Busch, Harvick survive trouble, secure Chase berth (cont'd)

"Our heart was beating at a thousand miles per hour after that cause I figured the rear bumper cover was flapping in the wind or there might be material dragging on the tires. Luckily there was a red flag at that point -- we checked the car out and everything was OK.

"Our car was a little loose after that, after the crush panels got tore out of the back and the downforce just didn't seem to be there. To come home ninth, it's just a testament to what this team is doing."

Despite Harvick's contention, there wasn't a lot of excitement to be had amongst the Chase hopefuls on this night. The closest Earnhardt got to 12th was when he was 46 points behind Harvick with about 150 laps remaining.

But that was when Harvick had been banished to the tail end of the longest line for pitting too soon under caution, for a restart at Lap 251, when he was 30th.

Busch never fell out of the top 15 and Harvick only did when he was recovering from lengthy pit service to correct the overheating issue.

Busch's ended up 10th in the driver standings after 26 races. But he'll be seeded fifth in the fourth annual Chase thanks to his two victories earlier this season.

Harvick had recovered enough by the end of the race to finish a strong seventh, but it wasn't enough to elevate the 2007 Daytona 500 winner out of the 12th position. But Harvick wasn't disappointed.

"It was solid, to come back like that," Harvick said. "It's kind of like everything's been this year. You have to fight back, and it seems like we always have our cars going pretty good. Tonight we had it going pretty good but we just had that one deal and we had to come from the back. Still, a good night for us, everybody's back on the same turf now, so it'll be fun."

Busch agreed with Harvick on that score.

"It's great to be back [in the Chase] and to hear that we finished 10th overall after the first 26 races -- that's a little feather in the cap," Busch said. "It's a nice little note to know that we did a good job over the first 26 races, especially as of late with [crew chief] Pat Tryson coming aboard.

"Since the beginning of July it's felt like a very solid race team. We're poised to be a threat in this deal. We have fast racecars, we have consistency and we have patience -- and the best thing is we have that experience [because] Pat has been in the Chase as a crew chief every year that it has existed."