NO.88 CREW CHIEF GREG IVES FINED, OTHERS RECEIVE WARNINGS POST-KANSAS

NASCAR officials handed down a P2 penalty to the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team for not having lug nuts properly installed during Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

The infraction also brought a fine of $10,000 to Greg Ives, crew chief of the No. 88 Chevrolet. 

The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team received a written warning and a loss of 15 minutes practice time for failing pre-race LIS three times.

The cars of Carl Edwards, Kyle Larson andMartin Truex Jr. failed pre-race LIS twice and received written warnings.

The cars of Austin Dillon and Regan Smithfailed pre-race template inspection twice and received written warnings.

Cole Whitt's No. 55 Chevrolet failed pre-qualifying LIS twice and received a written warning.

The cars of Jamie McMurray and Martin Truex Jr. failed pre-qualifying template inspection twice and received written warnings.

Other warnings issued after last weekend's events at Kansas Speedway:

The XFINITY Series cars of Cole Custerand Brandon Brown failed pre-race LIS twice and received written warnings. 

Also, the cars of Brennan Poole andDerrike Cope failed pre-race template inspection three times and received written warnings.

XFINITY CONTENDERS TO APPLY ROUND OF 12 LESSONS AT KANSAS

RELATED: Chase Grid

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The first round of the first Chase for NASCAR's XFINITY Series trimmed the field of championship hopefuls from 12 to eight.

The three-race subset also served as a learning tool for those who advanced to the second round, which begins Saturday with the Kansas Lottery 300 (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) here atKansas Speedway.

"I learned that in the first race of the first round the intensity level was very high,"Daniel Suarez (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota) said Friday. "It was definitely more high than what I was expecting."

Elliott Sadler (JR Motorsports No. 1 Chevrolet) won the Chase opener held atKentucky Speedway. Suarez was a close second, won the following week at Dover and finished third last weekend at Charlotte, unofficially taking the mantle of Chase favorite with four races remaining.

"I thought everyone was going to go out there to try to be consistent and to try to make it for the next round and that wasn't the case," Suarez said. "Everyone was going for the win and everything got a little crazy in the first race in Kentucky.

"But, honestly I'm very proud of everyone …. We had three races with three top-three finishes which I think is something really good for the first round. We have to do exactly the same thing for the second round and after that try to put ourselves in a good position for Homestead and pull everything we have for that last race and the most important race of the year."

Sprint Cup Series regular Joey Loganowon the Charlotte event, the only race not won by an XFINITY Series regular in the Round of 12. 

Suarez, 24, said he expects the level of intensity seen in that opening race to return here this weekend as drivers and teams try to knock out an early win and qualify for the Round of 8.

"For some reason everyone – I thought everyone was going to be more relaxed in the first race but for some reason everyone was very, like I said, the intensity level was very high," he said. "And, then for the second race it was lower and everyone was more relaxed because everyone was a little bit too crazy in the first one. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same in this second round.

"I don't think that I was myself, I don't think I got super crazy in Kentucky and we ended up with a pretty good result. Actually I felt like we should've won that race, we just came up one lap short.

"I felt like everything that we learned the whole year we are trying to put that in the most important part of the year in the Chase in the first round and second round in order to get to the last race at Homestead and so far it's been working out. So, hopefully we can keep it up and move forward."

Justin Allgaier (JRM), Erik Jones (JGR),Brendan Gaughan (Richard Childress Racing), Ryan Reed (Roush Fenway Racing), Darrell Wallace Jr. (RFR) andBlake Koch (Kaulig Racing) complete the Round of 8 for the XFINITY Series Chase.

Suarez, Sadler and Jones are the only drivers in the postseason with victories this season.

Gaughan, who has 15 top 10s, including a season-best runner-up at Road America, said the first round taught his team that "organizationally, to make sure we are prepared. 

"Make sure … we have everything kind of set and ready.

"Another thing Shane (Wilson, crew chief) and I learned was (we) still are clowns that do it our way. It works for us. We don't scream and yell. … He doesn't get down on me when I hit a wall twice at Kentucky. And I don't bark at him when I think he makes the wrong call on pit road or we unload and it doesn't handle quite the way I want.

