2014 NASCAR standings: Allmendinger, Busch, Biffle, Almirola fail to advance in Chase

With Dover International Speedway playing host to the first elimination race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, four drivers saw their goal of winning the 2014 championship fall short Sunday.

A.J. Allmendinger, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Aric Almirola, the lowest ranked drivers after the three races comprising the Challenger Round, were eliminated from the playoffs.

For much of the afternoon Busch, who entered Dover below the Chase cutline, seemed positioned to race his way in having spent much of the afternoon running in the back half of the top-10. But a tight condition over the last 100 miles saw him slide to an 18th-place result and out of the playoffs.

“I felt like we were in good position to advance, but you just can’t expect to advance by running 15th,” Busch said. “You have to be more competitive ... I just chalk it up to me not getting the job done. It’s all my fault that we didn’t advance.”

Busch’s woes over the closing laps coincided with a rally by Kasey Kahne, who overcame a four-lap deficit to finish 20th. Kahne’s resurgence, accompanied with a poor showing by Allmendinger (finished 23rd), allowed him to claim the 12th and final transfer position.

Kahne advanced with a two-point margin over Allmendinger and a six-point gap on Busch.

The outcome was particularly frustrating to Allmendinger, who came into the weekend 10th in the standings, but struggled to find speed. Allmendinger’s 28th-place effort in qualifying was the slowest of all Chase drivers, and in the race his average running position was just 24th.

“It was an awful day,” Allmendinger said. “We just missed it all weekend. It’s disappointing to miss it by two points, but we didn’t deserve to be in it with the run that we had.”

As for Biffle and Almirola, neither came particularly close to advancing to Round 2. Biffle finished 21st, while Almirola labored to 28th, three laps down.

“It just didn’t work out for us,” Almirola said. “I hate it. We picked a bad day to run the way we did and we can’t blame anybody but ourselves. My car didn’t have any grip. You can’t go fast without grip.”

By way of a 12th-place run, Denny Hamlin was the only driver who jumped from outside the top 12 into a playoff slot at Dover. He had been 13th in points prior to Sunday.

“You never know what can happen,” Hamlin said. “I knew we had a car that was capable of racing our way in, but I didn’t think it was going to be that close. We just started fading there at the end. A little bit on the defensive on my part, but still we lost the handle. Just happy this all resets and all starts from scratch again and we’ve got another life.”