RICHMOND, Va. — Clint Bowyer had already assured his spot in the Chase for NASCAR’s biggest championship, and he looked as if he was about to pad his lead in another one.Carl Edwards had another idea Sunday night.Passing Bowyer for the lead with 28 laps to go then pulling away through three restarts the rest of the way, Edwards won for the fourth time this season in the Nationwide Series and cut slightly into Bowyer’s prohibitive points lead.The last restart came with eight laps to go and teammates Scott Wimmer and Bowyer separating Edwards from the fast car of Denny Hamlin, but Edwards easily pulled away.”I didn’t know it was going to be that good,” he said of the finish, commending his team’s pit work. “They struggled a bit, and then they came back and they were awesome at the end.”Wimmer finished second, Bowyer third and Hamlin was fourth, while Edwards, despite having driven 400 laps in sunshine and 250 more at night, did his traditional back flip to celebrate.The victory, combined with a bad night for Brad Keselowski, allowed Edwards to climb into second in the points race, but he’s still 207 behind Bowyer with just seven races remaining.Keselowski, who finished 21st, is third, 279 points behind the leader.For most of the night, Bowyer was running away virtually unchallenged. He took the lead from young sensation Joey Logano after seven laps of the Emerson 250 and had a lead of nearly 4 seconds wiped out by the sixth of nine caution flags. He lost the lead to Wimmer on pit road, but regained it on lap 218, holding it until the slight wiggle on the 223rd lap allowed the hard-charging Edwards to slip past him on his way to Victory Lane.”Clint was doing such a good job and he was just a little free and he was hanging on for all it was worth and he just wiggled that one time and that’s all I needed,” Edwards said.It was the only time Bowyer was passed for the lead, and the only one that counted.”I just got too loose, but I’m not going to let that ruin my day,” Bowyer said. “I had a good day, but that was a bummer. It just shows you how close it is — one little slip-up.”Only hours earlier, he locked down the fifth seed in NASCAR’S 10-race Sprint Cup playoffs with a 12th-place run in the postponed Cup race at Richmond International Raceway.The race wrapped up a long day of racing at the track, with the Cup race beginning at 1 p.m. and lasting about 3 hours, 15 minutes. Officials then cleared the grandstands before reopening them to Nationwide ticket-holders for the 7 p.m. start. Only about 15,000 came.The race marked the series debut of prominent Sprint Cup team owner Richard Childress’ grandson, Austin Dillon. He started 31st, spun out after 96 laps and finished 26th.Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

