Three battle for final spot in Chase for the Sprint Cup

Clint Bowyer was last season's surprise in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship, coming from seemingly out of nowhere. He opened the 10-race playoffs with a victory at Loudon, N.H., and was the only guy who stayed in sight of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon the rest of the way.

This season?

Bowyer is again on the hot seat as the cut approaches this weekend. And David Ragan, in only his second season on the tour and in the Jack Roush ride that Mark Martin once had, is trying to knock Bowyer out of the running and also make the Chase.

For now, Bowyer has the 12th and final spot, leading Ragan by 17 points and Kasey Kahne by 48. That puts the three in a race by themselves Saturday night during the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 in Richmond, Va.

"The bottom line is we've got to go out and beat these guys, no other way around it," Ragan said of the three-man fight for the last spot.

If Ragan does make the Chase, he said that "we are definitely going to have to continue to step our program up. One good thing about the Chase -- the final 10 races, there's not one track where we haven't run well.

"I think we are a Chase team ... but we are not quite a championship team yet. You can't contend for the championship without winning some races. Winning a race is a must.

"But there are some great guys in the Chase now (Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, for example) that are locked in though they haven't won a race yet this year. Certainly Carl (Edwards) and Kyle (Busch) are definitely in the driver's seat."

Ragan, considering his slow start to a Cup career, is a big story this season even if he doesn't make the Chase.

"We've learned from our mistakes," Ragan said. "We've improved the things that were good last year, and we've been working extremely hard with our pit crew on building better cars. And I've been working to be a smarter driver.

"We're where we need to be ... though certainly not where we want to be -- we want to be up there with Carl and Kyle leading laps and winning races."

Ragan said that his team has shown a lot of improvement and is on schedule but added: "We have some more improving to do before we are a championship-caliber team.

"I don't think I've ever been in a situation to be in such a highly watched, one-race kind of year, that you're make or break.

"I probably don't realize how big this race is. Maybe after the year is over, I will have time to sit back and think about it. But I'm trying not to go about it like that. We're tense, and we're thinking about it. But we've just got to run our race."

Of course, there might be more on the line than just making the playoffs. Roush has still not announced Ragan's new sponsor for 2009, although it appears that it will be UPS. But that might be only if he makes the Chase.

"We are pretty focused on making the Chase and winning races and ending the year on a good note for our current sponsor," Ragan said. "We will hopefully have some good news over the next two or three weeks."

Bowyer and Kahne might have more to lose than Ragan, because both have made the Chase before.

"We've been put in a position where all we can do is do our best and hope it works out for us," Kahne said. "If we run our race, it doesn't necessarily mean we are going to make it into the Chase."

Kahne admits that he's surprised to be on the outside looking in at this point.

"I went into Michigan (three weeks ago) kind of thinking we had been running really strong, we had been right there every weekend, and maybe we had a shot at being sixth in points.

"Then 'just racing' happens. We're 14th looking in now.

"It's going to be close to see if we can even get in the deal now. There's definitely pressure. That's a big part of the season, to make the Chase. We are not a team to contend for a championship, but we are definitely a team to contend from fifth to 10th."

Bowyer too has been slipping lately, so Sunday night's run in the Pepsi 500 might have been the key stopper.

"It's crunch time," Bowyer said. "And if there's anything that gives you a good feeling, it's knowing we won there in the spring, and it's a track I typically run good at. But Richmond is a track where anything can happen, too."

E-mail Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern(at)wsjournal.com.

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