Edwards heads to Kansas hoping for Chase win at home track

Fellow Chase driver Carl Edwards (195.454 mph) will join Keselowski in leading the field to the green flag for Race No. 5 of NASCAR’s 10-race playoff.

That would take the pressure off a good run next week at unpredictable Talladega.

Brad Keselowski won the pole for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway but was quick to acknowledge it is where he finishes in the crucial Chase race that matters. Keselowski won the pole position. Brad Keselowski has one Kansas career win to go with two top five finishes and five top ten results and he has finished in the top ten in every race on a 1.5 mile circuit in 2015. “We knew we didn’t have to go out and set the world on fire after that, it gave us a little time to work together and get to know one another better and now I feel so much different the second time around”.

“It fuels something inside of me”, Keselowski said of the penalty. “We need a really good finish, is what we need”.

The top eight drivers in the standings after next week’s race advance to the three-race Eliminator Round.

“I guess it’s like getting a nice cheesecake, but no toppings”. We don’t necessarily have the fastest speed at every race, (but) it seems like we have a good solid group.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Brad Keselowski won the pole, but not everything that comes with it. He said he can make due. Blaney posted the fastest time in the second round of qualifying, a 195.164 miles per hour. “That’s a gift and we’ll take it. That will be a good starting spot and a great pit stall”.

Or… Maybe the contender field should just follow Ryan Newman’s advice as the man driving for Richard Childress Racing knows one way to get into victory lane…

Chase driver Matt Kenseth (11th) and non-Chaser Greg Biffle (12th) were last among the dozen drivers who reached the third and final qualifying round. “I’ve always felt like Darlington is our hardest qualifying session of the year, but this is harder because you’re right on the fringe of being wide open and if you go over the grip level, you’re going to wreck really hard because you’re going 191, 192 (mph) minimum speed through the corners and you’re just right there man. It’s tough”. We are trying to get better.

Just two Chase drivers – Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. – failed to make the final qualifying round.

That’s no big deal to Logano. A win would put him automatically into the next Chase round and that is certainly possible for the driver who looked like he could have been bounced out of round one until he pulled off the dominating victory at Dover.

“It feels great. Everyone else is stressed out in the garage except us right now”, he said. “That stress will wear a lot of teams out”.