HAMPTON, Ga. -- Most of the talk heading into Bristol this weekend has centered on the debut of the Car of Tomorrow. But Bristol also marks the fifth race of the Nextel Cup Series season, the last chance for drivers who are still relying on 2006 owner points for a guaranteed starting spot.

Teams' 2007 owner points will go into effect after Bristol, and several organizations are teetering below the top 35 line. Most notable among them is Kasey Kahne, who is 37th in owner points, 15 behind the 35th-place car of Jeff Green.

Kahne finished 39th Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway after getting collected in a four-car crash involving David Reutimann, Greg Biffle and Brian Vickers.

"When something [like that] happens, there's just no place to go," Kahne said. "The accident happened right in front of me and that was it."

Kahne got into the back of Reutimann, spinning the No. 00 around as the two cars faced nose-to-nose.

"I tried to turn left, but I just didn't have enough time," Kahne said.

Kahne was already a lap down when the accident happened on Lap 231.

"We got down early but managed to get the handling straightened out on the next two pit stops to be in position to get our lap back with a caution," Kahne said, "but the caution never came. The accident messed up the handling."

Kahne started the season losing 50 owner points for a rules violation during Daytona qualifying. In addition, he's been without team director Kenny Francis for the first four races this season, under suspension by NASCAR.

"Kenny will be back next week, and we'll be ready for Bristol," Kahne said.

Teammate Scott Riggs also had trouble Sunday and is 41st in owner points. Riggs lost an engine, and was the first car out of the field, resulting in a last-place finish.

"We were hoping to make a good showing [Sunday]," Riggs said. "We need to make a good showing for the points. We dug ourselves a hole here in the first three races by not having much luck.

But on this St. Patrick's Day weekend, the bad luck continued.

"We brought a great racecar to Atlanta. We were doing everything right," Riggs said. "All of a sudden we lost a cylinder and it started to slow down pretty bad and then we lost a couple more cylinders.

"We've just got to buckle down and keep digging ourselves out of the hole we've created for ourselves. We just need to get better finishes."

DEI's No. 15 is 36th in owner points, and the Wood Brothers' No. 21 is 38th. Then come two Toyotas, Bill Davis Racing's No. 22 and Team Red Bull's No. 83.

"The big thing next week is to finish the race," said Dave Blaney, driver of the No. 22. "Everybody on the team has been working real hard to move us further along, but now we just need to capitalize with a good finish."

Blaney finished 27th Sunday, his best showing of the season. In fact, it was the first time he has finished a race this year. But problems still persisted.

"We were up and down all weekend," Blaney said. "There was never really a point in the weekend where we got the car where we wanted it. I don't really know what is right or wrong, but I'm sure we'll take a look at everything and try to figure it out."

Blaney said a key at Bristol is not to get caught up in wrecks. That's exactly what happened Sunday to Vickers, driver of the No. 83.

"I was driving down the straightaway and all of a sudden I got hit from behind," Vickers said of the aftermath following the Reutimann/Biffle/Kahne crash. "Something happened to the motor early in the race and we don't really know what it was, but we had a great-handling car all day.

"I was just trying to get to the end, get a decent finish and get some points. I think that's the first time I've been wrecked on a straightaway."

Crew chief Doug Richert came away both disheartened and encouraged about his team's intermediate-track setup.

"Bad day for Team Red Bull and good day on the handling and pit-stop side," Richert said. "Unfortunately, I wanted to take this car to Texas [in two weeks] and I don't know that I'll have that opportunity now. We're just going to work on building another car like we had [Sunday] and go on to Texas and forget about this."

Reutimann, who is 44th in owner points, was driving the car that hit Vickers after he first collided with Greg Biffle.

"I'm just disappointed," said Reutimann, who has three starts this season and three crashes. "I have another torn-up racecar and I have nothing to show for it. That's kind of the way our season's been and we need to figure out a way to get around that.

"Qualifying for the race is always a step in the right direction, but riding around out here like we did [Sunday] is not. It just seems like for every one step forward, we take two steps back."

Dale Jarrett is the only Toyota currently in the top 35. But he has also used four past champion's provisional to make every race. He and Blaney have been the only two Toyotas to run in every race this season.

"Even with the Car of Tomorrow, we won't really have to change the way we have to approach the racing at a track like Bristol," Blaney said. "It's the same as every time you go to Bristol. You just have to try to get your car handling good and stay out of trouble."

If not, there will be even more trouble to follow.