Johnson Rocks To Victory At Richmond RICHMOND, Va. — Jimmie Johnson enters the Chase on a roll. Clint Bowyer can handle the pressure. Dale Earnhardt Jr. got even with Kyle Busch. And Richmond International Raceway is NASCAR’s best track.Those are a few of the lessons learned Sunday in the Chevy Rock & Roll 400, if we didn’t know a couple of them already.NASCAR couldn’t have asked for a better show in the final regular season event, but it sure leaves a tough act to follow in the 10 races that make up the Sprint Cup playoff.The Virginia short track has the on-track action that NASCAR officials wish all its speedways could produce. Even after a one-day postponement when Tropical Storm Hanna blew through, the 112,000-seat grandstands were 90 percent full.The race was worth the wait. This time, RIR saved the best for last with Johnson and Tony Stewart racing side-by-side for the victory in the final 10 laps.”That’s one of the greatest races I’ve ever had here at Richmond, racing with Jimmie like that at the end,” Stewart said. “But we came up short.”Johnson enters the Chase as the hottest driver in Cup with back-to-back victories, including his win last week at Fontana, Calif. Johnson starts the playoff in the No. 3 spot, only 40 points behind Kyle Busch and 10 behind Carl Edwards.[+] EnlargeRusty Jarrett/Getty ImagesKasey Kahne looked uneasy before start of Sunday’s race. He didn’t look any better when it was over after missing the Chase.Johnson isn’t just chasing Busch and Edwards; he’s chasing NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough, hoping to become the second driver to win three consecutive Cup titles.As for Busch and Edwards, they’ve had better days. Edwards finished 13th, a nice comeback after cutting a tire and having to pit under green. Busch finished 15th, not bad considering Earnhardt punted him into the wall midway through the race.Payback is a, well, you know. Busch became NASCAR’s top villain (if he wasn’t that already) when he kept Earnhardt from winning at Richmond in May. Busch bumped Earnhardt with two laps to go while Earnhardt was leading.The crowd erupted with thunderous joy Sunday when Earnhardt tapped Busch while Busch was leading. Busch moved down and hit the front of Earnhardt’s car moments after Earnhardt got inside of Busch’s Toyota.Earnhardt insisted the bump wasn’t intentional. The crowd didn’t care. Justice was served. Revenge was sweet.Round 2 of Junior vs. Busch and the incredible finish between Johnson and Stewart took a lot of the attention away from the race to make the Chase.That battle was harder to see, but Bowyer knew he was in trouble after a bad pit stop with 150 laps to go. Bowyer fell to 25th. David Ragan, who started the day 17 points behind Bowyer for the last Chase spot, stayed on the track and restarted eighth.”I could see the Chase going by the wayside,” Bowyer said. “That put us outside looking in. It was very nerve-racking. But we kept our heads on straight and dug down deep.”It was false hope for Ragan, whose damaged car had no chance of staying near the front. Bowyer finished 12th and Ragan was 32nd in his bashed-up No. 6 Ford.Ragan spun on Lap 122 and was hit from behind by teammate Matt Kenseth. Ragan’s team got the car back on the track, but the wounds were too deep to keep the pace for long. Bowyer moved ahead of him when he bumped Regan Smith from behind, causing Ragan to scrape door panels with Smith. “For the first 100 laps or so, I felt we had a top-5 car,” Ragan said. “Then we brought out that caution and we didn’t have the speed after that. But this one race doesn’t dictate how our season has gone.”[+] EnlargeSam Sharpe/US PresswireDavid Ragan’s Ford Fusion was showing the scars by the end of Sunday’s race from his all-out effort to make the Chase.Ragan, in his second Cup season, is one of the pleasant surprises of 2008. He ends the regular season in 14th place. Kasey Kahne, who finished 19th Sunday, passed Ragan for the spot no one wants, 13th and one notch from a Chase qualifier.”It’s a little disappointing,” Kahne said. “Making the Chase is what we worked for all year. We were a little off today, but the whole team has done a good job. We’ve come a long way in a year.”Not quite far enough, leaving Budweiser outside the Chase for the second consecutive year. Bud was Earnhardt’s title sponsor last season when he failed to make the playoff in his final year at DEI.Bowyer will gladly have a shot of Jack Daniel’s for his sponsor. He’s the big beneficiary for holding on to 12th in the points standings. Now Bowyer starts the Chase as the No. 5 seed, a silly technicality in a four-way tie for fourth.Four drivers enter the playoff with one victory, 70 points behind Busch — Earnhardt, Bowyer, Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton. Five winless drivers — Stewart, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth — are 80 points back.Going in, it looks like the No-Chance Nine against the Triumphant Trio, but things can change quickly when the Chase begins. “It’s been a tough summer,” Bowyer said. “Now we’ve got a lot of homework to do to show we’re in this thing for a reason.” Terry Blount covers motorsports for ESPN.com. He can be reached at terry@blountspeak.com.

MADISON, Ill. — Ron Hornaday raced to his fourth NASCAR Craftsman Truck victory of the season and record 37th overall, holding off Dennis Setzer by 0.646 seconds Saturday in the Camping World 200.Hornaday, the defending series champion driving the No. 2 Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Inc., led 113 of the 160 laps on the 1.25-mile Gateway International oval.Johnny Benson, the series leader and also a four-time winner this year, was third, followed by Todd Bodine, Jack Sprague, Erik Darnell, Mike Skinner, Rick Crawford, Colin Braun and Ted Musgrave.Benson has a 94-point lead over Hornaday, also the 1996 and 1998 series champion, in the season standings.It was Hornaday’s first win at Gateway in six starts. He started second and immediately showed his strength, leading the opening 21 laps.”Finally, here!” Hornaday said. “It’s cool. I drove my guts out. It’s not what we wanted on Johnny. We needed a little more. I had a lot of fun and this is what the championship is all about.”Hornaday was the leader when a caution came out before the final pit stops for the lead-lap trucks on the 104th lap. Crew chief Rick Ren decided to take four tires, and Hornaday restarted sixth. The trucks in front of Hornaday either took two or no tires.Benson restarted with the lead, followed by Setzer. Both drivers took right-side tires.Hornaday made it look easy driving back to the front, leading the final 30 laps. He pulled away from Setzer’s Dodge on the final restart with 11 to go and was never threatened.”It was a great call by Rick putting on four tires,” Hornaday said.Marc Davis, driving a Chevrolet for Randy Moss Motorsports, was 16th in his first CTS race. He’s 18.Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

