HAMPTON, Ga. -- There are four races left in the 2008 season, but for drivers who have been to the pinnacle of the Cup Series ladder, they know what it takes to win -- and maybe more importantly, when a season is over.

Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart admit their 2008 season is going to fall short of the title.

"I think where Jimmie's at right now, if they don't make a mistake, I think it's theirs to lose. I'm not gonna beat him," Kenseth said of points leader Jimmie Johnson on Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500. "I don't think anybody can win it on pure performance right now. They've run way too good."

Kenseth came into the Chase tied for eighth, 80 points behind then-leader Kyle Busch. But three DNFs in six Chase races -- all due to crashes -- have put the No. 17 Ford 408 points out of the lead and 10th in the standings.

"A lot of times you create your own luck by how you're running and how your performance is and not making mistakes," Kenseth said. "Talladega, there wasn't much we could do about that. We were running second, I think, when we got wrecked. But then there have been races like New Hampshire. We got caught up in a wreck, but we were running 15th or 17th, something like that. If we would have been running up front where we should be running, we wouldn't have got in that wreck."

Stewart hasn't struggled as much as Kenseth in the Chase, but he still finds himself in eighth place, 338 points behind Johnson.

The No. 20 Toyota won at Talladega and has been running at the end of every Chase race, but not up front where Stewart is accustomed. Still, despite knowing a championship in his final year with Joe Gibbs Racing isn't going to happen, he still tries to keep a positive attitude and focus on the task at hand.

"You just go and do the best you can. We don't think about it," Stewart said. "You go out every week and try to win the race. That's the attitude this team has every week -- from the Daytona 500 on. We just come out and do the best we can and take what he gives us at the end of the year."

With Stewart leaving JGR at the end of the season to become co-owner at Stewart-Haas Racing, he can focus solely on the final four races of the season. For Kenseth, these final four races give him an opportunity to get a head start on 2009.

"We're always trying to improve and trying to get our cars better," Kenseth said. "We're always trying stuff, but we're not going to try stuff that's gonna have a chance at dropping us out of races and taking us out of contention to win a race or losing more points.

"We still want to finish as high as we possibly can in the points. We certainly want to get back to Victory Lane real bad, and we're out there just trying to bring our best stuff and do the best we can."

Both Stewart and Kenseth agree, while their title aspirations have evaporated, this season has been a successful one and there is no need to hang their heads.

"If you win the championship every year, it would be great," Stewart said. "But there is only one guy that can do that every year. You just have to go out and do the best you can every week. You just appreciate what you have at the end of the year and go on."

"It's a lot better to be in the Chase than to be out of it," Kenseth added. "There are 30 guys out there we race against every week that didn't get to make it, so I think it's great we made it. I wish things would have gone better up to this point in the Chase to where we were a contender, but overall, it's been a pretty good year."