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JOLIET, Ill. -- When the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff system underwent its most dramatic overhaul in its 12-year history last season, the sanctioning body tried to make it easier to understand with all sorts of assists -- infographics, explainers, educational videos and cheat sheets (with less emphasis on the "cheat" part).
With year two of the newfangled Chase about to dawn, teams and drivers may have a few years before all the format's nuances come to light.
"You always learn something or you should learn something every day," said Joey Logano, who marched through all three rounds of eliminations to qualify for the first Championship 4 last year. "I mean, they teach us that in elementary school, right? You're supposed to learn something every day -- that's how you get better, and that still applies here, in racing and in life, that you need to go out there and say, 'What did we learn last year? What did we learn yesterday? What did we learn last week at the race track?' That's how you get better, and that's why I feel like my team's getting better as well."
The 16 title-eligible teams will get their first shot at putting strategies into play in Sunday's myAFibRisk.com 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Chicagoland Speedway, site of the first of 10 races in the Sprint Cup Series' postseason.
The sophomore season looks much like the first year in terms of the rules, with the playoffs broken into three three-race segments -- rounds named Challenger, Contender and Eliminator that whittle the field from 16 drivers to 12, then to eight, all before four drivers vie for the championship in the Nov. 22 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Drivers advance either automatically with a victory or by keeping themselves aloft in the points standings.
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While the Chicagoland race offers a chance to make a solid first impression, the goal of avoiding elimination stretches beyond the Illinois plains.
"Obviously, you want to win, but I look at these -- these are three races," said Clint Bowyer, who observed the 2014 Chase as an outsider but returns this season after a one-year absence. "This isn't one race. This is Chicago and every year I see it -- everybody treats it as one race, 'I've got to win this race or I'm not going to win the championship,' and every single year somebody that should probably be there and go rounds and be a part of this on into it falters right there right off the bat. You've got to be solid. You've got to be consistent."
Said Matt Kenseth, in a three-way tie for the Chase's top seed with four regular-season wins: "I think it depends. I think to start off, you go out and you just – you go out and go hard every week, but there's obviously things that can change when you get to all the cutoff races. One year is not a very big sample size of a championship format, so I think there's going to be a lot of things that will still happen through the years as long as they keep this format that might surprise you or it might change your thinking."
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The first year offered several examples of the importance of remaining mistake-free:
-- Aric Almirola's Chase hopes were derailed in the first round with engine failure and a 41st-place finish in the Chicago opener.
-- Kyle Busch's title eligibility ended in the Contender Round finale after a crash-related 40th place at Talladega nullified the positives from a pair of top-five finishes in the previous two races.
-- Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski each finished outside the top 30 in a chaotic Contender Round opener at Kansas, forcing all three to scramble to advance with only Keselowski doing so thanks to his Talladega win.
But for all the emphasis that the new format placed on minimizing errors, it also produced several clutch moments. Both Brad Keselowski and eventual champion Kevin Harvick warded off elimination with wins in round-ending races, and Ryan Newman bumped his way past Kyle Larson in the final lap of the penultimate race, snatching away the single point needed to clinch a berth in the championship finale.
Which trend will show up in the 2015 edition? Probably a decent mix of both.
"It's more of the potential and the possibility and the math that goes behind it," Newman said. "There's no guarantees in anything we do. You can look at our last lap at Phoenix and realize that. I mean, I was one spot out and had to do what I had to do. The ultimate thing is to go out there and enjoy it. There's 30-plus guys who want to be in our situation. We have a great opportunity, and it's as simple as that. We'll make it real complex, but it's really as simple as that."