JOLIET, Ill. — The struggles in the U.S. automobile sales market are trickling down to racing, with the latest blow coming to the Craftsman Truck Series. Dodge will not provide any financial support to any teams in the series in 2009, Dodge Motorsports senior manager Mike Delahanty said.”We’ll have no factory-funded teams,” Delahanty told ESPN.com. “When times are tough, there are certain things that are lower on the priority list than others.”Delahanty said the manufacturer’s involvement with the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series is unaffected.Dodge had been a powerhouse in the Truck Series earlier this decade, winning 46 of 99 races from 2001-04 and championships with drivers Bobby Hamilton in 2004 and Ted Musgrave in 2005In recent years Dodge has scaled back its involvement, with only Bobby Hamilton Racing-Virginia receiving money from the manufacturer this season. The team ran two trucks for the first 16 races of this season but parked one prior to Saturday’s race at Gateway, as financial constraints forced the team to lay off 15 employees and scale back operations to one team.Dodge informed the team that its factory support would end this season, and BHR-VA has talked to Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota about a switch for 2009.There are only two full-time Dodges currently in the Truck Series, the BHR-VA No. 18, driven by Dennis Setzer, and the No. 08 of SS Racing/Greenlight Racing, driven by Jason White. The No. 08 has not received any financial assistance from Dodge this year. Other Dodge trucks have raced on a part-time basis without funding, and that could continue next year.”There’s a lot of Dodge trucks, engines and parts out there, [teams] may choose to run them,” Delahanty said. “We just won’t be writing the checks to any teams.”Unlike the new cars being used in Sprint Cup, which are identical and only recognized as Chevys, Dodges, Fords or Toyotas by decals, NASCAR trucks still differ slightly by manufacturer.Dodge and its parent company, Chrysler, have had the sharpest downturn in sales lately among U.S. Big Three automakers, which collectively are in their worst sales slump in a decade. Sales in August compared to the previous year were down 35 percent, compared to 20 percent at General Motors and 26 percent at Ford. Honda eclipsed Chrysler as the nation’s No. 4 auto seller, and Nissan is close behind.In July, General Motors notified officials at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway that its contracts would not be renewed, part of an overall $10 billion cost-cutting program.John Schwarb is a motorsports contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at johnschwarb@yahoo.com.

RICHMOND, Va. — Chase or no Chase, Clint Bowyer and David Ragan have another race to run on Sunday besides the one that decides their Sprint Cup playoff fate.And Jeff Gordon just doesn’t get it. Gordon doesn’t see the logic in racing all the Nationwide events while trying to do your job in Cup.”I can’t tell you how happy I am not to be in that [Nationwide] race,” Gordon said.Rain forced NASCAR to run both the Sprint Cup race (ESPN and ESPN360.com, 1 p.m. ET), and the Nationwide Series event (ESPN2 and ESPN360.com, 7 p.m. ET) on Sunday, so Bowyer and Ragan are two Cup drivers with double duty. But Bowyer and Ragan are the only two drivers doing it on the most stressful weekend of their season. The postponement probably works out better for both of them. They don’t have to worry about the Nationwide race until after the Chase-decider race is over.But if one or both of them fails to make the Chase, it won’t be easy to strap in another car moments later and stay focused.This illustrates the problem of Cup regulars racing full-time in the feeder series. Bowyer and Ragan are two of four Cup drivers (along with Carl Edwards and David Reutimann) racing the entire Nationwide season.Bowyer is trying to win the Nationwide title, hoping to become the third consecutive Cup regular to claim the crown in NASCAR’s version of Triple-A baseball.But Bowyer has bigger concerns for the moment. He is 12th in the standings, only 17 points ahead of Ragan in the race for the final Chase spot. Bowyer is one of the friendliest guys in NASCAR, but the tension showed on Friday when he tried to quickly end an interview session at his hauler. “I’m just trying to stay focused,” he said. “I have to help the guys do their jobs so I can do my job and stay honed in on the task at hand.”Unfortunately, he has more than one task to consider. Gordon, who also is hoping to clinch a Chase spot Sunday, said he believes the other Chase contenders wish they weren’t in the Nationwide event.”Not one driver I’ve talked to enjoys [competing] in the Nationwide races this year,” Gordon said.So why are they doing it?

