Chase drama ramps up in Kansas

— -- KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- In NASCAR's own words, "The Contender Round is upon us."

Translation: Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (2 p.m. ET, ESPN) kick-starts the second elimination round in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Four of the 16 playoff drivers were knocked out after the three-race Challenger Round that ended last week at Dover, and four more championship contenders will face elimination in the three-race Contender segment, which continues next weekend at Charlotte and culminates the following week at Talladega.

Here are five storylines to watch Sunday:

Sure, Kevin Harvick has two wins, eight poles and remains one of the most feared drivers in the Sprint Cup garage. But imagine what his numbers would be like had he not endured an astonishing number of mechanical failures and pit-road blunders that any one driver should not have to tolerate in one season.

Those numbers would be off-the-charts phenomenal.

As it stands, they're still pretty darn good.

Harvick's Kansas numbers alone should concern his fellow Cup contenders. He has secured three consecutive poles here, and he has the fifth-best driver rating among all active drivers.

Oh, did we mention he's the defending race winner?

"I'm just really proud of everybody on our Budweiser team. We've been dealt some bad luck throughout the year, but it hasn't fazed them in continuing to work on the cars and the speed," Harvick said after qualifying. "The first three weeks [of the Chase] we have led a bunch of laps and qualified well. Last week [we] had them covered and a valve stem got knocked off by a lug nut. Keep doing the things that you are doing and that luck will all come full circle, and as long as the cars continue to be fast that stuff all comes back to you.

"Hopefully it peaks at the right time."

Harvick opened the Chase with a fifth-place at Chicago and a third at New Hampshire. Even with the valve-stem issue at Dover, he salvaged a 13th-place finish.

"I just feel like with a little bit of good luck we can beat every car here, every week, at any style racetrack," Harvick said. "And that is a real good, positive feeling to have as a race car driver. Our guys have a lot of confidence in what they are putting on the racetrack, and everybody knows if the chips fall right that we have the speed and the cars to do what we need to do."

We knew this was coming. We knew it was only a matter of when, not if.

The first round of the Chase produced its share of compelling storylines. But let's sidestep the obvious for a plot that -- let's face it -- has been on the collective minds of NASCAR Nation ever since Brad Keselowski won the Chase opener at Chicagoland.

It's Jimmie Johnson. You remember the six-time defending Cup champion, don't you?

Johnson hasn't won since the Michigan race in June. And he hit a serious lull between the July race in Daytona and Watkins Glen -- a five-race span that included consecutive 42nd-place finishes at Daytona and Loudon, a 39th at Pocono and a 28th at the Glen.

But the Chase is on, and that's very good news for Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus, who have shown they can thrive in any Chase format NASCAR throws at them.

The No. 48 Chevy is getting its playoff swagger back at the right time. With four top-5s in the past six races, including back-to-back top-5s at New Hampshire and Dover, the rest of the Chase drivers have got to be thinking: "Here we go again."

And Kansas is one of Johnson's best tracks. He's a two-time winner here, and his average finishing position of 7.625 is tops in the series.

"The mile-and-a-half tracks have been our bread and butter," said Johnson, who'll start Sunday's race 32nd after spinning and flat-spotting his tires in the second round of qualifying Friday. "They've really been a strong suit for the No. 48 over the years. This year we've been competitive, but not dominant. And that's what we're looking to get sorted out here pretty late in the season. And we can run well, but we would prefer to have more control than we do right now."

Kyle Larson was not even 2 years old when Jeff Gordon won his first Sprint Cup race in May 1994. Larson is a rising star in the Cup series today, and Gordon is still winning races.

The four-time Cup champion has four victories in 2014 -- the most races he has won in a season since 2007, when he celebrated in Victory Lane six times. His 92 career wins slot him third on the all-time list, behind Hall of Famers Richard Petty (200) and David Pearson (105).

Career victory No. 93 could be coming Sunday. Gordon is the all-time wins leader at Kansas with three, and leads the Cup series in top-5 finishes with 10. Gordon qualified fifth for Sunday's go-round.

"I'm happy with where we ended up," he said. "I feel like that is about where we were. Kevin [Harvick] was in another league. ... To be in the top five is a great place to start, and that is higher than where we started when we ran this race in May."

Gordon won the Kansas spring race after starting 13th.

One of the major storylines in this Chase -- in the entire season, for that matter -- is the resurgence of the Penske Fords driven by Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano.

They've been the tandem to beat all season.

Keselowski, down the stretch, has been particularly difficult to handle. He has a series-leading five victories, but two of them have come in the past four races. When he's not winning, he's on the verge, finishing seventh at New Hampshire two weeks ago and second at Dover.

Logano has been equally as strong in the Chase, collecting fourth-place finishes at Chicago and Dover to go with a victory -- his fourth of the season -- at New Hampshire.

Can the Penske boys continue their torrid pace in the Chase's second round?

Logano will start fourth Sunday, Keselowski sixth.

"Overall it is a good starting spot. Fourth is good," Logano said. "The outside lane is good to be in. We will try to move up from there and make sure we make good use of that good starting spot. That is important. Track position is important here ... and I am glad we were able to capitalize and get a good starting spot."

If there's one fan who likes the reset-button aspect of the new Chase format, it's Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt is a three-time winner in 2014, but he limped into the playoffs with only one top-10 (fifth at Michigan) in the last five regular-season races.

Earnhardt made the first-round cut in the Chase, but he hasn't been running with the consistency he showed through the first half of the season. He finished 11th in the playoff opener at Chicago, followed by a ninth-place at New Hampshire and 17th at Dover.

Now all 12 Chase survivors begin the second round even in the standings, thanks to the points reset.

"We didn't do too well these first three, so the reset button is in favor of our team," said Earnhardt, who will start eighth on the grid. "We feel like we are not realizing our potential, and I think it is obvious we are not realizing our potential. This gives us an opportunity to sort of get back into the championship battle.

"Had they not structured it so, I don't know that we would be feeling too confident about our chances at this point. Now it's all back to zero. We can get regrouped and get confident again and come out of here with a great finish and we are back in it."