"We're going to do it the way we think it needs to be done, stay patient and stay on each other’s team. A lot of pressure comes on these guys … and a lot of people succumb to that pressure."

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers have won the last three XFINITY Series races at Kansas.

MATT KENSETH WINS KANSAS POLE;JGR SWEEPS FRONT ROW

RELATED: Starting lineup | See Sunday's full roster | Chase Grid

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- To learn how to master the track that continued to jinx him,Kyle Busch paid close attention to the wayMatt Kenseth drove Kansas Speedway.

Though Kenseth was helpful, he apparently kept a thousandth of a second in his pocket. That was the margin by which Kenseth edged Busch in Friday's NASCARSprint Cup Series knockout qualifying session at the 1.5-mile track.

Touring Kansas in 28.112 seconds (192.089 mph) to Busch's 28.113 seconds (192.082 mph), Kenseth earned the top starting spot for Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 (at 2:15 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the fifth race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and the second race in the Chase’s Round of 12.

"Smoked him!" chortled Kenseth, as Busch emerged from the radio room after an interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "Smoked him!"

The Coors Light Pole Award was Kenseth's first of the season, his third at Kansas and the 18th of his career. With Busch claiming the second spot on the grid and teammateCarl Edwards (191.015 mph) qualifying third, JGR cars will start 1-2-3 for the first time since August at Bristol.

"It's nice to get a pole," Kenseth said. "I feel like our qualifying hasn't been nearly as good this year as it has been in the rest of the years I've been at JGR. We barely got it -- it was by a thousandth, or something like that.

"Obviously, our Camrys have been fast … Round one we were pretty decent -- it was off a little bit -- and then round three it was just right. We almost got beat, but it was as good of a lap as we were going to run. They did a good job today."

Kenseth joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2013. Busch didn't get his first top five at Kansas until the spring race of 2015, which started a run of third, fifth and first in consecutive events at a track where his average finish is 19.2.

Busch's second-place qualifying run on Friday was his best so far at the 1.5-mile track, and he freely acknowledged learning from Kenseth.

"We've talked a little bit, and I've certainly used some of the things that we've talked about with all of my teammates in order to get better here," Busch told the NASCAR Wire Service. "Just looking and studying about technique and things that he does and being able to work on how Matt carries his car around the track and where he makes his speed and me trying to be able to do the same thing.

"A lot of it has just come through technique and just being able to mimic the things that he does, and we've gotten a lot better at that. Certainly, our balance could have been a tick better in order to give me a little more security and feeling in order to go out there and run two thousandths faster."

Chase driver Martin Truex Jr. made it a quartet of Toyotas on the front two rows with a fourth-place qualifying effort at 190.786 mph. Alex Bowman was the only non-Chase driver to crack the top five, turning in a lap at 190.315 mph.

Of the five drivers who finished 30th or worse last Sunday at Charlotte and put their advancement to the Chase's Round of 8 in jeopardy, Joey Logano had the best recovery, qualifying sixth.

"That's better than where we have been," Logano said. "We qualified 14th here the last two times we've come here. We made a serious effort at changing some things here with the way we qualified to start closer to the front which is important.

"That's kind of where we were. We were about a sixth-place car today, and we need to find a little more, but we made progress." 

Denny Hamlin, 30th at Charlotte and the eighth-place Chase driver entering Sunday's race, will start seventh. Kevin Harvick and Austin Dillon, both currently below the Round of 8 cutoff, qualified 11th and 12th, respectively.

Chase Elliott, victim of a late wreck and resulting 33rd-place finish last Sunday, failed to make the final round on Friday and will start 13th. Two other Chase drivers qualified outside the top 12: Kurt Busch(15th) and Charlotte winner Jimmie Johnson (19th).

"From Round 1 to Round 2, the car was much tighter," said Johnson, who was 10th in the first round. "We attempted to free it up, but I'm not sure some of those adjustments didn't change the ride height of the car and affected the splitter orientation with the ground. So, maybe we were on the splitter a little bit. 

