BRISTOL, Tenn. — Jeff Burton is breathing a little easier these days, and he doesn’t mind showing it. Fifth in points with a 211-point lead over sixth-place Tony Stewart, Burton would need a New York Mets type collapse over the next three weeks to miss the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.

So Burton heads into tonight’s Sharpie 500 at the treacherous Bristol Motor Speedway in good spirits, ready to go for broke (and some much-needed Chase bonus points) around the half-mile concrete monster. He also knows how the nine drivers currently on the Chase bubble must feel.

“Bristol is a lot of fun, to be quite honest,” Burton said. “It’s stressful when you are racing for points — it makes it tough. On the other hand, it’s a lot of fun. It’s very physical and very competitive. It is an emotionally draining race as well as being physically draining. There is never a chance to take a break. It’s challenging and can be very rewarding, but it can also break your heart pretty quickly.”

While Burton is relatively sure of his Chase future, the group of nine — which includes some surprising names — is on pins and needles, knowing tonight’s race could make or break their title hopes. The distance between Stewart in sixth and Clint Bowyer and David Ragan tied for 13th is 162 points, a deficit that can nearly be made up in one race.

Even more on edge are drivers in positions nine through 14, beginning with Jeff Gordon and including Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Bowyer and Ragan. Gordon is just 82 points ahead of Bowyer and Ragan; Hamlin is just 26 to the good.

Hamlin, who starts 21st tonight, is on the brink of falling out of the Chase after suffering engine trouble at Michigan, the latest in a series of poor finishes. He would prefer to play it safe tonight on Bristol’s high banks.

“We’re definitely in a vulberable spot, that’s for sure,” he said. “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.

“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.”

Bowyer, trying to break through after a midseason slump, is trying to stay positive.

“We’re getting closer,” said Bowyer, trying to make his second consecutive Chase. “I’m a lot more comfortable and a lot more confident, but anything can happen at Bristol. You can have a dominant race car and get caught up in something very easily, and we’ve seen that time and time again.”

Therefore, the question posed to all bubble drivers this week is, “Do you hold back and play it safe to avoid a bad finish, or do you go for broke?”

Gordon, winless and coming off a DNF at Michigan, said his team has no choice to make.

“We’ve dropped positions in the standings, and now we have to enter the next few races with a different mindset, starting Saturday night,” said Gordon, who starts third tonight. “Before, we were in a position where taking risks wasn’t an option. We had a pretty comfortable margin on the transfer spot, and we didn’t want to jeopardize that. We’re not in that position anymore, so now we must go all out and see where we we end up.”

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