimination knockout?

Welcome to the latest Happy Hour mailbag! You know how these work: You write us with your best rant/ joke/one-liner at happyhournascar@yahoogroups.com (note new address) or on Twitter at @jaybusbee, we respond to your messages, everyone goes away with a smile on their face. There's something about single-elimination, winner-take-all battles that gets everyone fired up. We talked about this last week, and I put out the challenge to see how a single-elimination Chase would have worked out. I got a ton of great responses, but the first one in came from John Lawson, who laid out NASCAR's version of Mortal Kombat in this way: Denny Hamlin — eliminated 1st at Chicago Ryan Newman — eliminated 2nd at New Hampshire Tony Stewart — eliminated 3rd at Dover Jeff Gordon — eliminated 4th at Kansas Jimmie Johnson — eliminated 5th at Charlotte Kurt Busch — eliminated 6th at Talledega Matt Kenseth — eliminated 7th at Martinsville Kyle Busch — eliminated 8th at Texas (Did not race) Dale Earn...