Bliss back to top 20 form.

After having a miserable two weeks in the back to back short track races at Bristol and Martinsville, Mike Bliss is beginning to regain the form that saw him and the unfancied Haas CNC Racing team on the brink of the top ten in points after the first four races of the year.

Bliss rallied to 20th place in Saturday's Subway Fresh 500 at Phoenix, his first top 20 since the Golden Corral 500 in Atlanta in a performance that kept him and the #0 NetZero Best Buy sponsored team within 100 points of the 400-point cut-off mark for the final ten race Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Starting 23rd, the green flag flew for the start of the event and Bliss fell several spots while he struggled slightly with the handling of the #0Chevrolet. An early yellow flag gave the team the opportunity to make slight air pressure adjustments to the new left side tyres that went on the machine during the ensuing four-tyre pit stop.

Bliss returned to the track in 30th place, but quickly began to make his way through slower traffic. By lap 49 of the 312-lap race, Bliss broke into the top 20 and communicated to crew chief Bootie Barker that, for the most part, he liked the way the car was handling.

Bliss ran as high as 17th in the early stages of the event, but the car became loose going into the corners as the halfway point of the race neared.

Bliss escaped misfortune during a caution period just past halfway. While attempting to drive into his pit stall to the attention of his crew during a routine pit stop under caution, Greg Biffle, who was running second at the time, made contact with the rear bumper of the #0 Chevrolet.

Though unable to make the turn into his pit stall, Bliss was able to make another lap around the track and again drive down pit road. The team went to work to once again adjust the handling of the car, this time making air pressure, track bar and wedge adjustments. Bliss patiently worked his way through traffic in the final stages of the race before the car became extremely tight.

"We were pretty good there near the start of the race," commented Bliss following the event. "Then we got a little tight and we were never quite able to get it back to where we needed it to be. Bootie made good calls as far as adjusting on the car went and the guys did a good job in the pits, so we can't be too disappointed with our finish tonight.

"We just needed to be a little bit better in the mid to late stages of the race and we would have really had something to work with, but all in all, the NetZero Best Buy Chevrolet was pretty good."

Despite the 20th place finish, Bliss dropped two positions in the points table to 27th but is just 80 points behind Scott Riggs in 19th place overall.