Chase-clinching scenarios

Kyle Busch (pictured), Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton already have spots reserved in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup. But spots 6 through 12 won’t be decided until this weekend’s race at Richmond. Here are how the contenders stack up: • Greg Biffle: Needs to start the race. • Kevin Harvick: Needs to start the race. • Tony Stewart: Finish 36th, finish 37th and lead at least one lap, or finish 40th and lead the most laps. • Matt Kenseth: Finish 26th, finish 28th and lead at least one lap, or finish 30th and lead the most laps. • Jeff Gordon: Finish 24th, finish 25th and lead at least one lap, or finish 28th and lead the most laps. • Denny Hamlin: Finish 21st, finish 22nd and lead at least one lap, or finish 25th and lead the most laps. • Clint Bowyer: Win, or finish third and lead the most laps. • David Ragan: Win and lead the most laps. *Kasey Kahne is the only other driver mathematically eligible if Ragan and Kahne start the race. “It’s called commitment,” Gordon said. “They made a commitment they all wish they could get out of. Maybe they need to buy a new bus or a nicer airplane. But I love sitting in my bus and watching those races.”Gordon has not raced in a Nationwide event in eight years. He said he has no desire to follow the trend of many Cup regulars who compete in 10 to 20 Nationwide events a year.”Who knows? I might do one or two down the road,” Gordon said. “But doing it week in and week out, and [on] a weekend like this one or during the Chase, I don’t see where it makes any sense.”NASCAR officials recently announced the Nationwide Series won’t switch to the new car, the Car of Tomorrow, chassis until 2010. For now, the cars have little in common with the new cars used in Cup.So the only advantage to racing in both series is track time. It’s beneficial to drivers starting out in Cup, but racing the entire Nationwide Series can be draining for a guy trying to accomplish major goals in Cup.”I did five or six [Nationwide] races a few years back,” Gordon said. “To me, [racing Cup and Nationwide] took the fun right out of it. You would go from one car and run over to the other one. Maybe one was running good and one car was not running good.”I didn’t feel like I was doing either job well. I felt like I did both of them mediocre. So I prefer to just focus on one to do the best job I can.”Bowyer isn’t in position to focus entirely on making the Chase. He has a responsibility to the Nationwide team and its sponsors to try to win the championship. The Nationwide Series has seven events remaining once the Chase starts. Six are companion races at the same speedway as the Cup event. But one is in Memphis the day before the Atlanta Cup event on Oct. 26, meaning the Cup drivers competing in the Nationwide event will have to fly from Atlanta to Memphis and back. Edwards is the one Chase competitor expected to do it. Bowyer or Ragan probably will be another. They get to do it on private jets and then helicopter to the tracks, but it still has to take part of the focus off the primary goal in the Chase.Bowyer finished third in the Chase last year when he didn’t run the entire Nationwide schedule. Edwards won the Nationwide championship and finished ninth in the Chase after starting the playoff in the fourth spot.The question is whether it’s worth it. If Bowyer or Ragan doesn’t make the Chase this time, do you think they will run the full Nationwide schedule next year? Terry Blount covers motorsports for ESPN.com. He can be reached at terry@blountspeak.com.

