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WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — With only four races remaining to set the 16-driver Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff field, a small group of drivers fighting for the final ‘transfer’ positions proved again Sunday at Watkins Glen exactly how competitive that last playoff push is.
Three of the five drivers on the cusp of “pointing” their way into the playoff crowd finished among the top five in a furious fuel-gamble race won by the season points leader, Martin Truex Jr.
Matt Kenseth, who was ranked 16th in the playoff standings entering the race, finished runner-up while securing his best finish of the season. That helped him hold onto the tenuous last playoff transfer position — should he not win before the playoff start on Sept. 17 at Chicago.
His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Suarez, who is 19th in the playoff standings, finished third and Clint Bowyer, who is right on Kenseth’s heels and 17th in the playoff standings, was fifth in Sunday’s race.
“The last month we’ve been finishing pretty good and running good,” Kenseth said. “The 78 (Truex) was a lot faster … but when you’re that close, I was hoping I could push him and get him to run out.”
As the points stand now, there are three drivers — Chase Elliott, Jamie McMurray and Kenseth — ranked among the top 16 without a victory, therefore relying on points standings to qualify for the championship pursuit.
Bowyer is only 28 points behind Kenseth in the standings. Suarez is 129 points out from Kenseth and a playoff bid as the series heads to Michigan International Speedway for next Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400.
RELATED: Full playoff standings
Race winner Truex conceded he was aware of Kenseth’s high motivation to win in the final laps of the race. And Kenseth admitted it was a tough loss — his best run of the year, capping off a string of four consecutive top-nine finishes.
“I’m second happiest; Martin is the happiest,” said Kenseth, driver of the No. 20 Toyota. “We really needed the win.
“Honestly, I don’t even think about the playoffs. I more think about coming here for however many, 15, 17, 18 years, whatever it’s been, and not really having a win or an opportunity to win and never even really been that great here.
“I felt like we had a top-five car. Obviously we had good fortune there at the end with our track position and our fuel mileage and all that to stay in it and have a shot at it, but man, when it’s that close and you see him saving and you’re saving and then you go after him there on that last lap, it’s disappointing not to get it.”
Bowyer, like Kenseth, is in the midst of a stellar month of racing results as he tries to secure his first playoff berth since 2015 and his first victory since 2012. He remained optimistic and has three top-seven finishes in the last four races.
“It’s hard to discipline yourself and save the fuel especially when you have him right there,” Bowyer said of running among the top-three for many of the final laps, but ultimately having to play it safe and save fuel in his No. 14 Five Star Urgent Care Ford.
“That’s the win we needed to get in the Chase and seal up the deal,” he said as Truex did a burnout feet away. “But if we had messed up and run out of gas going for it, that’s probably the dagger that knocks you out of the Chase.
“You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. We’ve come a long ways and we’re still in this thing.
“We’ll win a race, I guarantee you. And if we win one, we’ll win another.”