The Chase for the Sprint Cup just got a whole lot more interesting.
Following last week's race at Talladega that left 25 cars in a huge crash, point leader Brad Keselowski had a comfortable lead heading into Saturday's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. But after making a crucial fueling mistake, Keselowski can feel the heat from Jimmy Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer, who all are within striking distance with five races to go.
Bowyer had the best day of the group, taking the checkered flag to leave him just 28 points behind Keselowski for the Chase lead. Last season Tony Stewart was a similar 24 points back from the lead after Charlotte and ended up winning the Chase.
"Five races left, and we're still in contention for a championship," Bowyer said to the Associated Press.
The win was Bowyer's first of the Chase and his third victory this year, which is a career high. He took advantage of Keselowski's mistakes and made the last month of the playoffs an exciting one.
"Win some, lose some guys; it's all good," Keselowski immediately told his Penske crew in a pep talk over his radio according to the Associated Press.
Keselowski had issues two nights in a row with fuel. He ran out of gas on Friday while racing in the Nationwide Series and then did it again on Saturday night with 58 laps to go when it really mattered. After leading 139 of 334 laps, Keselowski finished 11th.
"It's blackjack: You're not going to win every hand," he said. "When you got a bad deal, you have to try not to have too many chips on the table."
Making matter worse for Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson was able to finish third and cut the lead in the Chase to just seven points.
"I don't know how much it hurt him at the end of the day," Johnson said. "I've been doing this long enough, too, when you see something happen, in your mind you're like there's an opportunity and before you know it, it happens to you."
With 25 laps to go Greg Biffle had the lead but was forced to go into pit road, allowing Bowyer to take the lead for good.
Hamlin came in second and was able to move only 15 points behind Keselowski, good for third in the Chase standings.
"Live by the sword, die by the sword," Hamlin said.
Keselowski wasn't the only one who had to keep an eye on his fuel. Both Hamlin and Johnson had chances to go for the lead, but couldn't due to low levels. Instead they played it safe and finished in the top five.
"We were just being really cautious and didn't want to go out there and chase (Hamlin) and get ourselves in trouble," Johnson said. "We're getting really good at this fuel mileage stuff; it's hard to get it right."
Johnson nearly caused a collision with Keselowski on lap 74 when he was trying to make a pass. As Keselowski slowed down to take a pit stop, Johnson stormed by him, missing the back of his care by mere inches.
The race was missing some star power after Dale Earnhardt Jr. was forced to miss the race due to a concussion suffered in last week's Talladega crash. According to ESPN it was the first race since 1979 without an Earnhardt competing in it.
Starting for Earnhardt was Reagan Smith, but finished 38th after having engine issues.
"It's a good team, it's a good car and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports does a great job," Smith said. "I'm looking forward to next week. I'm getting comfortable with the cars, comfortable with the equipment. Should be fun to go to Kansas."
The biggest hit of the night came for Keselowski. With the chance to put some distance between himself and the other Chase racers, the points standings are now closer than even with just a few more to go.
"It was the worst-case scenario," Keselowski said. "We minimized the damage as best we could."
Bowyer was the biggest beneficiary of the night due to Keselowski's mistakes.
"Man, at the end of the day we're a helluva lot better than we were leaving Talladega," said Bowyer, who was collected in the 25-car wreck on the last lap a week ago. "To be back in Victory Lane, a new life, a new hope going to Kansas. There's a lot of racing left."
Kasey Kahne finished in eighth place, dropping him to fifth in the Chase standings after being in fourth last week. Biffle was able to move up in the Chase to sixth in points, but it would take a historic finish in the last few races for him to vault to the top.
The next race will be at the Kansas Speedway on Oct. 21 for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Kansas at 2 p.m.
