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."

In 10 previous trips to this half-mile bullring, Vickers has finished 20th or worse eight times. So 12th equalled his best finish here. Still, Vickers wonders why Bristol has been such a bear.

"I really wish I knew what it was," Vickers said. "There are some tracks where I can't seem to have a bad car and then there are some tracks where I can't seem to get a good one. So the only part of that equation is me. This is just one track where I just don't know if it's that I don't know what I'm looking for in a car or what. I ran really well here in the Nationwide car and I've just never had the performance I'd like to have here in a Cup car."

Bowyer video

Clint Bowyer had a rough night at Bristol but has two more chances to make the Chase.

• Harvick gets into Bowyer
• Waltrip, Bowyer crash

Vickers flirted with disaster for much of the evening, getting lapped twice in the second half of the 500-lapper. He earned his first lap back when David Gilliland crashed on Lap 356. Then after being passed again by Jimmie Johnson, Vickers was in position to earn the free pass on Lap 421.

"Twelfth place, for me here at this place, is a good run for me," Vickers said. "It was a good points night. [Crew chief Ryan Pemberton] and the guys really saved me. They made some great calls. We got the [free pass] a couple of times. Ryan made some great calls that got us the track position and good tires at the right time and right place, and we were able to come home with a 12th."

With Kyle Busch winning, Martin running second and the Roush Fenway duo of Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth scoring top-10 finishes, Vickers knew he couldn't afford to give away many points.

"I knew we needed a good run," Vickers said. "The guys we're chasing for the Chase -- Mark and Kyle -- this is probably one of their best tracks, so I knew this was going to be a tough one for us. But I think we came out of here the best we could."

Things didn't go so well for Kasey Kahne and Clint Bowyer. Kahne, fighting handling problems, went down a lap near the midway point and finished 28th. Bowyer wound up in a pair of accidents, one with teammate Kevin Harvick, the other involving Michael Waltrip, and still salvaged a 21st-place finish.

"What a frustrating night," Kahne said. "We started toward the back and we were never able to get up front. We just missed it [Saturday night]."

Bowyer wished he could have missed the crashes, as he had a car capable of running near the front.

"We got hit from behind and that took us out of contention," Bowyer said. "We're not out of this thing yet. We'll keep fighting over these last two races."