This is the moment, the peak, the pinnacle;After this, all is ebb.– William Faulkner, reporting for Sports Illustrated from the winner’s circle at the Kentucky Derby.RICHMOND, Va. — After this race, when you think about it, all is ebb.This has become the crucible and the crescendo of the NASCAR season — this one little race with a silly-sounding name, Chevy Rock & Roll 400.”The reality of it is that this is one of 26,” Jeff Burton said, meaning NASCAR’s regular season before the 10-race Chase. “But it’s hard to look at it that way, because all those other races are done.”So this one race means everything.”You feel a sense of urgency here like nowhere else in NASCAR nowadays. Not at the Daytona 500 itself. Not at the season finale at Homestead-Miami.This is about who makes the Chase and who doesn’t. It is clearer cut, more crucial than any race in the Chase itself, where a driver can crash out and you say that’s his “Mulligan,” and maybe he can recover before these long (too long?) playoffs are over.Somebody clearly loses here. Somebody’s done, finished, out of the championship hunt.Seven drivers will race for the final five of the 12 playoff berths, when the rain lets up and they finally run this thing, hopefully Sunday afternoon (ESPN and ESPN360.com, 1 p.m. ET). Only four are on the edge or at the threshold for the final two spots, but Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart, former champions all, are not locks.

Chase-clinching scenarios

Kyle Busch (pictured), Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton already have spots reserved in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup. But spots 6 through 12 won’t be decided until this weekend’s race at Richmond. Here are how the contenders stack up: • Greg Biffle: Needs to start the race. • Kevin Harvick: Needs to start the race. • Tony Stewart: Finish 36th, finish 37th and lead at least one lap, or finish 40th and lead the most laps. • Matt Kenseth: Finish 26th, finish 28th and lead at least one lap, or finish 30th and lead the most laps. • Jeff Gordon: Finish 24th, finish 25th and lead at least one lap, or finish 28th and lead the most laps. • Denny Hamlin: Finish 21st, finish 22nd and lead at least one lap, or finish 25th and lead the most laps. • Clint Bowyer: Win, or finish third and lead the most laps. • David Ragan: Win and lead the most laps. *Kasey Kahne is the only other driver mathematically eligible if Ragan and Kahne start the race. When NASCAR launched the Chase, “the intentions were to have a race like this, for the championship, in the last race of the season,” said Denny Hamlin, 11th in the standings, one notch above the bubble. “It just seems like some guys have separated themselves throughout the Chase, and it’s been anti-dramatic, I guess you could say.”Maybe he meant anticlimactic, but then again maybe his terminology was spot on. Except for the inaugural playoffs, which were a cavalry charge into the finale, the Chase has hemorrhaged drama all the way to Homestead each year.But here, even for those locked in, “It’s almost like an all-star race,” said Kyle Busch, who plans to run all-out, mainly trying to pad his top seed, but largely for the hell of it.He’ll start on the pole beside his chief antagonist of late, Carl Edwards. Neither has anything to lose — except face, to the other. So that sideshow could get good in a hurry.Throw in a storm, as now, with Hanna.Postpone the race for a day.Give the man on the bubble, Clint Bowyer, another day to anguish, fret and sweat — and he is, indeed, as uptight as his hometown sportswriters from Kansas City have ever seen him.Give the man at the threshold, David Ragan, 13th in the standings, another day to act as cool as any contender in the five-year history of the Chase.Put everybody on a track they like but are wary of.”I think this is the best racetrack on the circuit,” Burton said of the three-quarter-mile Richmond International Raceway oval. “I’m not saying that just because we’re here; I really mean that.”Indeed, for all the 1.5-mile “cookie cutter” tracks built in the last dozen years, the most recently constructed major track is Iowa Speedway, a Midwest replica of Richmond.When Rusty Wallace got a partnership in the Iowa track to be the primary consultant, he considered the configuration a no-brainer: “Build another Richmond,” he said, and they did.

When this season started I wanted to be locked in before we got here, and I’m very, very happy to be in that position.

