Crew chiefs focused on 'business as usual'

"You can over‑prepare and take your eye off of actually preparing for the race at hand," Darian Grubb, crew chief for Hamlin and the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota said. "It's going to change multiple times through the race. … Of course we want to go win and sit on a pole and be the fastest car all weekend because that makes our life easy, but the chances of that happening are pretty slim with the way the competition level has been lately."

Hamlin, a winner at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this year, advanced into the final thanks to three top 10s in the Eliminator Round, including a fifth-place result this past weekend in Phoenix.

Grubb's been down the road before, winning a championship in 2011 with driver Tony Stewart. The tension may be higher this time around, he said, but that's no reason to alter what's worked thus far.

If others "say they're going to do a lot of things differently, that means they're not doing their job the other 37 weeks of the season," he said.

"It is pretty much business as usual, and there's more stress and there's more involved and more on the line when it comes down to it, but if you don't have the preparation in place for every week, you're never going to be competitive."

If past experience has helped Grubb stay the course, fast race cars have helped keep crew chief Rodney Childers level-headed. Kevin Harvick, driver of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet, has led the lion's share of laps this season, has won four times and is coming off a dominating victory at Phoenix.

"I think the biggest thing for us and this (Chase) format is just to go race and do the things that we've been doing all year, and really if you can go do that and do your best job, that's really all you've got to do," Childers said.

"It's not about anything but treating it just like the first race of the year … the Daytona 500. You've got to go put your best foot forward and go do the best job you can."

It is the second Chase appearance for Todd Gordon and Logano, the first with a legitimate shot at the title. A year ago, and under a different format, Logano started the Chase with a horrendous finish and never recovered.

"You have to approach this weekend like we did all of the races here building up to this race and continue to race aggressively," Gordon said. "The way the format is kind of laid out this year, you have to be aggressive to reap the rewards, and I think you're going to have to be close to being a winner to take home a championship here.

"We're going to continue to try to do the things that we've done, not break the format of how our practice flow has worked, how our week of preparation has worked."

Logano's five wins with Team Penske are the most among the four drivers eligible for the title. Harvick has four, Hamlin has one while Newman is winless.

The fact that his driver hasn't been to Victory Lane this year won’t bring big changes in the approach for the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing team, according to crew chief Luke Lambert.

While some may start slow, or face hurdles in the early going, the expectation, he said, is for all four to be running near the front when the race is nearing its end.

"I see these four cars are all going to be on point, and I think it would be very likely to see all four of them in the top five at the closing stages of the race," he said.

"I would be surprised if the champion isn't the winner of the race."

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