Kurt Busch closed to within 13 points of Chase eligibility with his 11th-place finish in Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, while Ryan Newman received a reprieve in his efforts to make the title chase with six races remaining before the cutoff.

Newman's Alltel Dodge crashed after being hit in the left-rear quarter panel by David Stremme's Dodge with only 20 of the 160 laps completed. That left Newman, who had qualified third, finishing 42nd in the 43-car field. He had entered the race at the 2.5-mile track 13th in the standings, 30 points behind 12th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. Initially, it appeared Newman would take a disastrous hit in the point standings. However, when the engine in Earnhardt Jr.'s car expired with 24 laps remaining, Newman lost only 29 points to the Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver. Newman dropped to 14th in the standings, 59 points out of 12th.

"It was definitely a devastating blow in more than one way," Newman said about the early race incident, "but we can come back. It's just a matter of how far we can come back now."

While Newman dropped a position in the standings, Busch advanced one position to 13th. However, Busch's gain in the standings wasn't an easy one. In order to achieve hi s 11th-place finish, Busch and his Miller Lite team had to overcome an ill-handling race car, a fender-bender on pit lane, and a pit road speeding penalty.

After starting the 400-mile race in sixth, Busch immediately faced handling issues with his Miller Lite Dodge. He had fallen to 19th during the race's sixth yellow flag on lap 62 and he was notified just before the return to green that he was being assessed a speeding violation entering the pits. He was forced to drop back to 30th for the lap 68 restart.

When the seventh of nine caution flags waved on lap 76 for debris on the backstretch, Busch had made it back to 23rd when he pitted for additional adjustments to his car. A 13.170-second pit stop put him in position to gain five spots exiting pit road. However, when Clint Bowyer veered right exiting his pit, he clipped Busch's left side, while Scott Wimmer plowed into the rear of the Miller Lite Dodge, knocking off the car's back panel. NASCAR ordered Busch back to pit road for repairs.

Busch was 26th for the lap 80 restart and fell back as far as 28th before being able to make additional chassis adjustments and aero improvements to the car's rear during a stop under the eighth caution period on lap 91.

With coaching from crew chief Pat Tryson, Busch began methodically picking off cars over the next 20 laps. A series of green-flag pit stops began on lap 123 and Busch had advanced up to fourth on lap 127 before pitting the next lap.

The stops had cycled around on lap 129 with Busch running 17th and headed forward. Only six laps later, Earnhardt Jr. blew an engine to bring out the race's final caution flag. While seven drivers opted to stay out, Busch was among those drivers who pitted for fresh tires with 20 laps remaining in the race. When the race returned to green-flag conditions, Busch was 16th.

Once again, Busch began passing cars one by one. By the time the checkered flag waved, he had made it to 11th.

"Kurt Busch proved that he is a true champion level driver out there today," Tryson said. "It seems like they threw every possible kind of adversity at him today and he was able to bounce back. It was a day when our team got everything we possibly could, and then some, out of it. I'm so proud of Kurt and everybody on our team."

Busch reciprocated the compliment, saying he was proud of his crew chief and his Miller Lite team.

"We fought adversity all day it seemed and just never gave up," Busch said. "Our big goal is to make the Chase and if we can keep it up, we'll get there. This is definitely a race where we were able to hang in there and get all we could out of it. With the [No.] 8 car [Earnhardt Jr.] having his problems, it certainly turned into a pretty good day for us overall and especially in the points."