Vickers, Martin exit Bristol feeling good about chances

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Brian Vickers and Mark Martin both breathed a huge sigh of relief in the minutes following Saturday night's Sharpie 500, for different reasons.

For Martin, a second-place finish erased some of the sting from a failed fuel-mileage gamble one week ago and allowed him to leap over Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth into 10th place in the standings, 60 points ahead of 13th place Kyle Busch.

"It's much better than last week," Martin said. "I really, really would be a lot more comfortable with a 150 [point advantage]. We had that lead at Indy and everything turned upside down."

For Vickers, Bristol Motor Speedway was a test of survival, as he rallied from a lap down twice to score a 12th-place finish, keeping him in the hunt for a Chase berth. He's now 39 points out of 12th.

"It wasn't one of our best runs," Vickers said. "I'll take as much responsibility for that as anybody. The car wasn't ideal all night long, but it was good at times."

Martin dominated much of the race, leading five times for 240 laps. And he nearly pulled off an incredible last-lap pass of Kyle Busch, getting his Chevrolet nearly side-by-side with the eventual winner before settling for second.

If the No. 5 team needed a boost of confidence, Martin certainly provided it Saturday night. And with only two more races before the Chase field is set, Martin knows he's good enough to make it -- if bad luck stays away.

"We will be fine if we finish how we run," Martin said. "But I don't have the greatest of confidence that the things we can't control will be kind to us. We haven't had an average year for those things. I'm sure we'll run really good at Atlanta and I'm sure we'll run really good at Richmond, and if it comes down to just flat-out racing and not a bunch of cautions and crashes and flat tires and people staying out, and all that mess.

"If we can just go out and race for it, it's going to be great." (Continued)