— Jimmie Johnson “You never have a boring race here,” Burton said. “The fans all have good seats [somewhat like a football bowl]. It’s a good combination of the track being big enough to race on, but small enough to put on great races.”Since he crashed out of this race in 2004, Jimmie Johnson, now third in points, has deemed this track “a risky one,” he said. “For me this has been a tough track, even though we ran well here last year. When this season started I wanted to be locked in before we got here, and I’m very, very happy to be in that position.”I can remember watching some guys over the years just fighting tooth and nail here. And this is a tough track, if your stuff’s not right, to hang on and try to transfer [to the playoffs].”"In 2005, when I was on the bubble to make the Chase,” Edwards said, “the pressure was, for me, really huge. So guys like Clint and Kasey [Kahne, 14th] and David, I’m sure they want to get this over with.”So Saturday, with its wind and rain, was “a long day, I would imagine, for them.”Waiting for the moment, the peak, the pinnacle of the NASCAR season.Ed Hinton is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at edward.t.hinton@espn3.com.

RICHMOND, Va. — It can’t be comforting to David Ragan to know that the driver he has to catch for the final Chase spot is the driver who won the last race at Richmond International Raceway.Then again, that victory was a bit of a fluke. Clint Bowyer was the beneficiary of a Kyle Busch bump on leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. While they tangled on the track, Bowyer scooted by and took the checkered flag at RIR in May.Bowyer leads Ragan by 17 points for the 12th and final Chase spot entering the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 on Saturday night, the last chance to make the 10-race playoff field.”I don’t think I’ve ever been in this situation,” said Ragan, a second-year driver who is the surprise of the Chase contenders. “It’s such a highly watched, one-race kind of deal where you’re make or break to get to the next level.” Bowyer started 12th in the 2007 Chase as the only driver who didn’t have a victory entering the playoff, but he won the first Chase race at New Hampshire and finished third in the standings at the end of the season.

Chase-clinching scenarios

Kyle Busch (pictured), Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton already have spots reserved in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup. But spots 6 through 12 won’t be decided until this weekend’s race at Richmond. Here are how the contenders stack up: • Greg Biffle: Needs to start the race. • Kevin Harvick: Needs to start the race. • Tony Stewart: Finish 36th, finish 37th and lead at least one lap, or finish 40th and lead the most laps. • Matt Kenseth: Finish 26th, finish 28th and lead at least one lap, or finish 30th and lead the most laps. • Jeff Gordon: Finish 24th, finish 25th and lead at least one lap, or finish 28th and lead the most laps. • Denny Hamlin: Finish 21st, finish 22nd and lead at least one lap, or finish 25th and lead the most laps. • Clint Bowyer: Win, or finish third and lead the most laps. • David Ragan: Win and lead the most laps. *Kasey Kahne is the only other driver mathematically eligible if Ragan and Kahne start the race. “I want to be a part of this again, and I hope I am,” Bowyer said. “It’s ours to lose right now, so there’s pressure. There’s no way getting around it. We have to make the best of it and dig deep and see what we’re made of.”Bowyer and Ragan aren’t the only drivers having to stress out over the Chase-deciding event. Officially, nine drivers are vying for the final seven spots. Busch, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt and Jeff Burton can relax. They’re in. Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick need only to start the race to secure spots.Four others — Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin — will make it unless something bad happens and they finish well below where they usually end up.Nothing is guaranteed for those four, but they will make it barring a mechanical failure or a wreck, not an unusual occurrence on the .75-mile RIR oval.The real focus for this race is the three-way fight for the 12th spot in the playoff between Bowyer, Ragan and Kasey Kahne, who is 48 points behind Bowyer in 14th position.When Kahne made the Chase in 2006, his only playoff appearance, he finished third at Richmond. It’s one of his best tracks. The odds are against him this time, but Kahne feels good about his team’s performance this season.He was 21st in the standings one year ago and was winless in 2007, but he has two victories this season. “I feel like we’ve come a long way since last year,” Kahne said. “We were going for sixth in points a few weeks ago and ended up 14th two weeks later. It’s racing. That’s the way it goes. Hopefully [Bowyer and Ragan] will have a problem. That’s our only way in.”If Kahne falls short, Dodge won’t have a driver in the Chase for the first time since the playoff format began in 2004. Here’s a look at the seven drivers hoping to clinch places in the Chase on Saturday night and the chances they’ll get in:Tony Stewart What needs to happen: Just keep his cool and not do anything stupid. Stewart will clinch if he finishes 36th or better. He can do that in his sleep, if the engine doesn’t blow on the No. 20 Toyota or unless someone else wrecks his car. Chances he’ll make it: 95 percent. Matt Kenseth What needs to happen: A little tougher deal than Stewart because he has to finish 26th or better to clinch. But the same thing applies. Mr. Consistency will do this unless the tires fall off the No. 17 Ford. Chances he’ll make it: 90 percent. Jeff Gordon What needs to happen: Gordon’s clinch number is 24th or better. If the No. 24 car can’t finish 24th, the team doesn’t deserve to make the Chase. As long as he stays out of trouble, Gordon will have a shot at that elusive fifth championship.Chances he’ll make it: 80 percent. Denny Hamlin What needs to happen: He has to finish 21st or better at his home track, where he usually runs well. Hamlin dominated the race and led 381 laps at Richmond in May, but he cut a tire near the end and finished 24th. Chances he’ll make it: 75 percent. Clint Bowyer What needs to happen: If Bowyer finishes ahead of Ragan and Kahne, he’s in. But that’s a big if. For example, if Kahne finishes third, Ragan ends up ninth and Bowyer 15th, Bowyer is out, unless something crazy happens to the other Chase contenders. The simplest clinch is to do what he did in May — win the race. Chances he’ll make it: 60 percent. David Ragan What needs to happen: A lot of things, but Bowyer having a bad night is his best option. Ragan could win the race and not make the Chase. If he wins and doesn’t lead the most laps, he’s still out if Bowyer finishes second and leads a lap.Chances he’ll make it: 40 percent. Kasey Kahne What needs to happen: Finish near the front while Bowyer and Ragan have bad nights. Kahne has finished in the top 10 at RIR in five of his past seven starts on the short track, including a victory in 2005. Even a win might not be enough this time.Chances he’ll make it: 25 percent. Terry Blount covers motorsports for ESPN.com. He can be reached at terry@blountspeak.com.

