For Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch, it comes down to one race to make NASCAR’s late-season title playoff.
The top 12 Sprint Cup Series drivers in points after Saturday night’s race at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway will qualify for the 10-race Chase for the Cup.
Matt Kenseth is in 12th place with Vickers in 13th — 20 points behind Kenseth — and Busch in 14th place, 37 points behind.
“It’s definitely not going to be easy” to make the Chase, Busch told reporters in a teleconference Tuesday. “We just go out there and try to run the best we can.”
Busch has four wins this season — tying him with Mark Martin for the series high — in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. But Busch otherwise has struggled with only eight top-10 finishes overall through the first 25 races.
Indeed, Busch said it’s not so much that Richmond could put him in the Chase as “it’s more of the season that we’ve had that’s kept us out of it.”
Vickers, meanwhile, said on the call that “it’s very clear” what the Red Bull Racing driver needs to do in Richmond: “Pretty much go there and win the race. That’s not necessarily the only way to get in the Chase, but that’s really how we’re going to gain the most amount of points.”
Still, he acknowledged that if Kenseth, Busch and others on the Chase “bubble” have problems Saturday night, then “we may not take a risk to win the race when we conservatively can finish seventh or 10th and make the Chase.”
The Chase starts Sept. 20 in New Hampshire and includes the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on Oct. 11.
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