Entering the day with only four races until the 2008 championship is decided, Chase contenders Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton looked to gain ground on points leader Jimmie Johnson,

With qualifying rained out for the third straight week, those chasing the title were grouped together from the get-go.

Despite starting from the outside of row one, Biffle struggled from the drop of the green flag. Blaming Johnson for jumping the initial green flag, Biffle fought the handling on his car as he fell through the pack.

The driver of the No. 16 Dish Turbo Ford Fusion went down a lap to teammate Matt Kenseth on Lap 207, but had luck on his side as the caution flew for debris, allowing him to get his lap back just two laps later.

By the end of the day, the Roush Fenway Racing driver was able to salvage a tenth-place finish, but is now 185 points out of the lead and two points behind Edwards in the standings.

"I don't know why, but the car obviously was not right," a disappointed Biffle explained. "We were awful in practice and just never got a handle on it. We tried some different things on it in the race. We tried a whole grocery list of stuff on it today, but we just couldn't get it to go. That's all we could do. We were way too tight at the end. I think I could have got about four more spots, but it was just unfortunate. We worked hard today and that's all we could do."

Much like Biffle, Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton struggled much of the afternoon. The winner two weeks ago at Lowe's Motor Speedway dropped through the field and ran at the back of the lead lap for the majority of the race.

Burton's day got much worse when he was caught up in a late race incident with Dave Blaney. The contacted caused heavy damage to both the left and right front of the No. 31 Chevrolet and forced the No. 31 crew to make extensive repairs on pit road, while trying to remain on the lead lap. In the end, Burton wound up coming home in the eighteenth-spot, the last car on the lead lap.

"We didn't run very good, that's for sure. I'm really disappointed in how we ran," Burton said following Sunday's race. "We were nervous coming in about how we were going to run. The first run of the race, we were good. But then from then on we were pretty much in trouble. The AT&T team did a great job keeping me on the lead lap. It's a tough day for us in the points but we'll go to Texas and try to rebound."

After scoring the victory at Lowe's Motor Speedway two weeks ago, Burton has struggled the last two weeks. A seventeenth-place finish at Martinsville, coupled with Sunday's eighteenth has dropped Burton to fourth in the standings, 218 points behind Jimmie Johnson

While Biffle seems to still have a shot at this thing - he is only two points behind teammate Carl Edwards in second - Burton's luck and his performance over the last two weeks seem to say otherwise. It will take a lot for anyone to catch Jimmie Johnson, but it might just take a miracle for Burton to be a contender.