With four opportunities remaining to shore up their Chase chances, only one driver was able to make any headway during Sunday’s Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

And even he wasn’t thrilled with the results.

Clint Bowyer’s 13th-place finish at MIS, combined with Mark Martin’s 28th-place run, allowed the Richard Childress Racing driver to slide back into the top 12 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. But his advantage is a thin one – he heads into Saturday night’s race at Bristol sporting only a 35-point advantage over Hendrick Motorsports' Martin.

Martin battled through early contact with the wall to finish 28th, his worst finish since the July race at Daytona, to keep the damage to a minimum.

Meanwhile, Ryan Newman (Stewart-Haas Racing) and Jamie McMurray (Earnhardt Ganassi Racing) did little to improve their odds of making this year’s Chase For The Sprint Cup.

Newman hobbled home 23rd after an incident with Joey Logano (Joe Gibbs Racing) left him more than just a little angry. McMurray was never able to work his way through traffic, finishing 20th, one spot below where he had qualified.

While both drivers held on to their respective points positions, the gap between themselves and 12th-place widened. Newman, 83 points out of the Chase prior to the Michigan race, now trails by 103. McMurray saw his deficit expand from 94 to 105 points.

The good news? The four drivers have three races to get their acts together. The bad news? Between the four, they managed only two top-10 finishes at the three upcoming tracks earlier this year.

Bowyer was 12th at Richmond, but 23rd or worse at Bristol and Atlanta; Martin was 25th or worse at all three; Newman scored an eighth-place run at Richmond, but failed to crack the top-15 at Bristol and Atlanta; and McMurray’s eighth-place finish at Atlanta was followed by a 29th at Bristol and 19th at Richmond several weeks later.

Chase favorite?
Race winner Kevin Harvick continued to show that his Richard Childress Racing team will be a factor come Chase time, but few folks are ready to write off four-time champion Jimmie Johnson as this year’s favorite.

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With five wins this year, Johnson will begin the Chase no worse than third.

“Until you beat the guy that’s won the last four championships … we’re fast enough to beat them, but the circumstances and all the things have to go your way over the last 10 weeks,” Harvick said.

“It’s not about a whole season anymore; it’s about 10 weeks.

“… It’s like saying you’re going to beat somebody that’s won the last four Super Bowls. Until you beat that guy, there’s no reason to put that pressure on ourselves.”

Denny Hamlin, who finished second Sunday and like Johnson has five wins this year, isn’t so sure that Harvick isn’t the driver to beat.

“Through the course of the regular season, he has just been really, really good. Really reliable,” the JGR driver said. “He’s been a guy that’s been super solid.

“I really don’t see how he can’t be the favorite going into it. [He’s] really not tapered off; he’s actually gotten better.”

Edwards hitting his stride
The Carl Edwards winless drought has reached 59 races, but the Roush Fenway Racing driver and his team have hardly looked like a group that’s been struggling in recent weeks.

Edwards finished third Sunday, his sixth consecutive finish of seventh or better. In a span of five races, he’s gone from 12th in points to sixth.

Still, he’s taking nothing for granted, in spite of his 266-point advantage over 13th-place Martin.

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“If we can get through Bristol and be 200 points ahead of 13th, then we just go for broke,” Edwards said. “… If we were 300 [points inside the Chase cutoff] right now, we would really go for it at Bristol.

“I don’t know who is 13th, Mark or Clint, but Clint is a guy that can easily replace anybody in the Chase. Both of those guys are really strong right now. They could easily go out there and win two in a row. If you go out there and mess up, then they could capitalize on that. You have to be careful.”

Safety net
Front Row Motorsports’ decision to replace rookie Kevin Conway with Tony Raines didn’t immediately result in a better finish for the No. 34 team. Raines finished 31st Sunday, a feat Conway had managed in his last two starts with the team.

But the result did push the team up two spots, to 33rd, in owner points, getting it off the top-35 bubble.

P.J. Jones’ 37th-place finish in the Robby Gordon Motorsports Toyota dropped that No. 7 team to 35th and in danger of having to make the field based on qualifying speed.

Trying to close the gap and guarantee themselves a starting spot in the field are Latitude Motorsports’ No. 26 team (161 points outside the top 35) and Front Row’s No. 38 with driver Travis Kvapil, which trails by 174.

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