Breaking down the Chase for the Sprint Cup

Four former champions

Brad Keselowski

No. 2 Ford

Under the old Chase format, Keselowski, the 2012 Sprint Cup champion, would be leading the Chase by four points over teammate Joey Logano. Keselowski, 30, leads the series with five victories and is coming off a second-place finish at Dover. Keselowski won at Kansas Speedway in 2011 before the repave.

Jimmie Johnson

No. 48 Chevrolet

Johnson, 39, won his sixth Sprint Cup championship a year ago and is one shy of tying immortals Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most titles in history. Johnson has won three races this season, but they came in a four-week span in early summer. Johnson, who finished third last week at Dover, is a two-time winner at Kansas, in 2008 and 2011.

Jeff Gordon

No. 24 Chevrolet

Gordon, 43, is a four-time champion, but he’s not won since the Chase was implemented in 2004. With four wins, Gordon is enjoying his best season since 2007, when he won six times. He’s won a record three times at Kansas Speedway, including the race in May. His win in the inaugural race at Kansas Speedway in 2001 propelled Gordon to his last championship.

Matt Kenseth

No. 20 Toyota

It’s been a baffling year for Kenseth, who last year in his first season with Joe Gibbs Racing won a series-most seven races — including the spring race at Kansas Speedway — but this year is one of two remaining Chase contenders without a win. Kenseth, 42, the 2003 Sprint Cup champion, has won two of the four races at Kansas Speedway since the surface was repaved in 2012 and has led 501 laps there, ranking second to Johnson’s 478.

They’ve won at Kansas Speedway before

Denny Hamlin

No. 11 Toyota

Hamlin, 33, won the last race on the old surface at Kansas Speedway in the spring of 2012, and he has three top-10 and three top-five finishes in 12 starts. Hamlin did not qualify for the Chase last year for the first time in seven years after missing four races with a back injury. He missed one race this year because of an eye injury but qualified for the Chase with a win at Talladega.

Kevin Harvick

No. 4 Chevrolet

Harvick, 38, is defending champion of the Hollywood Casino 400, winning last year’s race from the pole (where he’ll start Sunday). He finished second in May. Harvick has come excruciatingly close to winning a championship, finishing third in the standings three of the last four years, plus fourth two other times. Harvick won twice early this season, at Phoenix and at Darlington.

Ryan Newman

No. 31 Chevrolet

Newman, 36, won the 2003 race at Kansas Speedway, capping a year in which he won a career-best eight races and finished a career-best sixth in the Chase. Newman is one of two drivers still in the Chase who don’t have a win in 2014. He’s gone 45 races without a win, dating to the 2013 Brickyard 400 in his native Indiana. Newman finished seventh in the spring race at Kansas.

The wild cards

Joey Logano

No. 22 Ford

Logano, 24, is the only driver to post top fives in the first three races in the Chase — fourth at Chicago, a win at New Hampshire and fourth at Dover — for a series-best 3.0 average finish. Logano’s four wins this season rank second to his teammate, Keselowski, who has five. Logano finished fourth in each of his last two races at Kansas Speedway.

Kyle Busch

No. 18 Toyota

Kansas Speedway has been Busch’s personal house of horrors, and poor finishes have derailed some of his bids for a championship. The best Busch, 29, has to show for 14 visits to Kansas Speedway is a seventh-place finish in 2006. After accidents knocked him out of the first three races on the repaved track, Busch finished a respectable 15th last spring. He also won the Camping World Trucks Series race in May.

Kasey Kahne

No. 5 Chevrolet

Kahne, 34, keeps cutting it close. He qualified for the Chase by winning at Atlanta, the 25th race of the 26-race regular season. Then in last Sunday’s race at Dover, he survived elimination by coming back from four laps down and finishing 20th, just enough to tap out AJ Allmendinger for a spot in the Contender Round.

The peoples’ choice

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

No. 88 Chevrolet

NASCAR’s most popular driver for 11 years running has never won the Chase nor has he won at Kansas Speedway. But a win on Sunday would guarantee Earnhardt, 39, passage to the eight-driver Eliminator Round and get him closer to the finale at Homestead. Earnhardt, a three-time winner this season, was fifth in the spring race at Kansas Speedway.

Carl Edwards

No. 99 Ford

Edwards, of Columbia, badly wants to win a Sprint Cup race at his home track, where he often tries too hard and presses. Edwards, 35, who was sixth in the spring race, has the only two wins this season for Roush-Fenway Racing. He’ll be leaving Roush for Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the season, which has created a lame-duck situation for his team.

This story was originally published October 4, 2014 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Breaking down the Chase for the Sprint Cup."