BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. spent all day trying to make up ground, picking off one position after another in a race where a swapped-out transmission doomed him to start at the back. But at the end of a wet, extended weekend at Michigan International Speedway, NASCAR's most popular driver found himself staring up a deficit even larger than the one he faced coming in.

The difficulty of Earnhardt's bid to make the year-end Chase for the Nextel Cup crystallized Tuesday, when the driver of the No. 8 car overcame a pit-road miscue to finish 11th in the 3M Performance 400, moved up one position in the standings -- and still lost ground. Earnhardt came to Michigan 14th in points, 100 behind Kurt Busch for the 12th and final Chase berth. He left soggy Brooklyn in 13th place but 163 points out, and with his situation appearing more ominous as the final weeks of the regular season wind down.

He's getting no help from Busch, who kept the pressure on Tuesday by winning his second race in three weeks, and extending a late push that's seen him finish 11th or better in each of the last six starts. To avoid missing the Chase for the second time in three years, Earnhardt now has to knock an average of 54 points off Busch's advantage over the next three events. Over his last three, he's lost an average of 65 points to the Penske Racing driver.

"No, it's not frustrating," Earnhardt said. "When they beat you fair, you can't get frustrated about that. They did what they had to do. They've got a great feel going right now. They're really quick. When you get beat fair like that, you can't be frustrated. You have to take it like a man. We'll just go on and go next week."

Earnhardt struggled with handling at times Tuesday, slapping the wall at one point -- "Whoa, my quarterpanel! I just knocked the fence down!" he screamed over the radio -- but overall recovered quickly from the transmission change and was in the top 10 by Lap 70. He led the race briefly for one lap, and was solidly in the top five when he overran his pit stall on a green-flag stop with 32 laps remaining.

"I was watching the 66 [of Jeff Green] who was in his stall. I thought I pitted past him, but I was two stalls before him," Earnhardt said. " When you come down pit road, and guys are anywhere near your stall, you look at whether they're jacked up on the left, because if they drop and pull out you're going to have a crash, and I don't want to do that. I was just looking at that, and I drove right by my pit. My fault, totally."

Earnhardt fell to eighth, slid to 15th after he was pinned behind traffic following a pit stop where some drivers stayed out, and never again threatened. That was left to Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate Martin Truex Jr., trying to fight for the race victory and hang on to his spot inside the Chase at the same time. His runner-up finish helped him stay in 11th place in the standings, but Busch still carved a healthy 25 points out of his lead.

"It's kind of odd," Truex said. "You think second is a good day, but the guy you're racing is finishing ahead of you. It's just like Pocono, when Junior finished second to Kurt. The 2 is on their game plan right now, and for sure we can't afford any mistakes."

The No. 2 team isn't giving them any option. Ten races ago, after a crash at Charlotte and getting parked and saddled with a 100-point penalty for nearly running over one of Tony Stewart's crewmen at Dover, Busch was 17th in points. Pat Tryson was installed as crew chief three weeks later, bringing with him a patient plan that has his squad on the brink of a playoff berth.

"Our plan has been all along, from when we started eight races or so ago, to try to get 20 points on everybody around us every week. Around us, in front of us," said Tryson, who started this season as Greg Biffle's crew chief at Roush Fenway Racing. "I think that's how we still have to look at it. It's easy to lose 90 points in one day. You can break a motor, you can get caught up in a mess. I think we just need to keep doing what we're doing, trying to get 20 on everybody around us every week. We do that, we'll be in good shape."

Another good sign  Saturday night brings the annual stop at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Busch has won five times. Entering that race, Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin are locked into the Chase, while Matt Kenseth can clinch just by starting the final three events. Yet the points leader continues to have good cars and little to show for them; last week at Watkins Glen he led until overrunning the first turn with two laps remaining, while Tuesday he was among the leaders until he slid up into Kenseth and into the boggy infield grass with 10 to go.

"Hey, I want my bad luck to come right now," said Gordon, who finished 27th. "I want all the good luck we can get [in the Chase]. Every time we're out there, we're learning something. I had a fast racecar today. I'm happy about that. Good pit stops. And we weren't going to get the 10 bonus points we were looking for today anyway, because the 2 car was too strong."