Busch still hopeful of Chase spot

The Penske Racing driver was running strongly before being hit into the wall by rookie David Stremme, and now lies 206 points outside the cut-off point for the Chase, with just seven races to go.

Busch has made the Chase in the past two seasons and was the inaugural winner back in 2004. He quotes Matt Kenseth's performance last season, where he put in a strong run in the final Race to the Chase events last year to clinch a spot in the ten driver, ten race play-off, as a reason why he can still make it this season.

Busch goes into this weekend's Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono as defending race champion, after dominating the race last season. He also scored a second place at the track at the series last visit in June.

"It's not over till it's over," said Busch. "We're still going about it the way we have over the last six weeks or so. We'll take it one race at a time and focus on getting all we can out of each and every race. That's all we can do.

"I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again - just go back and look at what Matt Kenseth did last year. I agree that it's a lot tougher out there this year, with guys like Tony Stewart even out of it right now, but Matt was able to mount a charge and make the cut against the odds. I wouldn't write off any of the top 15 guys right now.

"I remember winning the Pocono race last July and the 17 team (Kenseth) having a disastrous day. They were further out of the top 10 with only six races left than we are now going into Pocono and with seven races left."

"Really, right now it looks like only the 48 [points leader Jimmie Johnson] and the 17 [Matt Kenseth, second in the standings] are pretty much locked in.

"When you consider there's 147 points separating third [Jeff Burton] from 11th [Tony Stewart], there can be guys way up in the standings now who have problems and fall out of the top 10. We're 206 points out of 10th right now, but there's still time to get up there during the next seven races.

"We qualified second and finished second there in June, so I don't have to tell you that we're hoping to get back on course and headed in the right direction this weekend at Pocono.

"With seven races remaining, there's still a lot of time for good things to happen for some and bad things to happen to others."