"But a ton tighter than what we had in the opening round. But, other than that, our car was repeating very well earlier in the day so kind of leaning that way. I don't know if it is good or bad, but I'm not accustomed to qualifying well all the time. I'm used to racing through traffic. I'm not worried about this; we'll just get that Lowe's Chevy up there."

SUAREZ VISITS WHITE HOUSE FOR NATIONAL HISPANIC MONTH

Joe Gibbs Racing's Daniel Suarez has exciting things happening for him on and off the track with his XFINITY Series championship hopes still alive and a month-long National Hispanic Month celebration underway.

Tuesday, the Mexican-born wheelman visited the White House, representing NASCAR for National Hispanic Month. Take a peak inside his busy day in Washington, D.C.

Carl Edwards turns tour guide for grade-school class (and Kenny Wallace)

Long before becoming one of the top drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, in another life, Carl Edwards was a substitute teacher.
It's true.
So it should come as no surprise that when FOX Sports NASCAR television analyst flew with Edwards to Concord, North Carolina on Tuesday, Edwards was ready and willing to give a tour of his airplane to the group that was waiting for him on the tarmac.

And with that, Edwards proceeded to lead the tour of the plane himself -- to a grade-school class that probably reminded him of those long ago days, when he worked as a substitute teacher in Missouri by day and was attempting to get his racing career launched by night.
From the looks of it, Edwards does pretty well at both jobs. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota posed with the kids at the end of the tour, and obviously helped make their day.
(And Kenny Wallace's, too, of course).

We flew with Carl Edwards today to Concord North Carolina. When we landed a grade school class wanted a tour of his airplane. pic.twitter.com/viu293775N

— Kenny Wallace (@Kenny_Wallace) October 11, 2016

#CarlEdwards was greeted by a great crowd this morning. @joegibbsracing #Nascar @ARRIS @ToyotaRacing @NASCAR pic.twitter.com/7p3jQp6LtU

— 19 Carl Edwards Team (@19_JGRracing) October 11, 2016

NASCAR America:Denny Hamlin suffers more bad luck with first engine failure in years

Denny Hamlin‘s engine failure at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday gives drivers a chance to surpass him in the Sprint Cup standings. Five Chase drivers finished 30th or worse in the race. Hamlin’s engine failure was his first since 2013 at Talladega.

BUSCH,EDWARDS SEEK CHARLOTTE WIN AHEAD OF LOOMING 'DEGA

MORE: Live radar | Friday on-track action canceled due to weather

CONCORD, N.C. -- Kyle Busch has celebrated in Victory Lane at 21 different race tracks in the Sprint Cup Series, from superspeedways to short tracks to road courses.

But in his 13-year Sprint Cup Series career, two tracks have eluded the No. 18 driver: Pocono Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, site of Saturday's Bank of America 500 (7 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

"It would certainly mean a lot," Busch said on reaching Charlotte's Victory Lane on Thursday at the 1.5-mile speedway. "We've been trying here for a long, long time and we've been close a few times and it just hasn't all quite worked out the way we would have wanted it to I guess at the end of some of the races. So certainly we feel as though there's no better opportunity to win a Charlotte race than in the Chase."

A win at Charlotte would do more than check a box off Busch's lengthy list of racing accomplishments: It would punch his ticket to the Round of 8 drivers in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

With wildcard Talladega looming at the end of the three-race round, that security is especially coveted.

"Somebody's going to leave here really happy and I hope it's me," Carl Edwards said Friday at Charlotte. "This round I believe is probably the toughest one just with Talladega out there and these mile-and-a-halves. It's so competitive right now. We saw it with the first round. You'd think that making the 12-out-of-16 would be easy. It's actually -- it was a pretty good battle there, so we hope to get a victory here."

One of the biggest competitors for the Joe Gibbs Racing duo? The JGR-affiliated car of Martin Truex Jr., who has won three of the last five Sprint Cup races. His three recent trips to Victory Lane equal the four-car JGR's total Sprint Cup wins in the last 10 races.

