How did the Chase for the Sprint Cup drivers perform in Sunday's AMP Energy Juice 500 at Talladega Superspeedway? Get driver-by-driver analysis with Charting the Chasers.

—Tom Jensen

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Started 19th, finished seventh in Talladega — In a crazy afternoon, Johnson padded his lead slightly over second-place Denny Hamlin, though race runner-up Kevin Harvick tightened the margin back to third. It is now a wide-open, three-man battle for the championship.
 

Started 17th, finished ninth in Talladega — Although he is still very much in the championship hunt, Hamlin finished behind both Johnson and Harvick, losing precious ground on a day when he didn’t run especially well.

Started 14th, finished second in Talladega — It was a great afternoon for Harvick (top left), who recovered from a damaged nose on Lap 134 to finish second behind his teammate Clint Bowyer. What could have been a disaster turned into a positive points day.

Started 31st, finished eighth in Talladega — Gordon thought his engine was blowing up as he and Johnson were working their way to the front. He fell back, then charged forward at the end. Another race where he had a chance to win and didn’t.

Started 32nd, finished 25th in Talladega — Busch (bottom) got shuffled out of the lead pack at the end of the race and had a very disappointing finish. He’s now 1-57 in Chase races.
 

Started 23rd, finished 17th in Talladega — Like teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth, Edwards had a day that was good not great, with a top-20 run.
 

Started 26th, finished 31st in Talladega — Very early in the race, Stewart had a flat tire and went two laps down, which effectively ended shot he had at being a factor.

Started 27th, finished 16th in Talladega — Late-race drafting strategy didn’t work well for the 2003 series champion (right), who lost his drafting partner on the final restart and faded in the end.

Started third, finished 30th in Talladega — Never much of a factor all race long, Busch fell well short of expectations of what on paper appeared to be a chance for a good run.

Started fifth, finished 41st in Talladega — The hard luck racer of the day was Burton, who got lined up incorrectly with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Burton got bump drafted out of shape and crashed out.

Started 34th, finished 19th in Talladega — For a time, Biffle and Paul Menard drafted well together, but Biffle got hung on the outside on the last restart and lost critical momentum in the final laps.

Started second, finished first in Talladega — It was another Chase victory for Bowyer as the Richard Childress Racing Chevys were clearly the class of the field on Sunday.