BROOKLYN, Mich. -- For Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne, Bristol can't come soon enough. That's because both found trouble early in the 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway and both fell three spots in the point standings to ninth and 11th, respectively.

“

I don't want to be where we are in the points right now, but in some ways, this is an easier position to be in because now we just go out there and run hard every weekend and we can take chances and do things that can maybe get us that win.

”

JEFF GORDON

Gordon was the first to go when on Lap 90 he was on the left side of a three-wide sandwich with teammate Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart that saw the No. 24 bounce off of Johnson's No. 48.

Johnson cut a tire immediately and was able to drive safely onto pit road; Gordon wasn't as fortunate. On Lap 98 his tire finally gave, sending him hard into the Turn 2 wall (watch video). After pulling into the garage, Gordon wasn't as upset about the crash as he was for being in the middle of the pack.

"The first thing that happened was we just had a bad pit stop that put us back there, and we shouldn't have been back there to begin with," Gordon said, referring to his stop on Lap 86 when he entered the pits fourth and left 15th. "We finally had a great car. It's pretty disappointing that got us back there to begin with.

"We were three-wide and I came off of [Turn] 4 and my spotter at the last second said, 'Two cars outside,' and it was too late. It looked like Tony came off the wall and touched Jimmie a little bit and Jimmie came down and there was just no room to move there because we were all so tight coming off there."

After some repairs, Gordon was back on the track by Lap 159 but lasted just 16 more laps before the team called it a day and finished 42nd.

Surprisingly, Gordon found the silver lining after ending the day with a DNF.

"I'm relieved because we've been going every week going, 'Well we can't take to big of a risk but we've got to push hard enough,'" Gordon said. "Now we just don't worry about anything. We can just drive as hard as we can, do anything we possibly can, and just go all out and that's all we can do and we'll see where we end up."

Where Gordon is now is ninth, just 82 points in front of 13th-place Clint Bowyer and 14th-place David Ragan. Bowyer and Ragan both have 2,709 points but Bowyer gets the advantage due to his victory at Richmond. The focus for Gordon is now to be aggressive and try to get that first win for the 2008 season.

"We've been in a situation where we've kind of been just stuck in the middle," Gordon said. "I don't want to be where we are in the points right now, but in some ways, this is an easier position to be in because now we just go out there and run hard every weekend and we can take chances and do things that can maybe get us that win.

“

I don't think that this hurt too bad. We're not going to be far from 12th but it's going to be very attainable to get into the Chase. We've got three [races] to go and we can still definitely make the Chase.

”

KASEY KAHNE

"You can't risk fuel mileage, you can't risk putting two tires on -- we've got to stay with four tires. And we can't get too risky with our setups. You're just trying to ride along there and not make mistakes. Now a mistake is made and I'm just glad we were running good finally."

Kahne's problems came on Lap 137 when it appeared the engine on his No. 9 Dodge gave out (watch video). He was able to return to the track within 20 laps and complete 30 more circuits, but in the end finished 40th and dropped to 11th in the standings with three races to go.

"I had a problem when I pulled into the pits. It happened real quick," Kahne said. "I did all that I could do in the car to see if there was anything wrong with the switches. All the gauges looked good, we just had something break inside the engine.

"I haven't had an issue with an Evernham engine in three years that I can remember. We do a great job, we just had some type of an issue. We'll find out what it was, but it was pretty big."

Just 47 points inside the top 12, Kahne could be concerned about falling out of the 10-race playoff, but he doesn't think that way -- he firmly believes he'll be in the top 12 come New Hampshire.

"I'm upset because I thought we had a car to finish inside the top 10," Kahne said. "I don't think that this hurt too bad. We're not going to be far from 12th but it's going to be very attainable to get into the Chase. We've got three [races] to go and we can still definitely make the Chase."

On the other end of the spectrum is Denny Hamlin, who saw his race come to a premature end just six laps from the finish when the engine blew on his No. 11 Toyota, ruining what would have been a top-10 run (watch video). When he got out of his car, it was clear his outlook on the future wasn't rosy.

"We came here with a new engine package," Hamlin said. "We're a bubble driver. We just make stupid choices. We can't keep our cars together; we have dash malfunctions, motors breaking. At this point, we don't even deserve to be in the Chase."

Hamlin finished 39th, falling three spots to 12th in the point standings, 26 points in front of 13th place.