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Kenseth, Bowyer make Chase cut

Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer secured the final two spots in the NASCAR Sprint Cup's Chase for the Championship, giving their respective teams a third shot at the series title in the final ten races of the season

Kenseth just needed a 26th place finish to secure his place in the top twelve, but had a less than perfect afternoon at Richmond. He spun at Turn 1 on lap 121, crashing into his teammate David Ragan, who had also spun while running ahead of him.

After that he fought a very loose car and made further contact with the wall, eventually crossing the line 39th, but just scoring enough points to secure 11th place in the standings by the end of the day.

"I'm glad we're in," said Kenseth. "I mean, it was a disappointing day. I was pretty much in the way of everybody all day. I was pretty much a rolling chicane after David (Ragan) spun in front of me and then as soon as he spun, I spun and didn't really have anywhere to go.

"I don't know if there was oil or whatever it was, just weird, his car turned sideways and spun out and after that mine did it and after that got a black flag for sheet metal hanging off or something and lost a couple of laps and everything snowballed from there.

"Glad we're in but if we operate like this we won't do anything. Everybody that's in wants to run for the championship and we have a lot of improvement (to make) to do that."

Meanwhile Bowyer kept a close eye on Kenseth's teammate Ragan, who was hoping to be the fourth Roush Fenway driver in the Chase. A couple of times the pair raced each other hard, the latter picking up further damage to his car when Bowyer hit Regan Smith, sending him against his car.

Halfway through the race Bowyer dropped down the order while the Ford racer was running in the top-15 after going out of pit sequence, but that situation would later reverse - giving the RCR driver the edge in the battle for the final spot in the Chase.

"We knew it was going to be a rollercoaster all day," Bowyer said. "The car was good early. Had track position and we got behind there. Everybody stayed out and then we had a bad pit stop and got way behind and the car was tight back there in traffic and about went a lap down, you see your Chase hopes going by the wayside there.

"Luckily a caution came out at the right time and things worked out. Real proud of the guys for sticking together. It's been a rough summer and a lot of things have happened on our organisation and team to get things distracted but everyone stuck together and we are in this thing together."

While Kenseth makes the Chase for the fifth consecutive time since it was introduced following his Cup title in 2003, Bowyer will have a run at the championship for the second year in a row after finishing third in the points last year.

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