With only the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond remaining before the top-12 drivers are locked into the Chase for the Sprint Cup, three drivers sit outside looking in.

In the last nine seasons, dating back to before the Chase was actually implemented in 2004; five of the nine drivers who entered Richmond in 12th place in the points would have been knocked out if the current Chase format was in place.

There has never been two drivers race their way into the Chase in the same year at Richmond, leaving the question open if more than one can do it this year.

With fifth place Carl Edwards only 105 points ahead of 13th place Brian Vickers, there are eight drivers who are in danger of being jumped if they don’t run well.

So let’s get down to it, here are the three driver’s on the outside looking in heading to Richmond.

Brian Vickers:

Brian Vickers, driver of the No. 83 Red Bull Racing Toyota, sits 13th in the points. He is 20 points behind Matt Kenseth for the transfer spot. Vickers holds a 17 point advantage on Kyle Busch, so he has some cushion to play with before Busch would jump him.

Over the past six races, Vickers has scored 908 points, the most points of any driver in the series. During that time period he has moved from 16th to 13th place in the standings and put himself in a spot to race his way in.

To extend it back eight races, Vickers has six top 10’s and an 11th and 12th place finish. He has moved from 17th and 197 points back to his current position.

Last week at Atlanta, Vickers had a top-10 car, but broke an axel leaving pit road under caution. The team rallied to change the axel on pit road and kept Vickers on the lead lap. He then rallied to finish seventh.

Vickers will be looking to make his first career Chase and also put Red Bull Racing into the Chase for the first time. It has been a season of firsts for Red Bull racing, as Vickers picked up the teams first win at Michigan three races ago.

In the spring at Richmond, Vickers finished 15th after winning the pole for the event. On a bad note, he does not have a top-10 in his last 16 short-track races. Will momentum for this team be able to overcome this?

Kyle Busch:

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Joe Gibbs racing Toyota, is 14th in the standings. He is 37 points behind 12th place Matt Kenseth and also would need to pick up 17 points on Brian Vickers to move into the top 12.

Busch has had a season of ups and downs. He has a series-high tying four wins, but only has eight top-10 runs in 25 races.

The good news for Busch is that he was the winner of the spring race at Richmond. If he can pull off the Richmond sweep, he would most likely race his way in.

Last week at Atlanta Busch struggled with handling on the long runs and would fall back through the pack. He came home with a 15th place finish and actually dropped ground to Kenseth.

Busch averages a finish of 6.1 at Richmond, his best of any track on the circuit. He has seven top 10’s in nine career races there. He will need a finish in the top six to give himself a shot to jump two spots and move into the Chase.

David Reutimann:

David Reutimann, driver of the No. 00 Aaron’s Toyota from the Michael Waltrip Racing stable, sits 15th in points. He has an outside shot at making the Chase. He sits 132 points behind Kenseth for the 12th spot.

Basically, for the underdog Reutimann to make the Chase, he needs to finish very high and have a driver in the current top 12, Vickers and Busch to all finish in the back of the pack.

His shot is a long one for sure and most people have written him off. For Reutimann, the 2009 season has been good even if he comes up short at Richmond. He has made MWR a contender and picked up his first career win at Charlotte in the Coke 600.

A fourth place finish at Atlanta last week kept Reutimann hanging on by a thread. In the spring race at Richmond he finished 28th, a position which would surely keep him out on Saturday night.

Final Thoughts:

I don’t know who will be in or who will be out when the 400 laps at Richmond are complete. What I do know is there will be a lot of twists and turns in the plot during the race. One minute someone will be out and in another minute they will be back in.

With 11 drivers going for nine spots, this should be the most exciting finale leading up to the Chase since its induction in 2004.

Since the Chase expanded to 12 drivers in 2007 no one has raced their way in at Richmond. But when the cutoff line was at 10, a driver has raced his way in every year: Jeremy Mayfield, 2004; Ryan Newman, 2005; and Kasey Kahne, 2006.

Will this be the first year two drivers do it and the first year someone does it to get into the top 12? Tune in Saturday night to find out.