MADISON, Ill. (AP) — After getting spun out by Carson Hocevar in the Southern 500, Brad Keselowski issued a warning: "His day's coming, and it's coming hard. Watch out, Carson."
Promotional posters are billing Sunday's race at World Wide Technology Raceway as Round 2 in a "A Rivalry Worth Watching: Hurricane Hocevar vs. Bad Brad Keselowski."
While the dispute is between only those two, it's caught the attention of the 16 drivers competing in NASCAR's new postseason Chase for the championship who could get caught up in a wreck as collateral damage.
"When two guys have gone at it the weekend before, you're definitely aware of it, especially if they're right in front of you running nose to tail," said Ryan Blaney, who is third in the Chase standings. "You're going to pay a little bit more of attention of when they get next to each other."
Or, as Joey Logano said: "You've been living under a rock if you don't know who they are."
Keselowski didn't exactly back off of his threat for retribution, saying Saturday that he'll "figure it out in the moment." Keselowski is out of the running in the Chase, so there's more at stake for Hocevar, who ranks 12th.
"Obviously my car's not in the playoffs or Chase, but we still have lots to race for and commitments and things we want to do, and a lot of people that work really hard on the car," Keselowski said. "I have to balance that with the fact that different things happened last weekend, and that’s always a challenge.
"It's my challenge this weekend is to balance out maximizing the performance I can this weekend while also not letting a fire spread."
But Keselowski's efforts to prevent further damage to his team's cars could ignite problems for someone else's championship hopes.
"Obviously, if Brad's around him, I would keep my eyes peeled a little bit more," said Kyle Larson, who's in seventh place in the Chase. "But more just like when you’re behind it, you’re hoping something cool happens ... and you don’t get caught up in it. But yeah, it'd be funny."
Chase format keeps pressure on
Perhaps no one feels the difference of the Chase more than Chase Briscoe.
Under last year's playoff format, Briscoe's win at Darlington clinched him a spot in the next round and made the trip to Gateway essentially a bye week because there was no requirement to keep racking up championship points.
“If I didn’t win this weekend, it didn’t mean anything,” said Briscoe, who is fifth in the Chase. “So it’s way more stress now, I think, just knowing that you can’t have a bad week. The elimination can happen at any point because you can just mathematically be out of it.”
Blaney said under the old playoff format, “the mindset was just don’t mess this up and go have a decent three races and get into the next round.”
“Now you can’t do that. You can’t ease your way into the Chase,” he said. “You have to stay in touch with the top guys for 10 weeks.”
That's a change of pace from the old playoff format, which eliminated drivers from championship contention every few races.
“Every week, I’m treating it like it’s the last race,” said Denny Hamlin, the current Chase leader. “So I mean, I think it’s more 10 weeks of the anxiety versus the only three times, and then you got your finale. So I think that the intensity and the anxiety for 16 guys is here every week through this format.”
Hamlin's hopes
After having his 25-point Chase lead cut to 12 last week, Hamlin heads to a track where's he is the defending champion and finished runner-up the previous two years. Still, he was reserved in his level of confidence at the 1 1/4-mile oval in suburban St. Louis that’s known for vastly different turns at the two ends of the track.
“We had race-winning pace when it mattered, but I don’t think we’ve been as good as the results have shown,” Hamlin said. “So there was a lot to dig into this week and try to get better at.”
