NASCAR Cup Series

Three things you need to know about the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas

Published Oct. 3, 2014 2:10 p.m. ET

Tom Jensen

Welcome to the Hollywood Casino 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race from Kansas Speedway.

Here are three things you need to know about this race:

-- Sunday's race opens what NASCAR calls the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The Contender Round consists of three races: Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega. All 12 drivers still in championship contention begin this round tied with 3,000 points each.

After the Contender Round is complete, the eight eligible drivers who have either won a race in this round or amassed the most points will advance to the Eliminator Round, while four drivers will be eliminated from championship contention.

-- At the three Contender Round tracks, Jimmie Johnson has won 11 races and has a series-best average finish of 12.56 in his career. Johnson's average finish at Kansas is 7.625 and he's led 586 laps here, both best among any of the drivers in the field. Jeff Gordon leads the way with 14 race victories at Contender Round tracks, including the spring race earlier this year at Kansas.

Among the Chase drivers, Kyle Busch has the worst average finish here at 22.714. Kansas is the only Sprint Cup track where Busch has never finished in the top five. In terms of the Contender Round, Ryan Newman has the worst average finish at the next three tracks, with Busch second-worst.

-- Kevin Harvick is the defending race winner at Kansas, having won here last fall, and has won the pole at the last two Sprint Cup races here. Harvick has led the most laps in the series this season, and in the first three races in the Chase, Harvick has led 41.8 percent of the laps run.

VIDEO: A look back at Jeff Gordon's win at Kansas Speedway in May