By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
September 4, 2005
07:20 PM EDT (23:20 GMT)
FONTANA, Calif. -- Sunday's Sony HD 500 is one race away from the cutoff for the Chase for the Nextel Cup -- and it's 500 miles long. That's good news for seven drivers who are currently on the outside of the Chase but have a mathematical shot to get in. None of these bubble drivers will line up particularly well after Saturday's Bud Pole Qualifying session. Elliott Sadler, the race's defending champion, was the best of the bunch in 15th; but only two of the group was inside the top 20 and three qualified worse than 37th. Sadler is currently 13th in the standings, but he's only 34 points out of 10th. Kevin Harvick joined him in the top-20 Saturday, in 18th. Harvick is 16th in the standings and is 122 points out of qualifying for the Chase. Others in the group include Joe Nemechek (qualified 22nd, sits 17th in the standings, 139 points out), Matt Kenseth (qualified 23rd, sits 11th, 11 out), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (37th, sits 15th, 117 out), Jamie McMurray (40th, sits 12th, 12 out) and Dale Jarrett (41st, sits 14th, 78 out). Even the drivers who are on the right side of the "great divide" had diverse qualifying efforts. While eighth place Carl Edwards won the Bud Pole and 10th man Jeff Gordon was sixth; ninth-place Ryan Newman had his worst qualifying effort of the season, 28th. For the most part, the outsiders' claim was race preparation, and at least for Sadler, his effort was better than a year ago, when he came from 17th on the grid to win. "Yeah, I'm happy with the lap because I didn't make a mock-up (qualifying) run in practice and we were just kind of guessing right there," Sadler said. "I think that's respectable for not making a mock-up run. "I'm proud of my guys and the adjustments they made to the car. They made it pretty good." That clashed with the take his Yates Racing teammate, Jarrett, had. "That wasn't very good," Jarrett said. "We've struggled since we've been here and it continued right there. The car is just not very good." Kenseth, who has used seven top-10 finishes in his last 10 starts to get to the position of almost getting into his second consecutive Chase, used the same strategy as Sadler to lesser effect. "That was awful -- I probably tried too hard," Kenseth said. "We ran pretty good in practice and didn't do a qualifying run, but I thought I could run quicker than what Mark (Martin) did." Kenseth's Roush Racing teammate Martin was second to Edwards as Roush cars swept the top-four spots. Unlike his mates, Kenseth made no improvement from practice.  |  | | Matt Kenseth Credit: Autostock |
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"What we just qualified was what we ran in practice in race trim," Kenseth said. "I just tried too hard and had a terrible lap." Nemechek, who had a dominant car in February's Auto Club 500 before engine failure stopped him, concentrated mostly on race runs in practice as well. But his qualifying effort Saturday ended a string of four consecutive top-10 qualifying runs for his MB2 Motorsports car. Sadler said his team, which qualified for the inaugural Chase last year, was undaunted by the qualifying run and was running loose. "I'm ready to go racing," Sadler said. "I've been more comfortable this weekend than I have in a couple of months (because) I just know we have nothing to lose. "We're already on the outside of the Chase, so we can't do any worse. We've come here and we need to run good (because) the guys we're running against in the Chase are gonna run good. "We need to try to win this race like we did last year. We think we've got a top 10 car and we'll keep massaging on it all night." Earnhardt Jr., who also made the Chase last season but has struggled of late, with only two top-10 finishes in his last five races, was desperately anticipating Sunday evening's race, although his oval track qualifying this season has typically been well beyond the top 15 positions. Earnhardt was asked if he hoped his car would be better in race trim and on long runs. "Hell yeah," Earnhardt said. "That (qualifying lap) was horrible." | 
