RELATED: Chase Grid | Chase bubble watch | Chase Fest details
A year ago, it was Kasey Kahne.
Only two races remained before the start of the 2014 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and the Hendrick Motorsports driver was 13th in points. Unfortunately, he was outside the top 16 in the Chase standings.
Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, AJ Allmendinger, Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola trailed Kahne in points. But they were among those that had wins. They had invitations to the dance.
At the time, Kahne had managed only two top-five finishes. His average finishing position was 16.8. He hadn't been to the victory lane since midway through the previous season.
So he and his team went out and won at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It earned Kahne one of the final Chase spots and the No. 5 team a second chance.
It wasn't quite as easy as it sounds.
Kevin Harvick, as was often the case, was dominant at AMS. Kahne fell a lap down early. The team battled back. He didn't take the lead for the first time until Lap 303 of the scheduled 325-lap race. Suddenly, he seemed to be on his way to the win. Then cautions appeared, forcing two late restarts. Green, white, checkered late. Kahne's lead was lost on pit road.
Yet somehow he muscled his way past Matt Kenseth coming to the white flag, holding on for the win and a spot in the Chase.
It's a similar position for the 35-year-old this year. Two races remain -- stops at Darlington Raceway and Richmond International Raceway -- before the field is finalized for this year's 10-race run to determine the Sprint Cup champion.
Kahne is once again winless. He is not alone.
Teammate Jeff Gordon has finished inside the top five only three times this year. The four-time champion is ahead of Clint Bowyer in the playoff picture, with a wider margin back to folks such as Aric Almirola and Greg Biffle.
A year ago Gordon had three wins and a vise-like grip on first place in the points.
Bowyer's got a pair of top-fives, but much of the attention around the No. 15 team of Michael Waltrip Racing centers on where Bowyer will call home next season.
Paul Menard has a razor-thin lead on Gordon in points, but taking nothing for granted.
Can anyone? Matt Kenseth's blown engine at Bristol last week, leaving the Joe Gibbs driver 42nd in the final rundown, didn't go unnoticed. Things not only can happen, they often do.
With 10 drivers already secure -- 11 if you go ahead and give Kyle Busch one of the spots although he's close enough to the fault line that a misstep could make things interesting -- and two races remaining, at least three of this year's Chase spots will be filled based on the points standings after Richmond.
It could be five, if no new winner emerges in the next two weeks.
Few on the fringes, though, have shown signs of contending for wins.
Almirola? One top five and only three laps led this season.
Biffle? It's shaping up to be the wrong type of career year for the Roush Fenway Racing driver, with just two top-fives and an average finish of 20th.
Austin Dillon? Kyle Larson? Both have shown potential. Both are winless.
Kahne? Well, who knows?
The question isn't can it be done. Kahne's already proven that it's possible.
The question is who among those can pull it off?