"We can’t really worry about what everybody else is doing, all we can do is worry about ourselves," Almirola said Wednesday.

"That’s kind of what’s gotten us to this point is we’ve focused the last month and a half on doing the best job we can in scoring the maximum amount of points we can each weekend and I think we’ve had three out of the last four races, we’ve had top-10s."

The "other" weekend was the Chase opener at Chicago when Almirola uncharacteristically lost an engine after running among the front 10 of the field most of the day. That 41st-place finish put his team in a hole right off the bat, but he answered with a sixth place finish at New Hampshire last week and that, combined with widespread misfortune among the majority of the remaining Chase drivers, was enough to put him very much back in contention this week.

It’s the same kind of understated fortitude that has landed the Daytona Coke Zero 400 winner in the new win-and-you’re-in 16-driver Chase this year, despite not being an odds-on favorite for the position on most people’s preseason picks list.

And now Almirola has shown he belongs and sounded very confident discussing his situation with the national media on Wednesday.

In keeping the focus on himself and his No. 43 Nathan’s Famous Ford Fusion, Almirola said he didn’t want the team constantly updating him on the three drivers – Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch — who he must overtake on Sunday.

"I think there’s too many people to focus all of our attention on that," Almirola explained. "I think it would distract us from just doing our job and doing the best that we can.

"I think if we’re just racing one other guy, it would be easier to just race them heads-up and try and constantly look at points and know what we have do. But considering we’ve got to beat four guys, I think that would be too chaotic.

"So that’s kind of been my thing to my guys in our competition meeting on Monday. ‘Hey, let’s just do what we’ve done the last four weeks. It worked for us.’

"I know they’ll have it on the pit box. … but I hope (crew chief) Trent (Owens) doesn’t get too worried about that and we just do what we need to do and make the strategy calls that we need to make the to get the best finish we can."

That Chase work actually began this summer shortly after Almirola celebrated in a rainy and emotional Daytona International Speedway Victory Lane — exactly 30 years after his car owner Richard Petty celebrated his historic 200th win there.

With the Chase berth all but decided that Sunday in Almirola’s home state, the team could shift its focus and up its game.

"It starts at the shop. … the hours that our shop guys have been putting in, the attention to detail that our guys have been trying to pay attention at every level on the race car has been phenomenal," Almirola said.

"But we can’t do that all year long because we don’t have the manpower and the resources to be able to do that. Once we knew we were pretty much going to be in the Chase a lot of attention focused back in July went to getting ready for September.

"I think that’s the advantage that a lot of the other race teams have. … Jimmie Johnson knows before they ever go to Daytona (in February) that they’re pretty much going to make the Chase. Their attention is to get through the regular season, but right from the beginning of the year they’re focused on September."

From his perspective, it’s the head-start his team got that will be the "difference-maker" as he calls it.

"I give all I can," Almirola said. "I’ve got 100 percent to give and I give all 100 of it very weekend. Now in the Chase do I take a little more risk like on restarts and stuff like that? Absolutely, because there’s a lot to be had in this Chase and we’re going for it. We feel like we don’t have anything to lose, so we’ve just kind of been letting it all hang out."

The result is that the smaller Richard Petty Motorsports has found itself among NASCAR’s perennial contending mega-teams such as Team Penske, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing — organizations that employ up to six times the number of people as RPM. And potentially, besting some of their cars to move into the next Chase elimination round.

"I think that what we’ve accomplished this year proves how strong of a race that that Richard Petty Motorsports is and how competitive we can be and it’s not just the 43-car," Almirola said.

"I think that it’s certainly going to help going to the tables and meetings (with sponsors) and stuff and saying, ‘hey, we are a Chase capable race team and this is what we’re capable of and if you come and sponsor a race car at our race team, we’re not guaranteeing you that we can make the Chase. .. but we certainly compete at the level and have proven it."

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The first elimination round culminates in Sunday’s AAA 400 at the notoriously tough Dover International Speedway. Four of the 16 drivers who have competed in the 16-driver Challenger Round will not advance to the three-race Contender Round — their postseason runs are caput.

But with 16th-ranked Aric Almirola only 10 points out of the 12th place cutoff, everything gets settled Sunday afternoon.

