Looking at Friday’s practice sheet and the starting line-up for Sunday’s Carfax 400 this could be the make or break weekend for Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch. Going into the weekend the man sitting thirteenth in points was in need of a strong outing and heading into day two at the Michigan International Speedway Busch and his Steve Addington-led crew have a lot of work to do.

When the first practice session of the weekend ended Friday afternoon, Busch found himself sitting thirty-third out of forty-four drivers. Running a total of fifteen laps, Busch’s No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota was more than a second off Ryan Newman’s fastest lap. When qualifying rolled around, Busch took to the track sixth, but watched as car after car knocked him further down the charts. When all was said and done, ‘Rowdy’ was 39th on the board while his biggest competition was celebrating his third straight pole at MIS.

Fighting to make his way into the twelve-man field for this year’s Chase, Busch is not only chasing those ahead of him but also trying to keep Brian Vickers in his rear view mirror. With Friday’s results, Busch is a bit behind the eight ball – more like the 83 ball.

Leading up to the weekend Busch spoke of looking past Michigan to Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond. Much better tracks for Busch than the 2-mile D-shaped MIS, Busch was hoping he could hold off the competition until then and was betting on others ahead of him to hit bad luck.

“It all comes down to performance and how you finish on Sunday and the points you get,” Busch said earlier this week. “So when you look at who's in the Chase and who's going to fall out, man, it's hard too look at someone whose going to fall out. (Greg) Biffle and Kenseth - I mean, (Matt) Kenseth has been in it every year, so you can't count on him even though he's fighting for a spot. You know Biffle, he runs strong in these next tracks that we go to. One of his best ones is Michigan and I think he runs well in Atlanta. But Bristol and Richmond, you know, those other two, those are our tracks. You know we run really well at those tracks. Bristol, you never know what can come out of that place, so it's a hard one, too.”

One day into the weekend and Busch’s plan is already coming apart at the seams. While Busch is struggling to find the answers to his problems, Vickers is looking to strike when it matters most. With the media attention focused on Busch and his battle to rejoin the top-12 in the standings, Vickers has quietly been putting himself in contention.

With four top-5 finishes in the last five races (and an 11th last week in Watkins Glen), Vickers is just thirty-eight points behind Busch and only ninety-six from Matt Kenseth in twelfth. The driver of the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota does not mind not being the center of media attention, but wants to be there when it matters at the end of the night in Richmond.

“I feel good about it,” Vickers said of his chances of making the Chase. “We’re under 100 points with four races to go and we’re headed upwards not downwards. We have the momentum going in the right direction. That could change with a flip of a coin, of course that could change soon, but I feel really strong about it. I think our chances are as good as anyone in that bubble area. Obviously Tony (Stewart) has better chances than we do, but I think we’re plenty capable of it. I was talking to someone this morning and they said ‘Would you rather be in the ‘Chase’ being chased or would you rather be out of the ‘Chase’, chasing someone?’ Hindsight, if you’d have asked me in the beginning of the year if I’d rather be in the ‘Chase’ at this point or out of it, of course I’d say I’d rather be in it, but I think there’s a little bit of an advantage as well to have the target in front of you instead of on your back. For us, the target is in front of us and we know what we have to do and we just have to go do it.”

That target ahead of Vickers is the No. 18 of Busch and with ‘Rowdy’ looking ahead to the next three weeks, now is the time to strike when it matters most and move that much closer to his goal of making the Chase.

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