After his ninth-place finish at Michigan Sunday, a disappointed Stewart said: "At this point, if we are going to run this bad, it really doesn't matter whether we make the Chase or not, because we are going to be occupying a spot in the Chase that somebody else that actually can run for a championship is going to be trying to take. Our stuff is so bad right now, we're wasting one of those top-12 spots."
Brad Keselowski is in the best shape of those trying to secure a Chase place. Following finishes of first, second and third in his last three races in the No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge, Keselowski has vaulted to 12th from 21st. His two victories are the most among drivers outside the top 10.
Keselowski's victory at Pocono occurred after he broke his left ankle in a test-session crash at Road Atlanta earlier in the week. There's probably more than one Sprint Cup crew chief thinking of taking a hammer to his underperforming driver's ankles: "If breaking an ankle worked for Brad, then maybe it will work for my driver."
"I've gotten a lot of questions about the effects of my ankle possibly helping our performance as a team," Keselowski said Tuesday. "It certainly looks that way, but, to be honest, it seems the team and I are just executing well. We're catching some good breaks and we've had fast race cars."
Asked how confident he is about being a Chaser for the first time, the 27-year-old Michigan native said, "I'm feeling pretty good about it, but nothing is ever a certainty until it's done."
Keselowski thinks creating the two Chase wild cards has been a huge plus.
"I think it shows a commitment to making every race important," he said. "[Before] when we came to Pocono [in August], it was just kind of another race. Now, the win I had at Pocono completely changes the whole forecast for the playoff system."
