NASCAR

The race to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship heated up Saturday night at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, where Brad Keselowski moved a step closer to making the field by continuing his monthlong march through the standings.

Keselowski picked up his third win of the season in the Irwin Tools Night Race and at minimum likely locked up one of the two wild cards into the 12-driver field.

It's an amazing turnaround for Keselowski and his No. 2 Penske Racing team.

He was ranked 21st in points four races ago, when his struggling team went to a test session to work on road course improvement. But Keselowski was in a nasty accident during that Aug. 3 session that left him with a broken ankle.

It's hardly slowed him.

Since the accident, Keselowski won at Pocono, finished second at Watkins Glen, third at Michigan and now has the Bristol victory.

Although he's walked gingerly in the month since the crash, he hopped up and down in excitement as he climbed from his Dodge.

"An awesome car, an awesome team!" he yelled. "Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt won this race. It's a race of champions. There are races that pay more, that are races that might have a little more prestige, but this is the coolest damn one of them all."

The win moved Keselowski up one more spot to 11th in the standings, and he's jumped 10 spots over the last four races. He's currently in position to claim the first wild card spot, and could clinch his berth next week at Atlanta by virtue of his three wins.

What's the secret of his turnaround?

"A team that just starts to click and believes in each other," Keselowski said. "We've just made good adjustments to our cars over the last few months. We made good adjustments to our car today and we find ourselves in Victory Lane. I can't believe it, I really can't."

Other Chase hopefuls didn't fare so well.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Stewart and Clint Bowyer began the race ranked ninth, 10th and 11th, but because none has a victory, they could get bumped out of the Chase depending on how the wild cards develop. Earnhardt wasn't a factor Saturday night and finished 16th, Bowyer struggled the entire race and was 26th and Stewart had a miserable weekend - he qualified last in the 43-car field, was quickly lapped and finished four laps down in 28th.

It was no better for Paul Menard, who could earn a wild card spot based on his victory at Indianapolis. But he struggled, ran into the back of Denny Hamlin as they tried to avoid an accident in front of them, and wound up 30th.

At the front of the field, Martin Truex Jr. finished second and Gordon was third despite leading a race-high 206 laps. Five-time defending NASCAR champion Johnson was fourth and was followed by Jamie McMurray and Kenseth, who led 110 laps.

Hamlin, clinging to one of the wild cards, rallied to finish seventh despite Menard running into the back of his car to cause serious damage. He jumped one spot in the standings to 13th and is currently holding the second wild card because of his one win this season.

"We did what we had to do," Hamlin said. "I wish I could race harder, but at this point we have to have solid finishes. If we just handle business the next couple weeks then we'll be OK."

At Bristol Motor Speedway

Bristol, Tenn.

Lap length: .533 miles

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (8) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 500 laps, 128.2 rating, 47 points.

2. (27) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 500, 106.4, 43.

3. (4) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 500, 133.7, 43.

4. (13) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 500, 118.4, 41.

5. (6) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 500, 107.9, 40.

6. (3) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 500, 125.4, 39.

7. (20) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 500, 90.9, 37.

8. (1) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 500, 104.1, 37.

9. (2) Carl Edwards, Ford, 500, 106.2, 35.

10. (11) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 500, 94.5, 34.

11. (25) Kasey Kahne, Toyota, 500, 75.5, 33.

12. (18) A J Allmendinger, Ford, 500, 91.6, 32.

13. (9) Joey Logano, Toyota, 500, 85.3, 32.

14. (23) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 500, 92.9, 31.

15. (21) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 500, 73.5, 29.

16. (22) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 500, 76.3, 28.

17. (10) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 500, 84, 27.

18. (12) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 500, 83, 26.

19. (19) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 500, 67.5, 25.

20. (24) David Ragan, Ford, 500, 69.6, 24.

21. (26) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 499, 63.9, 23.

22. (15) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 499, 69.8, 22.

23. (29) Casey Mears, Toyota, 499, 57.4, 21.

24. (17) David Gilliland, Ford, 498, 52.7, 20.

25. (38) Andy Lally, Ford, 498, 44.3, 19.

26. (16) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 498, 53.5, 18.

27. (37) David Starr, Ford, 497, 53.1, 0.

28. (42) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 497, 46.6, 16.

29. (40) Mike Bliss, Chevrolet, 497, 41.2, 0.

30. (7) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 496, 54.3, 14.

31. (14) Greg Biffle, Ford, 496, 65.1, 13.

32. (31) David Stremme, Chevrolet, 494, 37.1, 12.

33. (41) Terry Labonte, Ford, 494, 34, 11.

34. (30) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, ignition, 471, 53.8, 10.

35. (35) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, engine, 457, 44.9, 9.

36. (34) David Reutimann, Toyota, 430, 56.5, 8.

37. (33) Travis Kvapil, Ford, 371, 40.2, 0.

38. (5) Mark Martin, Chevrolet, accident, 363, 67.3, 6.

39. (32) Michael McDowell, Toyota, electrical, 49, 31.5, 5.

40. (28) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, brakes, 42, 33.9, 0.

41. (43) Mike Skinner, Toyota, brakes, 28, 30.6, 0.

42. (36) Scott Speed, Ford, brakes, 28, 27.9, 0.

43. (39) Robby Gordon, Dodge, brakes, 10, 25.4, 1.

Top 12 in Points: 1. Ky.Busch, 830; 2. J.Johnson, 830; 3. M.Kenseth, 798; 4. C.Edwards, 795; 5. K.Harvick, 782; 6. J.Gordon, 782; 7. R.Newman, 762; 8. Ku.Busch, 749; 9. D.Earnhardt Jr., 728; 10. T.Stewart, 710; 11. Bra.Keselowski, 689; 12. C.Bowyer, 688.

IRL

Will Power won the pole in qualifying for today's Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma (1 p.m., VS) at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Power led Team Penske to the top three qualifying spots with Brazilian Helio Castroneves and Australian Ryan Briscoe qualifying second and third.

At Infineon Raceway

Sonoma, Calif.

Lap length: 2.303 miles

(Car number in parentheses)

(All cars Dallara-Honda)

1. (12) Will Power, 105.479.

2. (3) Helio Castroneves, 104.825.

3. (6) Ryan Briscoe, 104.799.

4. (10) Dario Franchitti, 104.753.

5. (9) Scott Dixon, 104.432.

6. (06) James Hinchcliffe, 104.346.

7. (27) Mike Conway, 105.028.

8. (19) Sebastien Bourdais, 104.984.

9. (59) E.J. Viso, 104.851.

10. (24) Ana Beatriz, 104.801.

11. (22) Giorgio Pantano, 104.628.

12. (77) Alex Tagliani, 103.891.

13. (38) Graham Rahal, 104.509.

14. (26) Marco Andretti, 104.455.

15. (17) Martin Plowman, 104.445.

16. (5) Takuma Sato, 104.44.

17. (18) James Jakes, 104.32.

18. (2) Oriol Servia, 104.424.

19. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, 104.103.

20. (4) J.R. Hildebrand, 104.332.

21. (82) Tony Kanaan, 103.99.

22. (22) Simon Pagenaud, 104.204.

23. (34) Sebastian Saavedra, 103.958.

24. (88) Ho-Pin Tung, 104.17.

25. (7) Danica Patrick, 103.914.

26. (83) Charlie Kimball, 103.849.

27. (67) Ed Carpenter, 102.829.

28. (14) Vitor Meira, 103.479.