RICHMOND, Va. - NASCAR's regular season ended with a bang for one car and a whimper from the field, as Brad Keselowski thoroughly dominated the Federated Auto Parts 400 in Richmond. Keselowski led 383 of 400 laps* (Kevin Harvick covered the rest), a performance that ranks as the best in NASCAR history since Jeff Burton's wire-to-wire win in New Hampshire in 2000.
"I pulled into victory lane and I pinched myself once to make sure I wasn't dreaming," Keselowski said. "These are nights you don't forget as a driver, and you live for."
The race also set the Chase grid for NASCAR's postseason. Two spots remained up for grabs, with any of 16 drivers theoretically able to grab one of them with a victory. But with the way Keselowski was running, a victory was all but impossible, meaning Richmond became a points race for the few drivers remaining in the hunt. In the end, Ryan Newman raced his way in easily, while Greg Biffle only barely held off a charging Clint Bowyer. In the end, Bowyer finished just seven points behind Biffle, meaning seven positions in any race of the last 26 would have gotten Bowyer into the Chase.
"Those guys that ran up in the top five probably didn't break a sweat," Biffle said, "but I tell you what, this is the toughest thing I've ever had to do in my life, driving and trying to stay in the top 10 like this."
"That was our best effort," a clearly frustrated Bowyer said after the race. "That's all I had, that's all we had as a race team. We put it all out there, and still, we were just third best."
Keselowski, with four wins, is seeded first in the Chase with 2012 points. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano all have 2009 points. Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards have 2006 points. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Aric Almirola, and AJ Allmendinger have 2003 points. Matt Kenseth, Biffle and Newman end the regular season with 2000 points.
And now, the Chase begins. But this is a Chase unlike any other, indeed unlike anything in NASCAR history. Of the 16 members of the Chase, four will be knocked out after every third race: Dover, Talladega, and Phoenix. That will leave four drivers to battle it out for a winner-take-all battle at Homestead. It could be a fascinating, tense, week-by-week showdown, or it could end in controversy. (There will be complaining, regardless. We already know that.) And it all begins Sunday at Chicagoland.
"I couldn't ask for a better way to enter the Chase than to win and take the first seed," Keselowski said. "We're ready. We want to run for another cup. We really feel like this team has it."

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or find him on Facebook or on Twitter.
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