Some Chasers heading to Chase chasing momentum

RICHMOND, Va. -- Saturday night's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 had barely reached the halfway point when Clint Bowyer's No. 07 Chevrolet came barreling into Turn 4 at Richmond International Raceway, racing the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin for the lead as if it were the last lap.

It was a mistake, and Bowyer paid a dear price for it when he spun, bringing out the sixth caution flag of the night and sending his hopes for a victory up in the smoke that billowed up from his tires.

Lap-by-Lap

Jimmie Johnson won, Kevin Harvick secured the final Chase spot as Dale Earnhardt Jr. was eliminated shortly before his engine gave out at Richmond.

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"Absolutely, I got a little over-aggressive there," Bowyer said. "I promised the guys [on the No. 07 crew] that we would go for it. We had nothing to lose; we had to race for a win -- and I just got a little too aggressive there."

Bowyer eventually recovered enough to finish 12th, which was fitting because he now is seeded 12th for the Chase for the Nextel Cup. He also is the only one of the 12 Chase qualifiers who does not have a win this season, so he admitted he goes into the final 10 races, beginning next Sunday at New Hampshire International Speedway, desperately seeking to find some momentum.

Bowyer also is 60 points behind top seed Jimmie Johnson, who won his sixth race of the season at Richmond and enters the Chase with 10 bonus points for each of those victories.

"That puts us back, but we're 10 points out of sixth, so I'm really not too worried about it. Ten points is nothing," Bowyer said. "We could be fifth, or we could be leading the thing after the first race. Obviously 50 points is a lot bigger deal than just 10, but nonetheless, there are a lot of other drivers who would like to be a part of this Chase. We were solid week in and week out and we did the things it took to get in this Chase."

Bowyer is not alone among those entering the Chase with less momentum than they would like.

Carl Edwards, seeded fourth, blew a motor on Lap 182 of Saturday's 400-lap event and finished next-to-last in 42nd. Kyle Busch, seeded ninth, struggled to a 20th-place finish at Richmond that was his worst since placing 30th at the Coca-Cola 600 back on Memorial Day. The best 10th-seeded Jeff Burton could manage Saturday was 18th.

"Hopefully we can use this as a little collateral for some good luck for later in the Chase because we've got an awesome team right now," said Edwards, who refused to be dejected about tying for his worst finish of the season. He also finished 42nd at Talladega back in April.

Busch added of his night: "This was our worst performance with the [Car of Tomorrow]. All of the rest of the [Hendrick Motorsports] guys have run fine with it. So we just have to go back and look at what happened to us and see if we can find that we missed something, so we don't let it happen again." (Continued)