Only one driver has completed a higher percentage of laps this season than Rusty Wallace: Jeremy Mayfield. Credit: Autostock

Mayfield looking to make his move at Kansas

Quick, name the driver who has completed the highest percentage of laps among those with 29 starts this season. Gotta be Rusty Wallace, right? After all, he's been running at the finish of 42 consecutive races, the Cup Series' longest active streak.

Close, but no cigar. Wallace has completed 8,331 of 8,396 laps (99.2 percent). The correct answer is ... Jeremy Mayfield, who has completed 99.4 percent of his laps -- 8,350 of 8,396.

	Inside the Numbers Jeremy Mayfield down the stretch Track Races Avg. Finish Kansas 4 13.2 Charlotte 23 21.8 Martinsville 20 21.2 Atlanta 19 21.0 Texas 9 19.6 Phoenix 11 26.4 Homestead 5 17.8 ALSO •   Mayfield changes paint for KC

Nonetheless, Mayfield finds himself eighth in points, 112 behind leader Tony Stewart -- but one one point out of seventh and 14 out of fifth. And if Mayfield is to make a move in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, Kansas may be his best shot.

Of the seven remaining tracks, Kansas has produced Mayfield's best showings -- a 13.2 average finish in four starts -- with the other six tracks littered with twentysomething average finishes. So coming off Talladega, his third top-15 finish in four restrictor-plate races this season, Mayfield hopes to carry that momentum to Kansas for the Banquet 400 on Sunday (1:30 p.m. ET on NBC).

"Evernham Motorsports as a whole has been really good on the mile-and-a-half tracks," Mayfield said. "We started third [at Kansas] last year and ran in the top three the majority of the race and ended up with a top-five finish.

"We set a game plan to win races, and if we can't win every race we want to take as many points and positions as possible. We feel our two bad days are over with a 16th at New Hampshire and a 14th at Talladega. We got out of those with clean finishes so we need to move on.

"We just need to stay quiet and run our race," he said. "We're looking to get back to Kansas and pick up where we left off."

Mayfield finished 36th in the inaugural race at Kansas in 2001, but he is riding a streak of three consecutive top-10s at the track, including a personal-best third-place finish in 2003.

Other Chase drivers ...

Tony Stewart -- "What you do at Kansas is solely based on what you and your team can do with your race car, not what drafting line you're in or how the car behind you is going to affect your next move. There are too many variables out of your control in a plate race. At Kansas, we're back in control. There are still things out there that can screw up your day, but they're minimal when compared to what we dealt with at Talladega."

Inside the Chase Point standings entering Kansas No. Driver Pts. Behind 1. T. Stewart 5,519 -- 2. R. Newman 5,515 -4 3. R. Wallace 5,443 -76 4. J. Johnson 5,437 -82 5. G. Biffle 5,421 -98 6. C. Edwards 5,419 -100 7. M. Kenseth 5,408 -111 8. J. Mayfield 5,407 -112 9. M. Martin 5,381 -138 10. Ku. Busch 5,339 -180 Chase drivers at Kansas Driver No. W T-5 T-10 Avg.F Stewart 4 0 1 3 8.5 Newman 4 1 3 3 9.5 Wallace 4 0 2 3 8.5 Johnson 3 0 0 2 16.3 Biffle 3 0 1 1 17.0 Edwards 1 0 0 0 22.0 Kenseth 4 0 0 1 23.0 Mayfield 4 0 2 3 13.2 Martin 4 0 0 1 17.8 Busch 4 0 0 2 21.5

Ryan Newman -- "The points battle right now is definitely exciting for us, but we're not going to relax. There are seven races left in this thing and anything could happen. We saw that at Talladega last weekend. ... We're not feeling any pressure and we're not putting any pressure on ourselves. We said in the beginning of the Chase, 'Let's have some fun.' That's what we've been doing and it's working so far."

Rusty Wallace -- "It may sound crazy, but I really think that is a big reason why we do so well at Kansas is because we really, really love racing there. Maybe the fact that it's right there in the heart of the Midwest -- a place that was starving for a first-class facility like that -- maybe that's a big part of it. But it's not just the location; it's the layout of the track that I really love, too. And since this will be my last one there as a driver, we're hoping to give them all something they'll remember on Sunday."

Jimmie Johnson -- "We felt really good about our test session at Kansas. It was right after our test at Texas. We feel confident and good about things. We were really fast there, but there weren't any other cars there to really judge off of and get a good gauge of where we are. So we're excited to go to the track. We think we're going to be in great shape. And we think everything we learned at the test is going to cross over and produce a good finish for us."

Greg Biffle -- "We've always run pretty well at Kansas, both in the Busch and Cup series. Last year we finished third in the Cup race at Kansas but led several laps and felt like we had a good shot at the win. I like racing at Kansas, it's a nice facility and the track suits my driving style. As always, track position will be important so we'll look to qualify well and stay up front. We had some rough luck at Talladega and Kansas could be the race that gets us back on track."

Carl Edwards -- "I'm really excited to race at Kansas this week. It's my hometown track so it will be neat having so many family and friends there. I think we have a really good car for this weekend. Kansas is a really fun track to drive and I think we'll be able to have a good run there. We made it through what I think have been three of our biggest hurdles in the Chase so far so the entire team is looking forward to going racing at the kind of track where we've been successful in the past."

Matt Kenseth -- "We are relieved to be finished with Talladega. Our car was really good and we were able to come home with a solid third-place finish. It was disappointing, though, to lose the lead on the last lap and not end up in Victory Lane. Our momentum is good right now going into Kansas -- our cars have been strong, the pit stops have been fast and this whole team is just focused every week on getting the best finish possible."

Mark Martin -- "We are looking forward to getting back out on the track and getting to race some. We didn't get a lot of laps last week at Talladega; I don't think I even broke a sweat. I'm definitely looking forward to getting back out on a 1.5 [track] and seeing what we can do. Those types of tracks have been our bread and butter and we are hoping that we can get a strong finish this weekend and see what happens from there."

Kurt Busch -- "It's a very fast race track. They built it almost too fast -- similar to Chicago. It was a sister track supposedly to Vegas, but Vegas is flat enough to where you can run any multiple groove you want. We'll see when we go this time around. I tested there last week. It seems like we're on our own little testing 500 ... 1,500 ... 2,000, whatever we're testing; we're making so many laps that we're trying to keep up with all of our notes."