KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Joey Logano is in a familiar position. Matt Kenseth is not.
Logano, the Team Penske driver, enters the next two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races with no pressure and no concern about advancing to the Eliminator Round of this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Kenseth, the 2003 series champion, understands that advancement for his No. 20 team likely will require winning either this weekend's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway or next weekend's Campingworld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
As many as five of the eight positions in the Eliminator Round will be determined by points positions (up to three could go to race winners), and there is a chance the Joe Gibbs Racing driver could be one of them. But to do so, Kenseth will have to overtake four drivers and erase a 32-point deficit.
The two are among the most successful on the track this season -- Kenseth has five victories, Logano four. Kenseth won at New Hampshire in the second race of the Chase to secure a berth in Contender Round; Logano is headed to the Eliminator Round thanks to last week's win at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
It was at Charlotte that Kenseth finished 42nd, and put him in the unenviable position of having to play catch-up.
The elimination-style format, which whittles the 16-team Chase field down to four heading into Homestead-Miami Speedway, favors no one. It didn't favor Jimmie Johnson in the opening round this year, sending the six-time champion home early thanks to a mechanical issue at Dover.
It didn't favor Kyle Busch last year when a crash at Talladega knocked the JGR driver from second to see-you-next-season.
"It's a very different format," Kenseth acknowledged Friday at Kansas, site of Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 (2:15 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR). "You look at Jimmie with the problem he had and he's out; if it was a 10-race (no elimination) deal, he might not be out.
"You can usually have a mulligan and in this format, depending on what your competition does, you can't."
The pressure may be a bit higher, but most of those in the Chase say they treat each race no differently. Kenseth knows the drill; he's been in similar situations before.
"It's really no different," he said. "We show up and try to do the best we can every week. Same this week. Obviously a win moves you on, but I don't feel like it's a must-win (situation). …
"Just try to do the best we can today to qualify as good as we can, hopefully start up front … and hopefully be up front Sunday."
Logano, 25, would like to be up front on Sunday as well, but knows his Chase future doesn't require it for at least two more weekends.
It's a feeling similar to what the team experienced after he won the season-opening Daytona 500.
"It's like 'Ahh,' that (sense of) relief," Logano said. "You go out there, you race … relaxed."
With Talladega around the corner, many have described this three-race round as the most stressful of those leading up to the championship race. A win at Charlotte or this weekend at Kansas would go a long way toward alleviating concerns about the season's final restrictor-plate race and allow teams to focus on the final push.
Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski sit second through eighth in points. Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are ahead of Kenseth, but on the outside looking in as well.
"No one feels good," Logano said, referencing Kyle Busch's stunning tumble at Talladega last season, "unless you win and that's why we feel really good.
"We have to take advantage of this opportunity we have right now. Winning that race last weekend (was) the biggest win we could have gotten at this point of the season."