CHASE TAKES SHAPE; Playoff picture overshadows Edwards' Bristol win.(Competition)

Byline: AL PEARCE

The largest daily newspaper in North Carolina recently ran a column about a "Secret Room'' deep within NASCAR's Daytona Beach campus. With tongue in cheek-at least, we think so-the writer suggested that the organization's "brightest and most creative minds'' were holed up, concocting ways to get Dale Earnhardt Jr. into the Chase for the Cup.

The column ran before Bristol weekend, when Junior had three races left to move into the 10-race, 12-driver playoff. After the Sharpie 500, where he finished fifth, the sport's biggest name needs some help. Note to NASCAR: Do you have access to somewhat brighter and more creative minds?

With only Fontana and Richmond left in the regular season, Junior likely will miss his second Chase since 2005. (Hey, didn't NASCAR expand its Chase field to ensure this wouldn't happen?) Junior went to Bristol ranked 13th, 163 points behind Kurt Busch. He beat Busch by one spot, but that five-point gain is nothing compared with losing a chance to make a bigger one. Now, even if he leads every lap at Fontana and Richmond, Junior will miss the Chase if Busch scores 233 points. Busch only needs to finish each race in about 15th place to do so.

"The pressure sits solely on [Junior's] shoulders,'' Busch said the day before Bristol, three days after his second win of the year in the rain-delayed Michigan International Speedway race. (Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin completed the top five.) "We have the advantage, because it's on him to gain those 163 points. He'll have a hard time catching us if we're consistent. [The Chase] is still all about consistency.''

If Junior's sweating the Chase, it doesn't show. "I ain't worried about that,'' he said. "I had a good night, a fun night. I just ran 500 laps at Bristol, so I'm pretty stoked about finishing fifth. We didn't get the win we wanted, but I had a good time.'' As for the next two races: "All we can be is [wide open] and run as good as we can. I'll be more ticked off at not winning a race than if I don't make the Chase.''

Typical of this time of year, the race was almost secondary to the Chase implications. Carl Edwards clinched his spot by beating pole sitter Kasey Kahne (he won't make the Chase), Clint Bowyer (he likely will), Tony Stewart (he also clinched) and Junior, the bubble driver. The top five of Jeff Gordon, Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kenseth and Edwards have clinched their spots; Johnson, Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch and Bowyer likely will clinch at Fontana.