RELATED: See who is in the Chase | Full series standings
RICHMOND, Va. – Aric Almirola leaned back against his bright blue Ford and took a long swig of water. The disappointment was evident on his face, but so was the determination. He missed making the 2015 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field by a slim 17 points, but Almirola was certain that he had given it all he had.
His No. 43 Richard Petty-owned Ford finished fourth in Saturday night's Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway in an impressive and impassioned effort from a 24th-place starting position.
Almirola's most realistic shot of earning one of the 16 Chase berths was to win the race, and he sure made a run at it, advancing as high as third on a restart with 18 laps remaining.
"Disappointed for sure," Almirola said on pit road. "I drove my heart out tonight and all year long, really. I feel like we've overachieved this year. Our cars really haven't had the speed and we've managed a way to get good results.
"This race team is a great race team and we wanted another shot at it, and we just came up short. Just wasn't meant to be."
It was a similar feeling after the race from other high profile Chase near-misses such as veteran Kasey Kahne, who fell 33 points shy of qualifying and last year's Sunoco Rookie of the Year, Kyle Larson, who also missed making his first postseason appearance.
For the first time since the Chase format was instituted in 2004, there will be no Roush Fenway Racing cars among the playoff contenders.
RELATED: Chase format explained
While Almirola and Kahne could have made it on points if they got some help, Larson had to score a victory to earn a Chase berth because he was too far back in the point standings.
Larson qualified well (11th) among the group of must-win-to-get-in drivers and ran among the top 10 for much of the night. But while his Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates teammate Jamie McMurray secured the team its first Chase appearance since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2009 -- Larson's 12th place finish Saturday wasn't quite good enough to put the team "all in."
"We ran about where we typically do here at Richmond, which is right around the top 10," Larson said. "I don't think anybody was beating [race winner] Matt Kenseth tonight. He was super fast.
"Disappointing run for the Chase. I think everybody on our team thought the 42 would definitely be in the Chase to start the season after the way we ended last year. But it wasn't the case this season, so we'll work hard the last 10 races to try and run strong for Target and get them a win and work on being consistent.
"That's where we've struggled pretty much all year long was being consistent, so we'll try and work hard at that and try and finish strong."
Larson's team owner Chip Ganassi was equally philosophic about the situation.
"I'm not one of these guys that gets disappointed because one guy's in and one guy's not," Ganassi said. "When you can punch somebody into the playoffs, that's good for the whole team.
"Would I like to have two cars in the Chase? Yes. Who wouldn't? It's not to be. … You're happy for the ones that are in and sad for the ones that are not. The fact you have one in there makes it good for the entire team."
RELATED: Ganassi undergoes surgery
It was an undeniably tough night to have to win your way into the postseason. Kenseth led a dominating 352 of the race's 400 laps to finish ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch. Three JGR cars – also including sixth-place finisher Denny Hamlin – led all but 25 of the race's laps.
Kahne conceded he never really had anything for the JGR cars. He ran between 15th and 20th for most of the race and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy finished 18th, two laps down to the winner. It's the first time in four seasons that Kahne did not qualify for the Chase.
"I think the main thing for me is just figuring out how to get a car to turn again," Kahne analyzed. "I've struggled all year to have front turn and if I don't have that, I can't race. That's how I've been my whole life. We'll just work on trying to get the cars the way I need them to and if we can't, we'll keep running about 15th."
RELATED: Hendrick discusses state of organization