In a hole: Can JJ, Junior and Brad recover from Kansas disaster?
Most of the 2014 season we've seen develop the Team Penske versus Hendrick Motorsports battle. Now after one Chase Contender Round race which was won by a Team Penske driver, three of the four cars outside the top eight are Hendrick cars and the guy on the bubble is their other Hendrick teammate.
There is no question that the mentality of this Contender Round versus the previous Challenger Round has definitely changed. It's changed, I believe, for two reasons. The first is the box of eligible drivers went from 16 to only 12. That makes the competition for those eight third round slots even more potent.
The other issue is simply the third race in this second round. Naturally, I am talking about the restrictor-plate race at Talladega. That is a race where as a driver, crew chief or even a team, you realize you don't control a big portion of your destiny. You know you don't control the outcome of your day in most cases, simply because of how that big-pack racing works.
So knowing that, I think these 12 teams in this second round are ramping the pressure even higher because they know they needed to run well at Kansas and Charlotte. Granted there can only be two winners with guaranteed spots going into Talladega, which is a race where we always tell you that anything can and will happen.
But it really was interesting the change from Kansas in May to Kansas this past weekend. In the first race you had Hendrick Motorsports with three cars finishing in the top five, including, naturally, Jeff Gordon winning the race. Now this past weekend the highest finishing Hendrick car was 14th.
Team Penske driver Joey Logano won Kansas and has punched his ticket into the third round. Three of the other major players who we know have the potential to be in the final four at Homestead -- Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson -- had a best finish among them of 36th at Kansas.
Now those drivers are in a hole and more importantly, they know it. Now the good news for those drivers is we are at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This is a very good track for them. Trust me, they all know that the only way they are going to breath going into Talladega next weekend is to be the guy who drives into Victory Lane here Saturday night at Charlotte.
I think Brad Keselowski summed it up the best. He said, "We know we are in a hole, but we also know we can win our way out of this hole."
VIDEO: Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecks at Kansas Speedway
