NASCAR Cup Series

Chase Eliminator Round 101: Everything you need to know

Published Oct. 21, 2014 10:02 a.m. ET

Tom Jensen

With Brad Keselowski's dramatic victory in Sunday's Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in the books, the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup moves to the Eliminator Round, which begins Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

Here's the skinny on the semifinal playoff round:

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Eliminator Round consists of races at three tracks: Martinsville, Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway. Each track is very different from the others: Martinsville is the shortest circuit in NASCAR at 0.526 miles; Texas is a very fast 1.5-mile quad-oval; and Phoenix is a 1-mile oval with a dogleg on the backstretch.

Eight drivers will compete in the Eliminator Round: Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski. Each of the eight drivers will start the Eliminator Round with 4,000 points.

Four of the eight drivers in the Eliminator Round will advance to the one-race Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway. If one or more of the eight drivers wins a race in the Eliminator Round, he automatically advances to the Championship Round. The remaining slots will be filled by points.

THREE THINGS YOU'LL WANT TO KNOW

This will be the second visit by the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to the Eliminator Round tracks this year. The first time around, Harvick won at Phoenix and Logano won at Texas. If the Eliminator Round had been conducted in the spring races, Harvick and Logano would have advanced to the Championship Round on the basis of winning races; Gordon and Kenseth would have advanced on the basis of points.

The four Chase drivers who had the most points at Martinsville, Phoenix and Texas in the spring were: Logano, 130; Gordon, 112; Kenseth, 108; and Edwards, 98.

The four Chase drivers who had the fewest points in those races: Keselowski, 78; Hamlin, 82; Harvick, 89; and Newman, 90.

THREE THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW

NASCAR's regular season is 26 races long. Seven of the top nine drivers in points after the regular season ended last month at Richmond International Raceway have gone on to make it to the semifinal Eliminator Round of the Chase. The only driver not in the top nine in points after Richmond who's still alive in the Chase is Hamlin, who was 19th in points following that race.

The only two drivers who were in the top nine in points after Richmond but failed to make the Eliminator Round are Hendrick Motorsports teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. (second after Richmond) and Jimmie Johnson (fifth).

Logano has the best average finish in the Chase -- 4.167 -- after six races. He finished 11th at Talladega and in the first five Chase races, he won twice and finished fourth three times.

VIDEO: Winner's Weekend - Keselowski advances at Talladega