How timely that Vickers and Busch are competing for the final Chase berth. Following the Nationwide race last month at Michigan, Busch confronted Vickers and complained about the way he drove the final laps to preserve his victory.

Vickers sarcastically replied that he didn't know the race was supposed to be "the Kyle Busch show." Then Vickers said, "I don't know if you want to call it strike one or strike two, but either way he's out of strikes."

Now, they'll be jostling for position in their Toyotas in Saturday night's Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway. While Busch is the more impetuous of the two, don't expect either racer to do anything crazy. Making the Chase is too important. They haven't spoken since their dispute at Michigan.

There's more pressure on Busch, because he is tied with Mark Martin for the most Cup wins this season (four each). If Vickers edges into the top 12, he will be a first-time Chaser.

"Our strategy is to gain the most amount of points as possible," Vickers said on a Tuesday conference call. "I'd be lying if I said we're not going to stay on top [of the other drivers' performances]. If we know [late in the race] that we only have to finish 20th instead of first, then it's going to change our strategy. We may not take a risk to win the race."

Busch plans to race as "normally" as possible at Richmond.

"Our strategy is the same as it has been the whole year - try to run the best we can," he said. "We've struggled a little bit this year. We haven't had some of the best cars [and] I haven't done some of the best driving I've needed to do."

Getting the Richmond race and the Chase out of their minds is difficult.

"I try to live as normal a life as possible," Vickers said. "I find over the years, if you get up too much emotionally and mentally throughout the week, you can mentally drain yourself. I try to focus on the task at hand during the week, whether it's racing-related stuff or personal down time. But, it's not easy."

Based on their racing pasts at Richmond, Busch has a better chance for success Saturday night: He won the spring race at RIR. Vickers was the fastest qualifier in the spring, then he finished 15th. Previously, Vickers hadn't finished higher than 24th in eight races at the track.

Pettys all a-Twitter

Austin and Montgomery Lee Petty reportedly made some regrettable tweets about their grandfather, Richard Petty. The comments were quickly removed from Twitter, but, according to ESPN The Magazine's Ryan McGee, several media members spotted them.

Feelings in the Petty family have been tense since Kyle was excluded from a position with RPM after it merged with Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Earlier in the summer, in an interview with the Daily News, Kyle denied that he and his father weren't getting along. This time, Kyle, a major Twitterer, asked that the media and fans respect the family's privacy.

ARCA at NJMP

Justin Allgaier won last year's race at the Millville track. Now, Justin Lofton holds a 35-point lead over Parker Kligerman (series-high seven wins). Cherry Hill's Tom Hessert is ninth in points.

NJMP's 12-turn, 2.25-mile Thunderbolt Raceway is the only road course on the ARCA schedule.

Grandview's big show

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