Can Kyle make the Chase?

Time is running out on Kyle Busch with three races left until the Chase field is set. With the series heading to Bristol this weekend, that could play in his favor.

Busch enters Saturday night's race 15th in the points. He's 70 points behnd 12th-place Mark Martin with Brian Vickers and Clint Bowyer ahead of Busch. Kyle has six top-10s in the last 7 Bristol races (average finish of 5.7 there). Plus, he won the truck race Wednesday night and that's imporant as he noted after the race:

"It (the win) just gets the momentum going and tells you that you can do it. You finish second, fifth, 10th, whatever, third in Nationwide and truck series races and you can't win on the Cup side. It's like, man, it's a downer. It's a downer and you don't feel very good about yourself. I'm my self's biggest critic. This definitely helps out and gets me back in the right mindset and gets me back in the right frame.'

Kyle also talked about what it will take for him to do well Saturday night and what he needs to do to get into the Chase:

"I’ve never really qualified well here in that car so if we qualify in the back and then work our way up towards the front – hopefully our car will be good on the long run – that’s what we need.   Then we can capitalize on a strong run here – we need a top-five.  If we finish in the top-five these next three races then we’ll make the ‘Chase.’  If we can do that then we’ll be okay.”

So, NASCAR Nation, what do you think? Will Kyle make the Chase? If so, who will he knock out?If not, why?

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ODDS AND ENDS

# Furniture Row Racing announced that it plans to run the full schedule next season after running half the season this year. Regan Smith will remain as the team's driver.

# The modifieds ran at Bristol on Wednesday night. Donny Lia won. Ryan Newman was involved in an accident after the first lap and finished 37th in the 40-car field. Kasey Kahne placed 28th. Bobby Hutchens, competition director at Stewart-Haas Racing, finished 18th.

# President Obama honored NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and other drivers at the White House on Wednesday. He spoke on ESPN's NASCAR Now and was asked why it was important for the Big 3 automakers to remain in NASCAR. This is what he said:

"I think that it's about as good advertising as you can get. If somebody's excited about NASCAR, that means they're excited about cars. And we want to make sure that people know what great American cars, and obviously it's understandable at a time when GM has gone through some tough times, that they may need to cut back sponsorships briefly, but over the long term, if we look five to 10 years out, I think they're going to come back stronger than ever, and I think their association with NASCAR makes a great difference.''

# Carl Edwards and Marcos Ambrose will co-drive in the Montreal 200 on Aug. 28 in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car race there. It will be the Daytona Prototype debuts for both in the two-hour race. That race comes a day before the Nationwide event there.

# Saturday marks the 1,000th career start for Mark Martin in NASCAR (that includes all series).

# ESPN's ratings for the Michigan race last week were up from last year -- a rarity for any network doing NASCAR this season. Rating was 4.1. Last year's rating was a 3.9. So why the increase NASCAR Nation?

So, will Kyle make the Chase and why were the ratings up at Michigan?

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