Junior closer to the Chase, but not by much

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished fifth in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, one place ahead of Kurt Busch. Earnhardt Jr. and Busch are fighting for the 12th and final spot in the Chase. Busch is in 12th. Earnhardt is 13th, 158 points behind Busch.
Despite his top-five finish at Bristol, Earnhardt Jr. was only able to trim five points off Busch's edge for 12th place.
There are only two races left before the Chase starts and only two more races for Earnhardt Jr. to climb into the top 12 in the Cup standings.
"I want to win," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. "If I can't get into the Chase, let's win a race. Let's do something."
Earnhardt Jr. missed the Chase a couple years ago. He said after the Bristol race that he would rather win a race than qualify for the Chase. He also said the media makes a bigger deal out of not making the Chase than he does.
"Y'all make it pretty miserable because that's all y'all talk about," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I shouldn't tell you that you dictate my mood. Now you know but anyways, when we don't make it everybody makes a big deal out of it. They talk about it pre-race, they talk about it post-race for a couple weeks and it is a bummer. It's a bummer when you see that and have to watch that and read it and what not."
It almost sounds like Earnhardt Jr. has given up on making the Chase. It's a longshot at this point, but not impossible. Kasey Kahne was able to make up 90 points and qualify for the Chase with two races to go last year. Earnhardt Jr. has a much steeper hill to climb.
"You kind of want to go under the radar when you can't get it done but maybe we can get us a win," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I'll be more ticked off if I don't win a race this year because I've run good all year. We've had so many opportunities, you know? And you won't credit for running fifth and blowing up, running up second blowing up. You just won't."