"Absolutely," he said Thursday after wrapping up two practice sessions. "I know from last year to this year I’m a completely different person. At this point last year … we had a 40- or 50-point lead (51 points), I have no idea what it was but it was huge, and I still had a lot of sleepless nights.

"Now, it is what it is. I’m just going out and trying to win races. You’re going to look at points — ‘OK, he’s this much back’ but I’m not going to worry about it. I haven’t woken up one time in the last three months and even thought about points. I can promise you that.”

A two-time winner this season, Crafton has finished third in three of the last four races. Blaney rolled into town on the heels of back-to-back top-five finishes. And Wallace has a win and two runner-up results in three of his last four outings.

The expectation is that Blaney and Wallace will continue to be fast, "but if you look at Darrell’s team, they’ve been on a roll here lately," Crafton said. "I think right now that’s going to be one of the tougher teams."

Wallace, also in a Toyota, won’t argue the assessment of his No. 54 group, but isn’t ready to talk points. Partly racer superstition perhaps, partly because of past experiences. But he said he feels good about the three remaining tracks on the schedule, especially Texas.

"I feel like this is where our mile-and-a-half program came to life," he said of a 10th-place Texas finish earlier this year. "We were way different (with our set-up) than we’d ever been so the confidence level went up. Kentucky was the next (1.5-mile track), we were really strong, finished second, Las Vegas finished second, and at Chicago ran top five all night, finished sixth. But this is the track where I think it came to life."

It’s been a complete turnaround for the KBM team, which finished no better than 15th in four of its first five starts this year.

The change, Wallace said, was due in part to "knocking all the bad luck out of the way" as well as communication with crew chief Jerry Baxter and his own comfort level inside the truck.

"I forget where it was, after Texas maybe, Jerry was like … ‘dude, believe in this truck, please.’ Stuff started turning around. All these mile-and-a-halves are so different, you’re feeling the air and any inch I’d get loose, and I’d be like ‘uh-oh.’ Now I don’t even care. Kyle (Busch, team owner and teammate) will mention ‘I’m feeling this.’ Well I’m feeling the same thing. He’s winning races so it’s got to be a good feeling."

Toyota can clinch the manufacturer’s championship this weekend with a finish of seventh or better by one of its drivers, eighth with one lap led or ninth with the most laps led.

Another victory would be No. 16 for the automaker, breaking the mark of 15 first reached in 2010 and equaled this year.

The title is far from a done deal, and as Johnny Sauter, Crafton’s teammate said, "anything is possible."

"I think his points lead is around 20, so yeah, three races is a long time," Sauter said. "That’s really not insurmountable by any means.

"Obviously I want to see Crafton win the championship because we’re in the same camp … those guys are solid week in and week out, they’re consistent. If they continue to do what they’ve done all year, they’re probably not going to be (caught).

"But three races is a long time. A lot of things can go right and a lot can go wrong."

For now, Crafton said he and his No. 88 team aren’t looking too far down the road.

"We know we have fast trucks," he said. "If I don’t make any mistakes, and we don’t make any mistakes as a team, we should be able to do it."

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