Mayhem in the middle as NASCAR's Chase hits Texas

FORT WORTH — Two rounds hardly is a sufficient sample size for a definitive assessment on the impact of three-race segments in the reformatted Chase for the Sprint Cup.

A trend line, though, seems to be forming in NASCAR's playoffs.

The opener sets the tone. The finale sets the field.

And the middle race sets the mark for the tempers, tension and tumult that are manifesting themselves as the most tangible evidence of the Chase's heightened pressure.

"People know you have to get through the first two races with something decent to feel halfway comfortable and like you don't have to win that last race of the round," Team Penske's Joey Logano said. "When something happens to make you feel you had something taken away from you, there is so much on the line. The emotions escalate really quickly and tempers fly. It is fun for everyone to watch."

It hasn't been so enjoyable to experience for several championship contenders — three of whom enter Sunday's AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in desperate need of excellent results to maintain title eligibility. After wipeouts at Martinsville Speedway, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski are in win-or-else mode, and Carl Edwards also is in jeopardy of missing the Nov. 16 championship round at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The four finalists (highest finisher wins the title) will be determined the Nov. 9 race at Phoenix International Raceway.

It's a familiar scenario of palpable anxiety that already has produced chaos twice during the Chase. Though the opener at Chicagoland Speedway was rather tame, the stress seemed to ratchet up at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where five Chase drivers finished outside the top 20 in a race marred by errors and wrecks that tied a season high with 15 caution flags.

After Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Keselowski smacked the wall at Kansas Speedway in the first race of the second round, the madness erupted again at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where emotions spilled over after the checkered flag. Kenseth applied a chokehold to Keselowski, who already had engaged in angry series of garage burnouts with Denny Hamlin.

All three were feeling the strain of the new Chase.

"In some ways with this format you don't feel like you are ever really secure unless you win a race and it is hard to really build a big lead that means anything," said Keselowski said. "On the other side of it, you always feel like you can get your way out of a jam, and in this case, it is with a win. We were able to do that in the last round. I am optimistic we can do that in this round, and the reality is it will probably take that. I completely understand that and am ready for that challenge and hope we have the speed to make it happen. The speed and execution and I hope I don't screw it up if we do."

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Mistakes have been a hallmark of this season's 10-race playoff, whether it's been strategy blunders, pit speeding penalties or mistimed restarts, and the competitors insist it's a direct result of the heat applied by the championship race.

With the points reset every three races, there is no cumulative comfort built by solid results. Wins offer the guarantee of advancing as well as the only degree of security. Kyle Busch was the highest-ranked driver in points entering the second-round finale at Talladega — and still was knocked out when he crashed and finished 40th.

"You're just trying to do everything right, and we all know none of us is perfect," said Jeff Gordon, who enters Texas with the points lead after rebounding from a pit speeding penalty for a runner-up at Martinsville. "If you push too hard in too many areas and you have too much to think about, then it makes it easier to make a mistake. And I made that mistake last week. Sometimes it's good to get that out of the way early in a round, because it allows you to just sort of take a deep breath and go, 'OK, luckily we survived that.' That kind of intensity, forces you to be in a more pressured position that could cause mistakes — and that's for everybody; driver, pit crew, and everybody."

Said Logano: "You feel the pressure. It is there for everyone and probably equal for everyone. I feel like I am doing a good job handling it, and I think my whole team is. When that pressure is on, not only for the driver but the pit crew and the guys working on your car day to day, they are thinking about how one mistake can keep you from winning this championship. One missed lug nut can change the whole outcome of your year. That is pressure."

But it weighs more consistently on the drivers, who will face balancing risk vs. reward on every lap.

Ryan Newman, who has notched five consecutive top 10s and is in solid position to reach Homestead despite being winless this year, said the decisions are situational.

"You only have to be as aggressive as you need to be," he said. "If you have a dominant racecar, being aggressive is the worst thing you can be. If you're in a position where you're fighting for seventh or eighth and have a top-five car, you better be aggressive because you need to make something happen."

Logano and crew chief Todd Gordon have simplified the strategy to limit the potential for errors, and Texas already has borne out the tactic as successful. In the April 7 race here, Logano yielded the lead to take four tires on a pit stop before a green-white-checkered finish, and his No. 22 Ford zoomed from third to first in the last two laps.

Since then, Gordon has leaned toward always electing to change four tires rather than gamble on two. At Martinsville, Logano dropped to 13th on a four-tire stop before a green-white-checkered finish, but he managed to gain eight spots in the final two laps.

"That is the mode we should stay in because that is what has been working," Logano said. "I feel I am a better driver on offense."

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