Some of the world’s greatest academic minds have come together figure out how to reduce air traffic delays at our gridlocked airports. Researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory have developed the Route Availability Planning Tool to untangle the delays that inevitably arise when planes encounter bad weather. RAPT compiles weather data from multiple sources, crunches it to predict which flight paths are most likely to clear as the storm passes and displays the information in an easy-to-read interface that allows air traffic controllers to make decisions quickly. It’s light years ahead of the current system, which amounts to little more than air traffic controllers using their best guess and hoping it works out. Beta testing shows the system works, too — it’s already cut delays at New York airports by 2,300 hours. The RAPT display shows an airport with lines radiating outward to indicate departure routes. A grid below the map lists the different routes in rows, and uses the columns to chop each row into five-minute intervals. Each block color-coded according to the weather planes can expect to encounter on that path. If a controller sees that flight path one is green at 10:45 but then turns red at 10:50, he knows he has five minutes to get some planes into the air. RAPT is quite a departure (bad pun intended) from the current system, in which an air traffic controller must take weather information from multiple sources and create a mental picture to determine how it will impact different flight paths. If things are getting bad and there are several flights in the air and on the ground, the controller might become overwhelmed and simply hold all flights until the weather has improved. A handful of delayed flights might not sound like a big deal, but it can be. Studies by Lincoln Lab show getting just two or three more planes in the air during a storm at a crowded airport can keep a domino effect of delays from spreading throughout the nation. A RAPT prototype is being tested in New York, and Lincoln Lab says it’s already proving itself. Delays in the New York City region have been cut by 2,300 hours, which equals $7.5 million in operational cost savings. MIT estimates that if the system is fully implemented in New York, it could save up to 8,800 hours per year, or $28 million. Multiply that by the 20 air traffic regions in the United States, and you’re talking a lot of money saved. And hopefully, a lot fewer delays. Screenshot: MIT/Lincoln Laboratory

