Key Takeaways: Kansas Chase race

A RARITY FOR KESELOWSKI: Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski finished 38th Sunday, knocked out by an accident after completing 190 laps. It was the first time the 2012 champ had not been around for the finish since the 2015 Daytona 500. Although quick work by the team got Keselowski back out on the track, it was short-lived.

'If my team keeps putting up this kind of effort, I don't worry about today,' he said. 'We will win another race. We will win Talladega and other races and be fine.'

TEAMMATE TUSSLE: One of the reasons Kevin Harvick was able to drive away had to do with the battle for second between Joe Gibbs Racing's Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. The two Toyota teammates jockeyed for position -- fresher tires allowed Busch to move up from seventh -- for several laps late. Busch said, 'It's racing, I guess,' after finishing fifth.

'That was a pretty hard battle, but at the end of the day you're racing for every position here,' Edwards said after his runner-up finish. 'I thought we raced as hard as it was reasonable, but it was pretty hard.'

'JUST STUPID STUFF': Sunday's Talladega race will trim the Chase field from 12 to eight, with Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott on the outside. Keselowski is the only past champ (2012) in the group.

Hamlin got to the Championship 4 in '14 only to finish third. To return, the team will have to avoid pit-road miscues such as those it was dealt Sunday. 'Just stupid stuff and then penalties when we shouldn't have them,' Hamlin, who finished 15th, said.

AT A LOSS: A 31st-place finish puts Chase Elliott and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team in need of a victory at Talladega to move on to the Round of 8. 'I just will go there and race our hearts out and try to win I guess,' Elliott said Sunday. 'That's about all we can do.'

Elliott had a car capable of contending for the win, until a tire rub after a green-flag pit stop with less than 100 laps remaining brought him back to pit road.

BATTLE OF THE BRANDS: Chevrolet teams have now won three Chase races, Toyota has two wins and Ford is still searching for its first. If it's any consolation to the Ford camp, its drivers have won the last two fall Talladega races with Brad Keselowski (2014) and Joey Logano (2015). Keselowski won the spring race this year at Talladega as well as the summer stop at Daytona, the only two tracks where NASCAR requires the use of restrictor plates. Denny Hamlin won the season-opening Daytona 500. Chevy teams are winless on the plate tracks this year.

TRENDING DOWNWARD: After five consecutive top-10 finishes, including three victories, Martin Truex Jr. and his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team have finished 13th and 11th in the last two races. Not terrible by any means, but not what the team has come to expect.

'You've got to perform every single week,' Truex said. 'You've got a bad week, it could ruin your whole season. All in all, today wasn't a disaster.' Sixth in points, Truex said the team will go to Talladega and 'just go race and see what happens.'

BOWMAN & THE 'DINGER: In the battle among those not in the Chase, Alex Bowman and AJ Allmendinger turned in the best Kansas performances, finishing seventh and eighth, respectively.Bowman, battling a stomach virus, is scheduled to drive the No. 88 at Talladega before turning the car over to Jeff Gordon at Martinsville. Both are subbing for the team's regular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Allmendinger managed the top 10 in spite of an early pit-road speeding penalty. It was the team's first top 10 since Bristol in August.

STEWART DONE WITH KANSAS: Three-time series champion Tony Stewart completed his Kansas Sprint Cup Series career with a 16th-place finish. The co-owner/driver for Stewart-Haas Racing, Stewart had won twice at the 1.5-mile track. He faces only five more starts in the series, and has one or more career wins at each of the venues, including a single victory at Talladega, site of next weekend's event. He is a three-time winner at Martinsville and Homestead, has a pair of victories at Texas and a single win at Phoenix.