BRISTOL, Tenn. — With three races before the field is set for NASCAR's 10-race Chase for the championship, nine drivers are separated by 162 points in the competition for the last seven spots.

Maybe one of the sport's diciest venues, Bristol Motor Speedway, can help sort things out.

The high-banked 0.533-mile oval is one of the most physically demanding tracks the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visits, and one where a driver's championship aspirations can quickly come to an end.

"When you think about the six, seven cars that are still battling that out, eight cars maybe, those eight cars are in a position where finishing 12th is way better than finishing 38th," said Jeff Burton, who is 371 points ahead of Clint Bowyer and David Ragan, the two drivers who will start Saturday night narrowly outside the top 12 teams that make the Chase.

But Burton and everyone else knows there's much they can't control at Bristol.

"You don't want to go out there and risk running out of fuel or anything, but there's not a lot you can do here," said Denny Hamlin, who is 12th in the points race, but just 26 ahead of Bowyer and Ragan. "A lot of the wrecks that you end up finding yourselves in here are ... because of something that happened two or three cars ahead of you."

That's possible anywhere, but more likely at Bristol.

"We're definitely in a vulnerable spot, that's for sure," Hamlin said.

Hamlin was among several drivers who took a big fall in the top 12 last weekend at Michigan. He was ninth in the points race until he blew an engine with five laps to go and finished 39th. Others who dropped included Kasey Kahne, who finished 40th and fell from eighth to 11th place, just 47 ahead of Bowyer and Ragan, and four-time series champion Jeff Gordon, who was 42nd and dropped from sixth to ninth, just 82 points ahead of the two tied at 13th.

It's the kind of performance that could happen again, and explains why those closest to being bounced out of the playoffs are not the only ones worried about Saturday night's race.

Carl Edwards, who won at Michigan and is second in points, said he's concerned about "just getting caught up in something. ... So long as I don't make any mistakes, have lapses in judgment and we don't get caught up in something, I think we should be pretty good."

Others only wish they could take such a laid-back approach with 500 laps ahead.

"You've got to be sharp," said Greg Biffle, who is seventh in the points race, 145 ahead of No. 13. "You've got to be sharp. You've got to be on your game. There's no time to take a breath around this place. It is very, very fast and that's what makes it fun and exciting."