Snake-bitten JGR trio looks to avoid Chase elimination

Busch, seventh the previous week, somehow managed to salvage an eighth-place finish at NHMS in spite of severe damage to the front of his Toyota. Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin weren't as fortunate.

Fueling issues kept Hamlin on pit road for an extended period during the race, which in turn left him deep in the field and in the middle of trouble when a four-car accident unfolded on Lap 180 of the scheduled 300-lap race.

Kenseth had run in the top 10 for much of the day, eventually climbing as high as third, before contact with Paul Menard sent the No. 20 entry into the wall with less than 30 laps remaining.

Kenseth wound up 21st on the day, Hamlin finished 37th.

With four drivers trimmed from the field of 16 after this week’s race at Dover International Speedway, Kenseth will be looking to, at the very least, hold his ground. The 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion enters Sunday’s AAA 400 (ESPN, 2 p.m. ET), eighth in points and only eight ahead of Hamlin in the No. 13 spot.

Kenseth's record at Dover is solid, with a pair of victories (2006, ‘11) and 20 top-10 finishes in 31 career starts at the fast, high-banked one-mile track. He finished third there earlier this year.

Hamlin and his No. 11 team sit six points out of the 12th spot, held for now by Richard Childress Racing driver Ryan Newman.

But Hamlin's far from alone -- only 12 points separate those between Kenseth (2,057) and 16th-place Aric Almirola (2,045). A week ago, the gap was a far more imposing 34 points between the two positions.

He has yet to win at the Monster Mile, but Hamlin has finished inside the top 10 on six occasions, including a fifth-place result this past June.

"Kyle was able to get up on the wheel and do what he could, fought hard for all his positions and they ended up with a respectable finish out of it," Makar said.

"Matt didn't have time to get back; it was just a bad situation with just a few laps to go. He … didn't have time to actually race back with a couple of laps to go. It was just a tough situation for him."

"Denny, I tell you, just snake bit there. We still don't know what happened to the fuel system. It was some freak thing, something we’ll have to look at when we get back (to the shop). But right now … it's nothing really obvious."

Hamlin's issues put the driver "in a bad spot, a bad place on the race track" Makar said. And with everything else that happened after Hamlin's fuel issues, there were no guarantees he would have escaped those unscathed.

"But he had a good, fast race car. It's a shame they weren’t able to race all day like that," Makar said.

The strange turn of events for the three teams certainly weren't expected, given their solid start a week earlier.

Now, they regroup and head to Dover, hoping to remain relevant.

"I was really surprised," said Makar. "But I think it's going to be interesting next week. We've got to go race hard and get a good finish with everybody and hopefully we can move on."

Four more drivers will be trimmed from the field following the Contender Round (Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega), leaving eight to battle through the Eliminator Round (Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix).

The final four will advance into the Championship Round, scheduled for Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 16.

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