And with all the weighty conversation and heavy debate that went into formulating NASCAR’s new playoff system, having all 16 drivers still mathematically eligible had to be the perfect scenario, even if the sanctioning body dared not expect it out of the box.

"When that points system gets reset for the Chase and everybody is so close in points, you know that every week is going to be important, every point is going to be important,” said Almirola, who will steer the No. 43 Nathan’s Famous Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports on Sunday. "Throughout the year, the points get spread out and you kind of get those cushions, but when everything gets reset … one spot on the race track is a big deal.

"I’m glad for our sake we’re still in it.”

Not only has every Chase driver kept himself very much in contention to move to the next round, there are another half-dozen racers outside the Chase looking racey enough to win each week as rookie Kyle Larson has demonstrated with back-to-back top-five finishes.

At this point, no one can be counted out of the Chase or out of a race.

And that’s not lost among those atop the Chase standings or those on the bottom with heavy-duty work still to do this week.

First-place Brad Keselowski — with a win and a seventh-place finish in the opening Chase rounds — holds a 27-point edge over seventh-place Jeff Gordon. But there is a 13-point drop-off from Gordon to eighth-place Matt Kenseth and ninth-place Carl Edwards.

Tenth-place AJ Allmendinger is only one point behind them, and Kasey Kahne (11th) and Ryan Newman (12th) are a point behind Allmendinger.

Chasers Denny Hamlin and Greg Biffle sit only six points out of that 12th-place cutoff. Kurt Busch is eight points behind Newman and Almirola is 10 back.

"It was important to knock off top-fives in the first two races and have a huge cushion going into Dover and be able to race like we need to race there,” said Kevin Harvick, who is comfortably ranked third in the standings with a pair of top-five Chase efforts in the No. 4 Chevrolet. "There’s so much that can happen at Dover — you can be pitting under green and get two laps down with a caution and your day will be over with."

Of course Almirola wavers tenuously on the other end of the spectrum. With four drivers to overtake in order to make the Chase, Almirola is more philosophic about what he must do Sunday at Dover, where he scored a NASCAR national series win in 2010 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Almirola said he doesn’t want crew chief Trent Owens constantly updating him with his competition’s whereabouts, saying that it would be too "distracting" with multiple drivers on the radar versus one. He’d rather just focus on his task at hand and is very optimistic about his chances despite being the underdog at this point.

"It’s not going to do me any good to try harder or anything like that, I try as hard as I possibly can every week,” Almirola said.

"There’s times when you realize, ‘hey, I need to be aggressive if I’m going to get some spots here and get a good finish,’ and I think the same will hold true at Dover.

"We’ll take necessary risk, but we’re not going to take crazy risks just to try and transfer to the next round if the reward is not there.”

It’s a similar mindset for Allmendinger, who, like Almirola, earned his place in the win-and-you’re-in Chase with a Cinderella regular-season victory. And both can continue to take great pride in their smaller teams — JTG Daugherty and RPM, respectively — holding their own with the mega-franchises such as Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing right through to this first elimination round.

"I got home last night and all of a sudden it started hitting me that we have ashot to advance," said Allmendinger, who scored his and JTG Daugherty’s career first Sprint Cup Series win at Watkins Glen this summer.

"I don’t know that the outlook is different (now that) we can make it. If we did, it would be good publicity for our sponsors, who have supported our team for such a long time. We just have to focus on us. We know what is around us. We know it’s a lot of great teams. This is what we have to do to keep going. We have got to make no mistakes."

And while the 10-race Chase features lots of wild-card venues, Dover is typically wild if not a pure toss-up.

Six-time champion Jimmie Johnson leads all drivers with nine wins at the Monster Mile, which is eight more than the three guys he’s chasing combined — Penske Racing teammates Keselowski and Logano and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Harvick.

Keselowski won this Chase race in 2012 and finished runner-up from the pole position in May. Logano has never won here but has posted three consecutive top-10s. He has a best of third-place twice, including in this race last year.

Harvick has never won at Dover, but has a runner-up finish in the summer of 2012.

So buckle up race fans. From top to bottom, a fascinating Chase so far looks to get even better.

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