Bristol wasn't free-for-all after all

Monday, August 28, 2006 Kasey Kahne needs a near-miracle to make the playoffs. BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — The buildup to the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway is always huge. Anything can happen! Scores will be settled! The championship field will be scrambled! Word of warning: Don't believe the hype. NASCAR's new Chase for the championship format has dramatically changed the way drivers attack Bristol, proven in Saturday night's watered-down version of the annual bumper-car race. What was supposed to be the wild-card event in the race to the Chase was instead a ho-hum affair that did little to shake up the standings. Respectful "With the Chase and everybody being so close, there was a lot more respect out there on the track — a lot more than you have seen in the past," third-place finisher Dale Earnhardt Jr. said "When I caught guys, they moved over, and I did the same for others. You don't normally see that here. You make people work for every spot. "It seemed like everyone was being very respectful." Although Jimmie Johnson and race winner Matt Kenseth both clinched spots in the Chase field, little else changed after a race devoid of any serious bumping and banging. The same 10 drivers who started the race in championship contention left with their title hopes intact, and Kasey Kahne emerged as the only one with any shot at all of spoiling someone's party. But in finishing 12th and gaining almost no ground on the 10th and final qualifying position, Kahne finally accepted just how difficult the challenge ahead of him is. With two races to go before the Chase begins, Kahne needs a near miracle to make the playoffs. Frustrated "It's just a rough day when all the guys in front of you in points finish ahead of you in the race," he sighed. "There are so many good race teams right now. We've got to figure out how to be better than them. "We've got to finish in the top two or three in the next two races probably if we want to get in there if nobody else has a bad race. We just need to put it together and have some real good races and see what everybody else does." Kahne, winner of four races this season, now must hope for someone ahead of him to falter. It could be Mark Martin, who pitted outside of his box during the first round of stops to sabotage his night. Fourth in the standings before the race began, Martin dropped all the way to 10th after Bristol. He now has just a 90-point advantage over Kahne. "Certainly you need to run well here and you need to pit smart and all those things, but you can do everything right or you can do everything wrong and it doesn't matter," Martin said. "If it's your day to have a bad day, there's not much you're going to be able to do about it." Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.