RELATED: Chase Grid | Views from opening day at Phoenix
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Eight drivers enter this weekend's race at Phoenix International Raceway still in contention for the Sprint Cup Series title. Four will emerge.
Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson and Joe Gibbs Racing's Carl Edwards are already locked into next weekend's Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway via their wins at Martinsville and Texas, respectively, leaving six to battle for the checkered flag in the desert. These six seek an automatic title-round berth that comes along with a playoff victory, or hope to sneak by on points.
When the series hit Phoenix in 2013, the last season under the old points-centric format, we knew the title would come down to either Jimmie Johnson or Matt Kenseth. At this juncture, eight drivers enter the octagon -- get it? -- and have a realistic shot at the title.
The stakes stand the highest they've been in all of 2016 -- possibly ever, given how close this race is -- and the drivers (Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano) know what they're up against.
"You just give it your all. There's no second-guessing things. You go for it, don't look back, and you try to be your best at that moment," Kurt Busch said Friday at Phoenix. "But of course you don't want to put too much pressure on yourself or ask too much of your crew chief. You want to blend everybody together to create the best powerful result you can. You don't want to stretch it too far but you want to give it everything you have."
Since the elimination format debuted in 2014, we've directly seen how typically even-keeled drivers can snap under the pressure with tension rising as each of the 10 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup races ticks off the schedule on the road to Homestead-Miami. Wins are a driver's saving grace, giving the victor a brief respite to focus on the following round while his peers seek to join him.
Logano, currently the driver best positioned to advance on points albeit by a small margin, knows he just missed out on being able to breathe freely this weekend.
"When (I talked to the media at Texas) after the race I was mad ... I think after the race last week that it felt we missed an opportunity to win that race," said Logano, who said he's calmed down since then. "I think now we understand what we have to do when we come here. We pretty much have to win. I was joking about it earlier this week talking about when we went into Talladega in the last round we were in by zero points. This time we are in by one point, so we are closer than we were.
"It is pretty simple in all honestly for us and what we have to do. I know what I have to do and what the situations are but obviously I kind of need to know during the race if something changes (points-wise) that I don't know or just to make sure we are all on the same page. It is important for me to know. Some drivers may say something different but for me, I don't want an update the whole race but every now and again, especially toward the end of the race, to know where we are at and what I have to do to get in."
Some drivers won't have the luxury of keeping an eye on the points, however, as winning is their only likely route to advancement.
Count Kurt Busch among that group, and to a lesser extent his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Kevin Harvick.
Busch sits 34 points behind his brother, Kyle, for the last spot in. Harvick trails by 18, but many already have his name penciled into their Chase Grids to advance, as the winner of five of the past six Phoenix races.
"Our scenario to advance is to win," said Busch, whose sole Phoenix win came in 2005. "It's very similar to last year with how we made it through to the Round of 16, the Round of 12 and the Round of 8. We find ourselves with a must-win at Phoenix. It's a unique format and it's a lot of fun to work through it. To have a shot at it with only one race to go before the (Championship 4) makes you feel like you've had a successful season. We always want more, and we know we can do more. We want to try and go out with a win here in Phoenix to give ourselves a shot at the championship."
Then again, not all drivers see this weekend as different than any other of the 36 race weekends.
You likely won't be surprised as to which driver champions this sentiment most.
"You know, (Phoenix is) really not any different than any other weekend, really," said Kenseth. "Our mindset when we show up is to always try to qualify the best we can on Friday and race the best we can on Sunday, so really no different this weekend. Just try to get a car that will run a fast lap (Friday), hopefully get qualified good and work on our race setup that hopefully is fast and drives good.
"All that I can speak for is myself and for me whatever it is and whatever the rules are when the year starts I'm fine with that," the 2003 champ said. "Everybody has got the same opportunity to make that work the best they can for them. I'm all for whatever the fans are into. It doesn't really matter that much to me."