HAMPTON, Ga. -- Car owner Rick Hendrick said he plans to keep Dale Earnhardt Jr. and crew chief Lance McGrew together, saying he likes their chemistry even though Earnhardt will miss the Chase this year.

Earnhardt enters tonight's race 18th in the standings. This marks the third time in the last four years Earnhardt will have missed the Chase. McGrew replaced Tony Eury Jr. as Earnhardt's crew chief in June 2009.

"Today, next week, going into the Chase and during the Chase our plan is for those two guys to be together," Hendrick said Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway about Earnhardt and McGrew.

"Actually, I'm pretty happy with the chemistry there now. I'm around them. I'm in the shop during the week and in the Tuesday meetings. I talk to Dale, and I talk to Lance.

"We had some good momentum going, and then we kind of fumbled the ball a little before the Chase. If you can't pinpoint where your problem is in the whole organization, then your whole organization needs to be better. We're working hard, but we're not as sharp as we want to be with all four cars."

Since a four-race stretch in June and July when Earnhardt finished 11th or better, he has struggled. Earnhardt has not finished better than 13th since then. He's had four finishes outside the top 20 in the last six races.

Earnhardt climbed to 11th in the points -- the top 12 make the Chase -- in early July but his recent woes have dropped him seven spots and with no realistic chance of making the Chase.

Not dirty

Kyle Busch was not pleased with Todd Bodine, who said Busch was "driving dirty" during Friday night's Camping World Truck race. Bodine recovered from a spin to win at Kentucky Speedway.

Busch went to Victory Lane and confronted Bodine after hearing Bodine's comments.

"I thought that was kind of low, but that's how Bodine is," Busch said Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "It was just a matter of hard racing I thought. He didn't want me racing him that hard."

Bodine was not pleased with how close Busch ran as they raced side-by-side for the lead.

Bodine said Busch should have known that running that close would affect the aerodynamics and cause Bodine to spin.

Qualifying

Denny Hamlin won his first pole of the season Saturday with a lap of 187.380 mph.

"Our Chase starts this weekend," Hamlin said, referring to the Chase, which actually begins in two weeks. "We're bringing the best stuff we have starting right now. We're not waiting till the Chase, we're bringing what we have to see where we're going to stack up, competition-wise, these next two weeks."

Ryan Newman (187.070 mph) starts second with Kyle Busch (187.063) third.

Carl Edwards (186.881) starts fourth with Tony Stewart (186.881) fifth.

Points leader Kevin Harvick (184.272) starts 29th.

Pit stops

Hendrick Motorsports announced that Quaker State will serve as the primary sponsor on Mark Martin's car in four races next year and remain an associate sponsor on all the organization's cars. ... Kentucky Speedway will host two Truck races next year. When NASCAR announced the truck schedule recently, it stated it had one date left to fill. Kentucky will host the Truck, Nationwide and Cup series July 7-9. The other truck race there will be Oct. 1.