Daytona a good points day for some, bad for others

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- While Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne made major strides in the point standings with top-10 finishes in Saturday night's Coke Zero 400, Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart took huge hits in their efforts to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Kenseth came to Daytona International Speedway outside of the top 12. But by finishing third, he jumped four positions to ninth in the standings.

"I think that's the best I ever finished at Daytona," Kenseth said. "The guys made great adjustments, and we were pretty competitive, so it feels good."

Matt Kenseth

Coke Zero 400

Official Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Carl Edwards	Ford
3.	Matt Kenseth	Ford
4.	Kurt Busch	Dodge
5.	David Ragan	Ford
6.	Robby Gordon	Dodge
7.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
8.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet
9.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
10.	Mark Martin	Chevrolet

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Kahne survived a tire rub to record a seventh-place finish. That moved him to eighth in the points.

"It stinks when you get hit like we did, but we survived a real bad crash and were able to come in with a decent finish," Kahne said. "We probably had the best racecar on the entire track with a mediocre engine in it and still finished seventh. Our Dodge handled perfect all night long."

Biffle's bad luck continued at Daytona. He was running back in the field when he tangled with Juan Montoya on Lap 71 and wound up crashing backwards into the outside wall (watch video). He was credited with a 43rd-place finish, and lost three positions in the standings.

"I was just too tight coming off the corner," Biffle said. "[Montoya] had a run on the outside of me, there was nothing I could do. I tried to keep the car down, but it just kept sliding up there. But, you know, it happens. It's racing."

Biffle's accident allowed Stewart, who was stricken with flu-like symptoms before the race, to climb out of his car (watch video). Relief driver J.J. Yeley had the No. 20 Toyota back in the top 15 when he was caught up in the next-to-last multi-car accident of the evening. Stewart was credited with a 20th-place finish, which dropped him to 12th place in the points (read more).

"I thought we were going to be able to [make it] for the first two runs, but once the car got a little bit loose and we had to start really sawing on the wheel, it's like it zapped the energy out of me and I started making mistakes," Stewart said. "It was a situation where I was trying to look out for everybody involved on the race team."

Several other Chase contenders had a rough evening. Jeff Burton, who hadn't finished worse than 15th in any of the previous 17 races this season, was involved in a Lap 124 crash and wound up 37th (watch video). That dropped him from second to third in the points, 202 behind Busch.

Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin all finished outside of the top 20 but didn't lose any positions in the standings. Johnson had to pit on Lap 137 with damage to his right-front fender but scrambled back to finish 23rd (watch video).

Teammate Jeff Gordon wasn't as fortunate. Running second on the final restart, he and Carl Edwards made contact, sending the No. 24 Chevrolet spinning into the infield. He was able to rejoin the field, but wound up 30th, the last car on the lead lap (watch video).

And Hamlin, who ran near the front of the pack all evening, tangled with Martin Truex Jr. on Lap 136 and suffered heavy damage. He was able to limp home in 26th place.