RELATED: Full race results | Logano's reaction to Kenseth
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Joey Logano wasn't the only Chase driver who led laps Sunday at Martinsville Speedway only to have late-race contact compromise their postseason dreams. Both Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch suffered the same fate, if not with the same fervor.
Both Keselowski and Busch took the brunt of a crash on a restart with 65 laps to go, joining Logano in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs basement. Keselowski led 143 laps, second only to Logano's race-high 207, and Busch led 22 before things went south.
WATCH: Collision between Keselowski, Busch, Kenseth
Their task to claim a spot among the championship quartet on Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway now boils down to gaining ground in bunches or winning one of the remaining two Eliminator Round races, at Texas next week and Phoenix in two weeks.
Keselowski and Busch both said converting a clutch victory was well within reach.
"Really strong day. Got a lot of speed," Keselowski said after placing 32nd, 10 laps down in the Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500. "If we have this kind of speed at Phoenix, I think we'll win."
Busch -- who took 34th, 14 laps behind -- was even more demonstrative. "We have great sponsors, a lot of blue sky above this program right now," Busch said on a day when "blue sky" was a rare commodity due to threats of rain that loomed throughout the day's entirety. "Real happy with the No. 41 and Chevrolet and everybody that is part of this team. We will go win Texas, go win Phoenix and get our invite."
With Keselowski lined up second and Busch third on the inside lane for the fateful restart after the 14th of 18 caution periods, Logano sprinted ahead from the outside lane as part of an arrangement with his Team Penske teammate. That agreement bottled up the inside lane through Turns 1 and 2, but things went far worse when Keselowski made contact with Matt Kenseth, who spun into the path of Busch on the backstretch.
Busch's No. 41 Chevrolet skip-hopped into the inside wall with a significant scrape. Keselowski's No. 2 Ford limped away with severe right-front damage. Both spent time in the garage for hasty repairs, trying to mitigate the impact.
"We just got caught up and we were a victim," said Busch, who debuted Monster as a primary sponsor on his Stewart-Haas Racing entry. "We were somebody else's collateral damage. It's a product of how everybody has to race in this Chase. For us there is so much more to our story. It's been a fantastic season. … We led laps today. We were up front. Restarting third with a set of fresh tires and 70 laps to go, I mean we were in perfect position. We did our job, we just didn't have luck on our side."
Keselowski's luck ran out, too, in the blink of half a lap.
"I got hit from behind and it pushed me into the 20 (Kenseth)," Keselowski said. "The right-front wheel hit Kenseth's left-rear and it just broke the right-front suspension off the car. Car wouldn't turn and just kept going straight until I couldn't do nothing and just started wrecking everybody. Didn't have any steering wheel left."
Keselowski and Busch enter regrouping mode for the Eliminator Round's final two events, the former 24 points behind the fourth-place cutoff line and the latter 26 points in arrears. But both at least soldier on without the demoralizing effect of finishing Sunday's race behind the wall.
"We live together as a team and die together," Busch said. "We didn't want to die today. We gave it our best. We have had no DNFs this year, and I hope we can make a strong run in the final two races."