BRISTOL, Tenn. -- As he stood along pit road following Saturday's Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, driver Clint Bowyer wiped sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and took a gulp from a bottle of water.

He deserved it. Earlier he took a big bite out of his closest competition for a spot in the Chase.

“

I can't paint you a pretty picture. There's not much good here right now. ... We're just not running good.

”

-- ALAN GUSTAFSON

By virtue of his hard-earned, fourth-place finish in the grueling 500-lap race at the .533-mile short track, Bowyer solidified his hold on the 12th and final spot in the Chase. With only races at Atlanta and Richmond remaining before the 26-race cutoff, Bowyer increased his lead over his closest pursuer to 100 points.

Bowyer had entered the evening with a mere 35-point advantage over Mark Martin. And while Bowyer celebrated the fourth-place finish in his No. 33 Chevrolet, Martin was left to ponder what went wrong as he struggled to a finish of 23rd that dropped him to 14th in the standings -- 101 points behind Bowyer and one behind Jamie McMurray, who finished third in the race and moved into 13th in the standings.

"We all talked before the race," Bowyer said. "This was a team effort and it's going to take a team effort going forward to get ourselves in the Chase. The [pit crew] guys did their job on pit road. ... I promised them I would do my job."

He did, but only after overcoming an early penalty for exiting pit road too fast after a stop. He started 24th and had moved up to 11th before the penalty -- but then fell back to 20th and had to work his way back to the front.

"I messed up in the pits and got us the penalty. But the guys responded," Bowyer said.

Martin's woes

While Bowyer was happy with his end result, Martin and his crew chief, Alan Gustafson, were left to ponder what went wrong again in what rapidly is becoming a lost season. Martin started 13th and struggled most of the night before eventually getting as high as eighth by Lap 400 -- only to fall back again.

"We weren't any good. We sucked," Gustafson said by way of explanation.

The obviously frustrated crew chief said he realizes his team is not yet mathematically eliminated from Chase contention. But he's also enough of a realist to understand the odds are now stacked against the No. 5 Chevrolet.

"We're still in it, but not the way we've run," Gustafson said. "We've just got to focus on getting better. I don't feel like we've got the speed to go over there and take it from those guys now. Stranger things have happened -- but with the speed we have right now, even if we get in we're not going to be able to do much.

"We sucked here [Saturday], and we haven't run well enough all year to get into the Chase. That's obvious. We're 14th in points. I can't paint you a pretty picture. There's not much good here right now. ... We're just not running good. We've got to run better."

That realization comes as a bit of a shock to a team that last year won five races, easily qualified for the Chase and eventually finished second in the standings to four-time defending champion and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson. Martin has yet to win a race this season and has led more than a handful of laps in only three events, two of which occurred during the opening six-race stretch of the season.

"It's just the way the sport is. It switches really quick, and you've got to stay on top of it," Gustafson said. "Obviously we didn't stay on top of it, so we're behind. That's the way it goes, you know? We have no one to blame but ourselves. We've got to get better."

McMurray's run

Meanwhile, Jamie McMurray parlayed Martin's continuing misfortune and his No. 1 Chevrolet's own strong third-place run into something for Bowyer to think about heading into the final two races before the Chase.

McMurray repeatedly has said he's not concerned about making the Chase and already considers his first season with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing a success, having won the season-opening Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. His finish Saturday enabled him to leapfrog Martin to 13th in the standings.

"I'll let Bono [crew chief Kevin Manion] worry about it," McMurray said. "He certainly is worried about it. I remember the stress that goes along with that. I'm really fortunate this year that we were able to win those two big races, because if we don't make the Chase, it won't be devastating. I want to make the Chase, but there's nothing you can do. We drove as hard as we could tonight and finished third, and I don't think we really gained any points."

That's not quite true, but almost. He began the evening in 15th, 105 points back. Now he's in 13th, 101 behind Bowyer.

It is Bowyer, however, who clearly realizes he is now literally in the driver's seat when it comes to nailing down the final Chase berth. Like Martin, Bowyer hasn't won a race yet this season. But he has watched as Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick has won three and led in the points virtually all season.

He said that gives him the confidence that he not only can get in the Chase, but contend for a championship once he does.

"We've seen my teammate capitalize and show our potential at RCR all season long," he said. "[Fellow teammate] Jeff [Burton] and I can compete at their level, too. One of us should bring home a championship. It's the best shot we've had since I've been at RCR. I look forward to it."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.