RICHMOND, Va. -- Saturday night's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 had barely reached the halfway point when Clint Bowyer's No. 07 Chevrolet came barreling into Turn 4 at Richmond International Raceway, racing the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin for the lead as if it were the last lap.

It was a mistake, and Bowyer paid a dear price for it when he spun, bringing out the sixth caution flag of the night and sending his hopes for a victory up in the smoke that billowed up from his tires.

Lap-by-Lap

Jimmie Johnson won, Kevin Harvick secured the final Chase spot as Dale Earnhardt Jr. was eliminated shortly before his engine gave out at Richmond.

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"Absolutely, I got a little over-aggressive there," Bowyer said. "I promised the guys [on the No. 07 crew] that we would go for it. We had nothing to lose; we had to race for a win -- and I just got a little too aggressive there."

Bowyer eventually recovered enough to finish 12th, which was fitting because he now is seeded 12th for the Chase for the Nextel Cup. He also is the only one of the 12 Chase qualifiers who does not have a win this season, so he admitted he goes into the final 10 races, beginning next Sunday at New Hampshire International Speedway, desperately seeking to find some momentum.

Bowyer also is 60 points behind top seed Jimmie Johnson, who won his sixth race of the season at Richmond and enters the Chase with 10 bonus points for each of those victories.

"That puts us back, but we're 10 points out of sixth, so I'm really not too worried about it. Ten points is nothing," Bowyer said. "We could be fifth, or we could be leading the thing after the first race. Obviously 50 points is a lot bigger deal than just 10, but nonetheless, there are a lot of other drivers who would like to be a part of this Chase. We were solid week in and week out and we did the things it took to get in this Chase."

Bowyer is not alone among those entering the Chase with less momentum than they would like.

Carl Edwards, seeded fourth, blew a motor on Lap 182 of Saturday's 400-lap event and finished next-to-last in 42nd. Kyle Busch, seeded ninth, struggled to a 20th-place finish at Richmond that was his worst since placing 30th at the Coca-Cola 600 back on Memorial Day. The best 10th-seeded Jeff Burton could manage Saturday was 18th.

"Hopefully we can use this as a little collateral for some good luck for later in the Chase because we've got an awesome team right now," said Edwards, who refused to be dejected about tying for his worst finish of the season. He also finished 42nd at Talladega back in April.

Busch added of his night: "This was our worst performance with the [Car of Tomorrow]. All of the rest of the [Hendrick Motorsports] guys have run fine with it. So we just have to go back and look at what happened to us and see if we can find that we missed something, so we don't let it happen again."

The issue for Busch's No. 5 Chevrolet was handling, or rather a severe lack of it.

"We just did not handle whatsoever. I mean, the car was terrible," Busch said. "It just plowed through the center of the corner and it was loose off. I just could not get the thing to turn at all. I was just getting beat through the center of the corner terribly."

It made it seem as if much of the momentum he had built in previous weeks was sapped from the team on the eve of the Chase, he added.

"We had a great last 13 races coming into this race," Busch said. "It's just a bummer deal for today. I'm kind of down on myself for what all happened out there tonight. We'll just have to put that behind us and go into next week trying to punch back through and get up front and battle the other guys for some wins. That'll propel us higher in the standings and put us in the thick of it."

Of course, simply making the Chase puts him -- and the other 11 drivers who qualified -- pretty much in the thick of the race for a championship. That's how Burton and Bowyer said they choose to look at it, despite their struggles Saturday night.

"I come at it from two different points of view," Burton said. "Last year we came to Richmond and it was real stressful. We were one of many people who had to race their way in. It was very close. Then we got in, and we were like, 'OK, now we've got to go for the championship.' This year we've had like three weeks to get ourselves in championship mode. So that's the difference.

"But I don't think there's any question. Going to New Hampshire, you're going to see the intensity level pick up. Because so many people were locked in early this year, I think now you're going to see the intensity level pick up and the racing is going to be phenomenal."

Bowyer added that he still thirsts for his first victory of the season and of his young Nextel Cup career. But he's in the Chase. That in itself is a victory of sorts during a season that began with him sliding across the finish line upside down and on fire at the Daytona 500 way back in February.

"Definitely this season has been satisfying," Bowyer said. "It's been a successful year. I'm not going to kid anyone about that. But at the same time, it has been frustrating not to get our first win. I just want to pull that car into Victory Lane and give back to [team owner] Richard [Childress] for giving me this opportunity -- and to give back to the guys who are working so hard on these cars. That's what this sport's all about; that's what auto racing is all about. It's about winning races.

"That's probably what excites me the most. These last 10 races are at some of our best racetracks. That gives me a lot of confidence going into this thing."