Johnson, Earnhardt Jr. out of Chase

A week after he was run down from behind by Matt Kenseth in the garage at Charlotte, Brad Keselowski received a helpful push from Kenseth to win and advance to the third round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup on Sunday at Talladega.

After a blown tire at Kansas and a 16th place finish at Charlotte, Keselowski was in a win-and-in scenario in the last race of the Chase's second round. While eight of the 12 remaining drivers of the Chase advance to the third round, Keselowski was so far out of the top eight that the most realistic scenario to advance was to win.

He did just that after getting the lead before a second green-white-checker restart, which came when Dale Earnhardt Jr. was involved in a crash with others on the backstretch. As the leader, Keselowski had lane choice. He wanted the bottom line, which meant that third-place Kurt Busch would be behind him on the restart. The top side had teammate Joey Logano. Keselowski and crew chief Paul Wolfe chose the top.

As Keselowski attempted to hold off second-place Ryan Newman, Logano threw a huge block on Kevin Harvick and the rest of the field. Keselowski was able to side draft on Newman through turns one and two on the final lap and was even with him down the backstretch. Then Kenseth closed in on Keselowski's bumper on the low line, giving him the aerodynamic boost he needed on the backstretch to fend off Newman through turns three and four and jump out to an insurmountable lead through the tri-oval.

"It was very easy to write ourselves off after the last two weeks," Keselowski said. "And we had one job to do and that was to come to Talladega and win and we did it and treated this weekend like Homestead. And if these guys can keep it up at this level, we got a shot at [the championship] and I'm really, really thankful for that."

Kenseth and Keselowski tangled in the garage after they played bumper cars on the track. Kenseth went into the wall as he tried to pass Keselowski on a restart. Keselowski said that later, Kenseth hit him while passing him on a wave-around during a caution flag. After the race, as the two were entering pit road, Keselowski slammed his car into Kenseth's. All those incidents precipitated the fracas, which saw members of both drivers' teams in a rugby-style scrum between the two haulers after Kenseth chased down Keselowski.

Of course, Kenseth's move to help Keselowski via the draft wasn't an altruistic gesture of goodwill toward him. After Charlotte, Kenseth was teetering on the precipice of elimination from the Chase. Following Keselowski was simply the best way to guarantee his best finish and advance to the third round. With the points resetting after Talladega, making a move for the win and risking a loss of points was dangerously unnecessary.

Entering Talladega, Keselowski was in the same position as Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson; all three needed a win or some significant points help to make the next round. As Keselowski got the win, the other two drivers didn't get the points help. Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson are out of the Chase.

Junior's chances went kaput during the crash to set up the final restart. He was tagged by Greg Biffle and spun into the pack, triggering a multi-car accident. On the restart before Junior's crash, Johnson moved to the outside from fourth to make a play for the lead. He simply had no one go with him for drafting help. He fell back and never got within a sniff of the lead again.

Kyle Busch, who entered the race third in points, missed out because of a multi-car crash earlier in the race. He fell to 10th in the points standings, seven below eighth place. Here's the points standings following Talladega. All eight advancing drivers will have their points reset to the same level before Martinsville.

1. Joey Logano (won at Kansas)
2. Kevin Harvick (won at Charlotte)
3. Brad Keselowski (won at Talladega)
4. Ryan Newman (+27 points ahead of ninth)
5. Denny Hamlin (+10)
6. Matt Kenseth (+9)
7. Carl Edwards (+9)
8. Jeff Gordon (+3)
9. Kasey Kahne (-3 to Gordon)
10. Kyle Busch (-7)
11. Jimmie Johnson (-40)
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (-48)