With pair of wild-card tracks, Contender Round looms large
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JOLIET, Ill. -- Some drivers plan to take the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup on a race-by-race basis. Others will go round-by-round, from the Challenger Round all the way to the Championship Round in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Sunday's MyAFibStory400.com (2 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Chicagoland Speedway serves as the opening segment to the postseason, no matter which view you take. It's the start of the Challenger Round and also the start of the Chase itself.
Even going one unit at time, though, drivers know what lies directly ahead. The Contender Round looms like a dark, jagged mountain at the end of a relatively peaceful path.
"That Contender Round scares the (expletive) out of me," Brad Keselowski said.
He isn't alone. Multiple drivers noted the second three-race round on the Chase Grid as the most troubling of the postseason.
The Contender Round consists of races four, five and six in the Chase. It starts with 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway, which has filled several drivers with consternation since its repave, then hits 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway and ends with the monstrous 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway.
"We've seen that Kansas and Talladega can be wreck-fests, especially the past two years," Keselowski said. "It's not going to be easy. It's a bracket that is going to demand survival. The only way you can really feel comfortable with that bracket is if you go to Charlotte and win the race."
Keselowski is the defending Bank of America 500 winner, but his concern is so high that Team Penske spent one of its four offseason tests at the North Carolina track (they plan to also test at Martinsville, Texas and Homestead).
By contrast, the Eliminator Round -- which consists of races at Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix and follows the Contender Round -- is one in which several Chase drivers feel the most confident.
Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick joined Denny Hamlin with that thought. Of course, they have to get there first.
"Talladega, that race is one we're specifically worried for," Johnson said. "When we look at the next group, that's one that I'm really excited for and I think it sets us up well for Homestead."
Hamlin took it a step further.
"We've really struggled at Kansas since they repaved the track," the JGR driver said. "I think Kansas is as big a wild-card race as Talladega. That round will be our biggest obstacle to get around. I believe that this Chase, with Phoenix and Martinsville in the same (round), it really does play out well for us. We'll just see if we have what it takes to get there still in contention."
If not, Hamlin won't be the only one feeling the sting.
"I think that bracket is really going to break some hearts," Keselowski said.
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