Denny Hamlin. (Getty Images). RICHMOND—It wasn’t pretty, but for Chris Buescher, Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott, the Federated Auto Parts 400 will rank as one of the loveliest races of their lives.
None of them won the caution-filled tire skrag that was the Saturday night Richmond race—that honor went to Denny Hamlin—but all three of them will make their very first Chase for the Sprint Cup, sweating out a 400-lap race that was, by turns, infuriating and exhilarating.
Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin cemented their status as two favorites for the Chase, dueling right on through overtime. Hamlin
The Chase scenarios coming into the race broke down this way:
-Chris Buescher, the first driver ever to be in danger of missing the Chase for slipping out of the top 30, held an 11-point lead over David Ragan for 30th place, meaning his easiest route to a Chase spot was finishing 11 points ahead of Ragan.
-Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon sat 18 and 9 points ahead of Jamie McMurray in the 16th anf final Chase position; Ryan Newman was 22 points behind McMurray thanks to a penalty levied earlier in the week.
-Kasey Kahne, Ryan Blaney, and AJ Allmendinger all entered the night more than one full race’s worth of points behind the 16th position, and each, among many others, needed a victory to reach the Chase.
One by one, though, the challengers fell out of the hunt. Blaney skipped up into the wall on Lap 10, heavily damaging the rear of the car. Allmendinger spun on Lap 86. Kahne suffered a speeding penalty on pit road, the same place where Newman found himself pinned in behind Denny Hamlin.

Kyle Larson, who very nearly caught Hamlin at the end of the race, is the fourth rookie to make the Chase this year.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.