There's no doubt Team Penske has contenders to win the Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship this year â the first two races of the Chase have guaranteed that.
But contenders for the championship and championship winners are two different things and Team Penske knows a lot can still happen with eight Chase races remaining before a champ is crowned.
Both Joey Logano, who won Sunday's race at Loudon, and Brad Keselowski participated in testing at Texas Motor Speedway Monday and Tuesday. Each already has a Chase win, which guarantees this a spot in the Contender round of the Chase after the field is trimmed from 16 to 12 following Sunday's AAA 400 at Dover.
The momentum Team Penske has is good but there's still plenty of work to be done before the playoffs end at Homestead. But no team has more momentum than Team Penske, which has found its way to Victory Lane following four of the last five Sprint Cup races.
"The fact that we're in the next round doesn't make us just say 'We're taking an off weekend this week and focusing on the next one,'" Logano said. "We need to keep that momentum going. We want to go out there and win races. We want to keep this wave rolling as long as we can. So that means we just keep doing what we've been doing all year, focus on one track at a time, get prepared for it and execute the plan when we get there."
While neither Logano nor Keselowski can take off Sunday's race in Dover, they have each put themselves in a position to set themselves up for the next three races. They are the only two drivers who have already clinched spots in the next round.
But there are plenty of obstacles remaining before Team Penske can win a title. That includes the wild-card Talladega in the contender round as well as the AAA Texas 500 at TMS in the eliminator round.
"Both Team Penske cars are running really fast right now and we just got to keep going and pushing hard throughout the rest of this Chase," Logano said. "It's a long eight weeks left and a lot of things could happen."
While the Team Penske drivers are set for the next round, that's not the case for the Roush Fenway stable. That team was also testing at TMS but their fortunes for the next round of the Chase are far from decided. Carl Edwards is in ninth place heading to Dover and Greg Biffle isn't in a transfer spot now as he's 14th in points.
Like the Penske drivers, the Roush Fenway drivers will be going for broke at Dover but for different reasons. Their Chase lives depend on it.
"This race is going to be insane, I mean Loudon, you saw how pressure-packed it was and how many folks were pushing it and making mistakes," Edwards said. "At Dover, I mean you add about 30 to 40 miles-an-hour, a bunch of banking and double the pressure, it's going to crazy. So we have discussed it, we know what we have to do. We just have to go there and get every spot that we can."