The Citroën Hypnos concept may possibly be the least American car to ever appear at a car show. It’s French. It’s diesel. If that weren’t enough, it’s also a gas-sipping hybrid. We’d just love to fly over to the Paris Motor Show to catch a glimpse, but as Americans we don’t have a cushy monthlong paid vacation to go globetrotting. Well, that and the fact our currency is so worthless we couldn’t afford to go. The exterior channels the Mazda CX-9 and Nissan Murano, and aside from the suicide doors is actually pretty tame by the standards of French concept cars. Judging by previous efforts, Citroën’s current lineup should be made out of exhumed human skeletons, the AIDS virus and lightning. It isn’t until a prospective driver opens the doors (or in this case, The Doors) that he’s treated to a Coleridgian fantasy of colors, rainbows and hallucinatory textures. It’s as if one of their pompous designers mistook psilocybin for a chanterelle while preparing fusty French food for his three-hour paid lunch break. Citroën says the interior is meant to make "technology more human and approachable" and take passengers "into the realm of pure magic." But one can only think "WTF?" According to AutoWeek, if the Hypnos were ever to be produced its hybrid diesel engine would make 200 horsepower and deliver a steady 53 mpg, all while making Bill O’Reilly nauseated. The Europeans seem to be betting on diesel hybrids, partly because of their increased efficiency, and partly because diesel is the European fuel of choice. If Citroën brings back ads with Grace Jones scaring the bejesus out of us, Volkswagen’s familiar 70-mpg Golf TDI Hybrid and Mercedes’ staid E300 46-mpg BlueTec Diesel Hybrid will probably catch on a little faster than Citroen’s psychedelic people-mover. PSA/Peugeot-Citroën research and engineering chief Pascal Henault told Automotive News Europe (sub. req.) that hybrid diesels will start appearing on high-end products from Peugeot and sister company Citroën. "Depending on how the market develops, we hope to also use the hybrid technology on more conventional products," he said, though we wonder how he defines "conventional." Luckily, our American eyes will never have to see such a beast, as PSA/Peugeot-Citroën’s return to the U.S. market is about as likely as George W. Bush receiving the Légion d’honneur. At the very least, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will require registered Hypnos importers to install a ’70s-era hydropneumatic suspension and re-badge it as the Freedom Van. Images by Citroën

So that’s what they’ve been up to … After teasing us with $2.99 a gallon gas and half-baked half-electric Aspens and Durangos, Chrysler’s finally shown its petrified dealer network it isn’t entirely out of ideas, let alone out of touch with reality. Chrysler Vice Chairman and President Jim Press says some dealers have seen advanced prototypes of the company’s plug-in hybrids, and according to the Los Angeles Times, Press claims to have actually driven "producible prototypes" that have a range of 300 miles and can do 0-60 in less than four seconds. Why he isn’t showing these cars to everyone is anyone’s guess, but there’s no telling with Chrysler these days. Way back in September of 2007, the company tapped its best and brightest to join the Envi unit, a division tasked with developing new fuel efficient powertrains. It was a welcome break for Chrysler’s worst and dullest, who already worked hard enough on the Sebring. Now it seems Envi may be the only thing with a pulse at Chrysler, and its apparently come up with real cars that are closer to reality than the ecoVoyager (pictured above), Jeep Renegade and Dodge NEO concepts shown in January. Press didn’t elaborate on a timeline for releasing the plug-ins — which further makes us wonder how real they are — but Reuters says Envi should have its first product in showrooms within three to five years. According to Chrysler spokesman Nick Cappa, the first vehicles out of Envi will have an electric-only range of 40 miles. Considering the Chevrolet Volt is on track to hit dealerships by the end of 2010 and just about everyone else is working on plug-ins and EVs, Chrysler may once again be so late to the party that the hosts already have passed out. Of course, that might be when the party’s just getting good. There is still one market segment that a slightly more nimble Chrysler could conquer. Press appeared to be well aware of this when he told reporters the Envi hybrid powertrain would be particularly appropriate for an off-road vehicle. Jeep owners would be thrilled not to have to worry about smashing their oil pan on a boulder, as an Envi-ed Renegade wouldn’t even have an oil pan. Plus, the silent powertrains would allow the most callous off-roaders to desecrate nature without an exhaust note loud enough to alert the Environmental Police. Image courtesy Chrysler.