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Chase Watch: Amidst drama surrounding Chasers, Joe Gibbs Racing takes a big hit

Chase Watch: Amidst drama surrounding Chasers, Joe Gibbs Racing takes a big hit

Apparently eliminations are needed when a bunch of Chase drivers attempt to eliminate themselves in a single race.

Issues struck a bunch of Chase drivers including Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., all three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers and Kurt Busch during Sunday's race at New Hampshire. Couple that with a mediocre performance from Carl Edwards and a strong run from Aric Almirola and the battle for 12th in the points standings at Dover is suddenly a close one.

After Dover, the third race of the Chase, the 16-driver Chase field will be whittled down to 12. Thanks to the New England craziness, nine drivers are within 10 points of 12th place either way.

Let's start with Gordon, who isn't among that group. The four-time champion, perhaps the most consistent driver in 2014, was having another solid day Sunday planted in the top 10. All hope of a top-10 finish went away with eight laps to go when Gordon had a flat right-front tire heading into turn one and slammed the wall.

He ended up 26th and is now seventh in the points standings, 21 points ahead of 12th spot. It's enough of a margin that Gordon shouldn't be in danger of missing the next round barring an absolute disaster at Dover. However, given that Gordon could have been up 40 or more points, he can't breathe easy either.

Here's what it looks like below Gordon.

8. Carl Edwards (+8 points over 13th): After a flat tire and trouble at Chicago, Edwards needed a strong run at New Hampshire. He didn't get it. Edwards lost positions in the closing laps on Sunday and ended up 17th. His average finish at Dover is 10.2, so if history holds, he should be fine.

9. Matt Kenseth (+8 points): Kenseth is tied mathematically with Edwards but loses the tiebreaker because he doesn't have any wins this year while Edwards has two. Early in the race Kenseth had to check up off turn two and was run into by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch. Busch suffered heavy damage to his fender and spun into the grass. Later, Kenseth was taken out by a sliding Paul Menard and smashed into the wall. He finished 21st. Busch, because of his good finish at Chicago and a great fight back to eighth Sunday, isn't in nearly as much danger. He's fifth in the points standings, 28 points ahead of 12th.

10. A.J. Allmendinger (+7 points): When everyone else around you is having trouble, keep the nose pointed in the right direction and good things will happen. After finishing the first race five points out of the top 12, Allmendinger is now seven points to the good because he finished 13th. He's still a relative long shot to advance, but Allmendinger controls his own destiny.

11. Kasey Kahne (+6 points): Kahne is tied with the driver below him for this spot, but like Edwards and Kenseth, he has the advantage because of his win at Atlanta. Kahne was caught in the chain-reaction crash with Busch and Kenseth and suffered some serious front-end damage. He finished 23rd.

12. Ryan Newman (+6 points): We expected more from Newman, a three-time New Hampshire winner. He finished 18th in an absolutely nondescript day considering the wackiness around him. As we said last week, the fight back from three laps down at Chicago could be huge for Newman's advancement chances.

13. Denny Hamlin (-6 points to 12th): Hamlin had a good car in the early stages of the race but it all went for naught because the fuel can would not engage properly with the intake on his car. The ill-fit meant that Hamlin's car wasn't getting full of fuel. His team tried to fix it on pit road and lost multiple laps. Then all the hard work disappeared when Hamlin went sliding into David Ragan after he and Truex had crashed ahead of him. Hamlin finished 37th.

14. Greg Biffle (-6 points): A late charge made things a lot better than they could have been for Biffle. He finished 16th after running around 20th for most of the day and getting his lap back twice after fortunately-timed caution flags. However, Biffle's down here without having any misfortune through two races. Not a good sign.

15. Kurt Busch (-8 points): Contact led to a tire rub for Busch and a few laps later he hit the wall thanks to a flat right-front tire. The bright side for Busch is that this could be a hell of a lot worse. A spin entering pit road under green in one race and a flat tire and a wall smash in another would usually spell guaranteed elimination. Instead, Busch has got more than a fighting chance of advancing.

16. Aric Almirola (-10 points): New Hampshire is not one of Almirola's best tracks, but Sunday wasn't a bad time at all to have his second top-10 there. After being buried in a huge hole with a blown engine at Chicago, Almirola climbed up the ladder a few rungs with a sixth place finish. 10 points and four drivers is a lot to make up in a race, but who knows?

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!