Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle dealing with chaotic math of Chase shuffle

Gentlemen, start your calculators.

The perfunctory demands of left-handed turns will include some simple math at Richmond International Raceway Saturday night.

For Greg Biffle, the magic number is 23. For Ryan Newman, it’s 41.

That’s the lowest they can finish in order to secure the final two remaining spots for the Chase, give or take a few positions if something goes haywire.

That’s a good word to describe the dynamics at Richmond. It’s a short track, and some folks behind Biffle and Newman will be in a scramble to make the Chase. All they have to do is win the race and they join the parade of 16 drivers jockeying for the 2014 Sprint Cup title.

“I expect some pretty ruthless racing if a guy has an opportunity,” said Carl Edwards, who — fortunately for him — is already locked into the Chase.

Biffle and Newman are smart guys. Newman has a degree in engineering. Biffle is a veteran racer who is consistently solid.

They’re not going around making excuses for their precarious situation or lamenting the ones that got away earlier in the season. They’ve run strong in spurts but not strong enough to win a race and avoid all the suspense on Saturday.

“We’ve tried to win the first 25 races and we haven’t been successful yet,” Biffle said. “It’s pretty simple mathematics for us.”

“I still say that the last 25 races, that intensity — that emotional, mental and physical level that you have to have — is no different than it is now,” Newman said. “And you have the potential for things to fall apart, don’t get me wrong. But things have fallen apart in the last 25 and you can’t pinpoint it on the one thing that happens Saturday night here in Richmond. So you can live in the moment, but it really takes a combination of 26 events to get to this point.”

At least the worries of Newman and Biffle pale compared to those of drivers in the back of the pack scrambling for a wild-shot victory. They include Clint Bowyer, whose Chase chances likely blew up in Atlanta last weekend with a broken shifter.

“Desperation is definitely there for us and our race team this weekend,” Bowyer said Friday afternoon while taking questions outside his hauler. “Like I said, it was a frustrating week last week. It was good to have down time to go out to Colorado and do a little elk hunting and get away for a little bit. My phone didn’t work, I couldn’t read what all you yahoos [media] were writing and it was a pretty good three days. Now look at me, I’m back in this mess.”

Bowyer was joking ... it seemed. But he appears to have the right perspective.

Everybody had their shot to win races. Those who didn’t are left to the fortunes of fate.

This much is known: Brad Keselowski will be on the pole, his fourth of the season, qualifying just ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

Those are three other guys with no worries, having qualified for the Chase.

It’s the Bubble Boys who will be feeling the squeeze for 400 laps on Saturday.

“NASCAR has done a good job of putting us in a position where a lot can depend on one pass, one lap, one restart,” Edwards said. “Everything can depend on that, and I think for us as drivers sometimes that is frustrating but it will definitely create some excitement.”

Newman joked that he was going to see a palm reader Friday night to see how it will play out on Saturday.

But he knows the reality:

“What happens tomorrow night happens tomorrow night. And it can be good or it can be bad.”