Chase drivers: Will top guns lay up or go for the green?

Joey Logano (Driver A) and Ryan Newman (Driver B) have taken different paths to get here, but both have a golden opportunity in front of them in Sunday's AAA Texas 500 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN). Logano is third in the Chase standings, four points behind leader Jeff Gordon, while Newman is in second place, three points back. Another strong performance will put either one of them one step closer to getting into the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

While winning is still the most direct route to advance, non-Chase driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s victory last weekend at Martinsville assures that at least two drivers will go to the championship race based on points. And with two of the fastest cars -- Brad Keselowski's No. 2 Ford and Kevin Harvick's No. 4 Chevrolet -- buried in the Eliminator Round standings, avoiding the big mistake has become almost as important as getting a win.

But could a driver lose his edge if he decides to go into prevent-defense mode this late in the game? Logano says he's not going to take that chance, as he refuses to back down from what could be a run to his first championship.



"What we have done all year, even before the Chase started -- we have raced the same way and that is aggressive," Logano said. "We put ourselves in the offensive mode no matter what the situation was, and we saw that again last weekend when we took four tires there with a green-white-checker and we started 13th and got up to fifth with the aggressive mode.



"That is the mode we should stay in because that is what has been working. It is not the time to reinvent the wheel, just time to polish it a little bit and make sure we stay out there doing what we have been doing, just doing a little better job at it."



It's tough to argue with that approach as Logano has finished in the top five in six of the past seven races. And lest we forget, Logano won at Texas in the spring in a season that he admits has already been dream-like.

While Logano knows he can get to Victory Lane if needs to, Newman has not proven it yet this season. 
So for Newman, one might think the pressure is building for him to get a win and serve notice that he's a legitimate contender, but he doesn't seem too concerned with proving a point. Instead, he's having fun in the new format and in his first year with Richard Childress Racing and is willing to win a title with dogged consistency if that's what he needs to do.

Using this approach, Newman has compiled a career-best average finish of 13.5.


"Yeah, there's intensity out there but that's different from pressure to me," Newman said. "Pressure is what explodes things, and there's no reason to put unneeded or unwanted pressure on anything that you want to perform well."



But to use a golf analogy, will Newman go for the green and the birdie opportunity in this week's race? Or will he lay up and take his par?



"Bottom line is you only have to be aggressive as you need to be," Newman said. "If you have a dominant race car, then being aggressive is the worst thing you can be. But if you're in a position where you’re fighting for seventh or eighth all day and you think you have a top-five car, then you better be aggressive and make something happen."



What will happen on Sunday at Texas? That's what we're waiting to find out as the new Chase format continues to provide intensity and intrigue at every turn.

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