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As the number of races remaining in the Chase for the Sprint Cup drops, what Jimmie Johnson's nearest competitors need to stay in the hunt continues to grow.

Giving up is not an option, even in the face of what may appear to be insurmountable odds.

"You start to think, 'Man, it's going to be another whole year.' It's like if you have a bad game bowling or something and you think, 'All right, this game will be over in a couple frames and we'll just start over,' but there is no starting over," said Carl Edwards, who now trails Johnson by 198 points with four races remaining.

"You have to dig until the end. It's interesting that way. It crescendos pretty big the whole year and now we've got to essentially go out and win the next four races."

Edwards isn't the only one staring down difficult odds entering Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga.

In the first four years of the Chase format, twice the eventual champion led the standings with four races left and twice the eventual champion has overcome a deficit to win, but the largest margin was Johnson's comeback from 53 points back in 2007.

Currently, Johnson's nearest competition is Greg Biffle, who trails Johnson by 149 points.

"I'm still confident we can catch him, for sure," Biffle said after Sunday's race at Martinsville, Va.

In defense of his optimism, Biffle has been one of the most consistent performers in the Chase this season, starting off with two wins and a third in the first three races.

Of the four tracks remaining on the schedule - Atlanta, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead - Biffle has won on two of them, but none since the 2006 season.

"We can catch them. I don't think it's over," Biffle said. "We're leaving Martinsville not exactly where we wanted. We wanted to be in the top 10 and we were 12th. We were hoping (Johnson) wouldn't win.

"He's not going to have flawless races, I'm telling you."

Actually, Johnson is already close.

Dating back to before the start of the Chase, Johnson has no finish worse than ninth since his 33rd place finish in August at Bristol, Tenn. - a string of eight straight top-10s. Included in that span is four of his six wins this season.

Edwards said one needs to look no further than at Kyle Busch's season to see the potential for a stark and quick turnaround in fortunes.

"Those guys seemed unbeatable and they just had the bad luck," Edwards said of Busch's run in the Chase, which has produced just one top-10 finish. Busch racked up eight wins in the first 22 races of the season, but none since Aug. 10 at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

"This isn't over until the last lap at Homestead, that's for sure," Edwards said, almost to reassure himself.[[In-content Ad]]

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