Chase Picture: Clint Bowyer Pulls Away With Two Races Left

Has there ever been less drama heading toward the Chase cutoff than this year?

Clint Bowyer added to his lead in a big way on Saturday night at Bristol with a fourth-place finish, taking advantage of Mark Martin’s poor 23rd-place effort.

Bowyer now holds the final Chase spot by exactly 100 points over Jamie McMurray, who moved up to 13th but only gained five points on Bowyer.

With only Atlanta and Richmond remaining before the 12-man Chase field is set, it’s doubtful anyone will be able to overtake Bowyer for the final spot.

Martin fell to 14th, 101 points behind Bowyer, and Ryan Newman (15th) is 118 points back.

Bowyer’s position is the only one that could even potentially change hands. Greg Biffle, in 11th place, is now 235 points up on McMurray.

“We’ve got two races to go,” Bowyer said. “Two good racetracks. I love Atlanta – run well there – and I love Richmond –run well there. With any luck at all, we’ll be in this thing.”

Bowyer called his 100-point lead over McMurray “a little cushion” but noted McMurray finished ahead of him at Bristol.

“We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing,” he said. “If we do that, I don’t think they can catch us.”

It didn’t sound like McMurray was ready to declare himself as a Chase contender, either.

“I haven’t paid any attention to it,” he said. “That’s a lot of stress that you can put on yourself when you’re worried about points.

“I’ll let (crew chief) Bono (Manion) and those guys worry about it and we’ll just worry about racing the car.”