KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Even the calm, cool and collected seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson admits to feeling some pressure entering Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Three championship drivers and an esteemed assortment of popular young racers sit just above or just below the elimination cutoff line with one race remaining to set the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8 field.
The reigning series champ Johnson sits in eighth place in the championship standings with only the top eight drivers in the standings advancing to the next three-race series of the playoffs -- the penultimate round of competition before the Homestead-Miami championship finale. One position ahead of Johnson in the standings is 23-year old Ryan Blaney, in only his second full-time Monster Energy Series season.
He crashed out at Talladega but still holds a slim two-point edge over Johnson.
Should Kyle Busch -- the 2016 spring race Kansas winner -- or Matt Kenseth -- a two-time Kansas winner -- take the trophy Sunday, they would automatically advance into the Round of 8. Both former series champions enter Sunday's race ranked below Johnson and currently sit below the cut line for playoff advancement.
It all makes for rather dramatic anticipation.
RELATED: Qualifying woes put Johnson in tough position“It really is challenging. And then you think of this track and the speed that the Gibbs cars have had, this has been a great track for Matt and Kyle both," Johnson said of the No. 20 and No. 18 Joe Gibbs Toyota drivers.
“I could go out there and put myself in a nice position in the points and maintain this eighth-place on the bubble and Matt or Kyle wins and shifts that whole thing down.
“So, it’s going to be a challenging weekend. We need to hit the track with the mindset of winning largely because of the two, speaking of Matt and Kyle, those guys are both capable of winning here and shifting the points all around.”
[caption id="attachment_46820" align="alignleft" width="300"]Johnson has three top-five finishes in his last five starts here and won in May of 2015, but finished 24th in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy earlier this season at Kansas.
Busch, who is seven points behind Johnson in the standings, hasn’t finished worse than fifth place at Kansas since 2011. The 2015 Cup champion won the race in May, 2016 and this spring led 59 laps, finishing fifth.
Kenseth, who is 10th in the standings, is eight points behind Johnson. He has 10 top-10s in the last 14 races at Kansas, including back-to-back wins in 2012-13. He was 12th in May.
RELATED: Kansas history bodes well for KensethFor both Joe Gibbs Racing drivers -- Busch and Kenseth -- last weekend’s race at Talladega, Ala. created a more dramatic Kansas than either would prefer. Busch finished 27th at Talladega and was involved in a crash. Kenseth finished 14th.
“We've done our job all this year to build our points up and do the best possible job we know how to do because you always know you're supposed to build that point cushion for Talladega,’’ said Busch, who will start seventh on Sunday.
“As crazy as it is in this world, we all plan for one race to knock us out of the Playoffs. That [Talladega] seems to be the race that will knock us out again. We'll have to fight through it this weekend in Kansas and try to do it to get enough points so we can outdo the two guys in front of us if nobody else has trouble and go from there. …
As for Kansas, he conceded, “Challenging aspects all through the weekend, that's what makes it intense and a bit unpredictable, if you will.
“Hopefully the speed that we've shown so far this weekend in our M&M's Camry has been pretty good. I would love to make sure we're one of the guys that's moving on, one of the top eight to the next round of the Playoffs.
Kenseth, the 2003 Cup champion, remained a little more philosophic about Kansas. He will start the No. 20 DeWalt Toyota third on Sunday.
“You have all year to collect all those points, which we didn't do a very good job of getting very many,’’ Kenseth said. “I know Talladega is very unique. But all three races are equally as important, really. If you look at [points leader] Martin [Truex] and [Talladega winner] Brad [Keselowski], they got their wins the first two weeks, so then this week doesn't really matter.
“So to me, it's just another weekend, another opportunity to go out and try to win, try to get this ship turned around a little bit.”
And so ultimately, it comes down to the purest of racing intention, the simplest of concepts.
“We've got to go out there and just perform and know that we need a win,’’ Busch said. “A win would make everything easy.’’