Penske no Chase lock, but BMS another good show (cont'd)

Busch, who's been on a tear since he was paired with crew chief Pat Tryson at mid-summer, particularly in the most recent "standard car" races, where he has two wins and four top-six finishes in his last five starts, said he's aware of the razor's edge his team is treading.

"We're running more consistent, and that's what it takes if you want to be a championship contender," Busch said. "But for us, we still have to get into the Chase -- we're not locked in and we're not losing focus on our big picture, which is two more races."

Lap-by-Lap

Another COT race, another good showing by the Penske cars. See how they performed in Saturday's Sharpie 500.

• Lap-by-Lap, click here
• Race Video, click here

Newman, whose last win came nearly two years ago in the Chase's opening event at New Hampshire, walked out of Bristol with Penske, explaining a late-race banging match with Earnhardt that was the result of a "miscommunication" over the same piece of real estate.

While both drivers smoothed those waters with their post-race comments, Newman said he enjoyed the "new Bristol."

"It was nice not to see so many feuded cautions -- guys taking each other out in retaliation and things like that," Newman said. "I didn't see it on my end, at least, and it was a good race and they did a good job with the racetrack. It was fun and we had two good days of racing.

"It's not mellower -- I'm still just as whipped as I would be last year. But I think it's a lot racier and not just bumpy."

And any weight he carried was eased considerably by his run of COT finishes, along with recent top-10s at Chicagoland and Pocono.

"It's good to be running so well, and like I said before, we can't expect to make up points in these last four races that we didn't get in the first 22," Newman said. "We can only try our best, hopefully have a good effort and we did with our Dodge [Saturday].

"I was miserable in the car. We just got behind a little bit on pit road and that was enough -- we just didn't have enough to get past those guys. We were good enough to hold our own but couldn't pass them."

Busch said his finish was sealed by a No. 2 Avenger that was too tight at the end, but even given his winning legacy of five victories on the "old Bristol," he was happy.

"The track was obviously the best idea somebody could of implemented into a half-mile [and] I'm happy to race on it," Busch said. "It was just fantastic -- hands-down. I ran the bottom groove like the old-school days, looking like the Blue Deuce hugging the bottom of old, so we need to work on our car a little bit to drive different grooves, but I thought a sixth-place finish was pretty solid."