Bristol Must Becomes A Bristol Bust

(By Sarah Farlee Managing Editor, CupScene.com)

Posted: Saturday,August 27th, 2011

Bristol, Tenn., - Drivers on the cusp of the Chase for the Sprint Cup came into Bristol Motor Speedway hoping to gain momentum, or at least points as the battle on the bubble begins to heat up with only two races remaining until the Chase field is set.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is ninth in points and Tony Stewart is 10th. Both drivers are winless this season.

Tony Stewart is 10th in Sprint Cup points. (Getty Images)

Stewart has a 21 point cushion on the 11th position, Brad Keselowski and a 22 point lead on Clint Bowyer, who needs to pick up a win to be eligible for a wild card slot, or catapult into the top-10. Following Saturday night’s Irwin Tools 500 there was not a whole lot of moving at the back of the standings.

Stewart finished 28th after qualifying 42nd and said the night actually was better than expected thanks to help from teammates.

“The help that we got from them definitely made us better for sure,” said Stewart. “Just a rough night.”

Stewart says the team is still working hard to maintain their position and make the Chase.

“It is no different than it was last week,” Stewart said. “The feeling is the same, you still want to make it.”

Earnhardt has an 18 point lead on Stewart and is 39 points ahead of Keselowski. Earnhardt struggled much like Stewart and was thankful to finish in the top-20.

“We just couldn’t really get a good balance all night,” said Earnhardt, who finished 16th. “The balance was decent on the car, but we were just slow, we didn’t have enough grip.”

Richard Childress Racing had a rough night all around in Thunder Valley. Clint Bowyer came into Bristol hoping to gain on both Earnhardt and Stewart, but finished only two spots ahead of Stewart in 26th. Bowyer wasn’t the only driver in the RCR stable to struggle. Kevin Harvick finished 22nd and Paul Menard finished 30th. Jeff Burton was the highest finishing Childress entry at 15th.

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