At first glance, Talladega stands out as the wild card in the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. But Kansas Speedway can throw her own curveballs at drivers, and Chase contenders weren't looking too far ahead on Friday.
Martin Truex Jr. , who had the sixth-fastest practice time in Friday's opening NASCAR Sprint Cup practice at Kansas (193.299 mph) in his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet, expects tension to remain high in the fifth race of the Chase on Sunday (2:15 p.m. ET, NBC MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).
"I think if you look at all the Chase races, it's really been intense," said Truex Jr., who sits in third place in the Chase, seven points behind leader Joey Logano. "Just looking at the restarts and the things that have happened, you can really feel it out there.
"Everybody is pushing as hard as they can all the time to get every position. So, I don't think it'll be anything out of the ordinary for what we've had so far, or what we've seen last year in the Chase races with guys fighting after the race and all that. You've got to get everything you can."
After the fall 2014 race at Charlotte, Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski wound up brawling between haulers. Charlotte was rough on Kenseth again this fall, with the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota finishing 42nd after mishaps and contact with Ryan Newman .
Kenseth likely needs a win at either Kansas or Talladega to advance to the Eliminator Round. His No. 20 Toyota came off the hauler fast at Kansas Speedway, putting up a top-three practice speed of 194.147 mph.
Kenseth's JGR teammate Carl Edwards had his own scuffling on-track at Charlotte this year, trading paint with Dale Earnhardt Jr. 's No. 88 Chevrolet. Edwards wound up finishing sixth, but the No. 88 suffered more damage and Earnhardt Jr. finished 28th. That left Edwards sixth in the points standings coming into Kansas and Earnhardt Jr. scrambling in 11th place among the 12 remaining Chase drivers, 13 points ahead of Kenseth.
"Everyone's fighting their positions like we saw last week," Edwards said, anticipating how Sunday's race might unfold. "It's so fast (at Kansas). You're going so fast in the center of the corners here that one wiggle, one problem that somebody has can turn into a massive wreck. We've seen that here."
Earnhardt Jr. said Friday that he is too far in a hole to have any kind of strategy for Kansas. Even as the top performer at Talladega among Chase drivers, the pressure is on this weekend, too.
"We ain't got nothing to lose. We just got to go out there and run hard," Earnhardt Jr. said, adding he likes racing at Kansas Speedway despite going a decade since winning at an intermediate track.
"This place has a lot of different grooves and gives you a lot of opportunities to move around. When you catch a slower car you don't get stuck behind them and feel helpless. It's a good track."
Kansas has seen dominant cars run out of gas and spins aplenty. Only Joey Logano is locked into the Eliminator Round of the Chase. He admitted that Talladega is a game-changer -- one he's happy to not be worried about.
"The one thing I have learned about Talladega is there's no safe place," Logano said. "I've been crashed running second. I've been crashed running 30th, so where do you go? There's nowhere good to go. I think that's why everyone gets so stressed out about it. That's why everyone has been saying Charlotte and Kansas could be the two most important races in this whole Chase."
"This whole thing can get turned upside down in one lap at Talladega," Edwards said, but believes it's tricky at Kansas, too. "As long as we're driving around at 200 mph, everybody is getting every inch they can -- statistically it can be really tough."