For Edwards, the No. 78 success foreshadows Joe Gibbs Racing's performances to come in the Chase.

"If we didn't know what engines and chassis and setups those guys had, it'd be really easy to say they've got something (that) they've got something special that we don't have," Edwards said.

"But knowing what they have and knowing what they're able to do with it, that's a motivator and I've been telling people this week I really believe you're going to see … the four JGR cars really step it up because Martin (Truex Jr.) is … that rabbit out there that we're all chasing and we know it can be done and I think in the end that's a gift to have somebody in your camp or close to you that can do that."

The four Joe Gibbs Racing cars also have access to the No. 78 team's notes from their dominant Coca-Cola 600 win, something Busch believes is an advantage with limited practice time due to inclement weather.

"They were really, really good," Busch said on the No. 78's winning Coca-Cola 600 run. "So we feel like we've got a good baseline to base ourselves off of."

"If we could get Cole (Pearn, crew chief for Truex Jr.) to tell us everything, that would help," Edwards said with a smile. "But I mean seriously those guys are so good that it gives us a lot of optimism, because there's no -- everybody's looking up, looking forward."

WATCH: LIVE POST-RACE INSPECTION ON TUESDAY

NASCAR.com will live stream post-race inspection Tuesday from 8-11:30 a.m. ET at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina.

Tune in for a three-hour view of the inspection floor of the 61,000-square-foot shop, bringing you behind the scenes as NASCAR officials tear down and inspect Sprint Cup Series vehicles following Sunday's Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway.

The cars selected for further evaluation at the R&D Center this week are:

-- The No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota of race winner Martin Truex Jr.
-- The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of second-place finisher Kyle Busch.
-- The No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick.
-- The No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet of Tony Stewart
-- The No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Austin Dillon.

For more details about the inspection process, click here.

BUSCH FAMILY, NO. 18 TEAM VISIT THE WHITE HOUSE

As part of his Sprint Cup championship duties, Kyle Busch had one more thing left on his to-do list: visit the White House. So that's exactly what he did on Wednesday with the entire No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team and wife, Samantha.

And no, Brexton wasn't in attendance, but President Obama gave him a nice, little shout-out.

Follow along on the crew's trip to Washington, D.C.

CHASE BUBBLE WATCH: ANALYZING THE PLAYOFF PICTURE AHEAD OF DOVER

Two races into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and several drivers are in jeopardy of not advancing past the Round of 16, which ends next Sunday at Dover International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Let's find out which drivers are resting comfortably following Sunday's Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Who's hot: Kevin Harvick. Harvick came into Loudon one point shy of advancement after a dismal showing (20th) in the Chase opener in Chicago. The 2014 champion and the man nicknamed "The Closer" came on strong on the final restart to take the lead on Lap 295 and nab a win and a locked-in spot in the Round of 12. The victory, in which he only led eight laps, has to erase a little bit of the bitter taste from last fall's race at New Hampshire, where Harvick led 216 laps but ran out of fuel with two to go.

Matt Kenseth. Kenseth came into this race with two straight wins at the "Magic Mile" and looked to be closing in on his third-straight win before Harvick surged on a late restart. The 2003 champion led 105 laps en route to a runner-up finish and moved up to fourth in the standings, 25 points to the good of transferring into the next round.

Kyle Larson. A top-10 finish at Loudon moved Larson from 15th in the standings (two points back of the last transfer spot) to 12th and five points to the good. It was an up-and-down weekend for the third-year driver, who didn't show the same speed in the race he had shown in practice. Still, he is on the right side of the bubble heading to Dover, where the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates driver has an average finish of 6.2 and led 85 laps in the spring en route to a runner-up finish.

Who's not: Tony Stewart: The three-time champion was stuck a lap down for much of the second half of the race and finished 23rd, the second-lowest finish among the Chase field. The result had to be disappointing for "Smoke" after a runner-up showing at New Hampshire in July. Following a summer surge thanks to his Sonoma win, Stewart has not notched a top-10 finish in six races and is on the wrong side of the Chase cut line heading to Dover.

Austin Dillon. The weekend started rough when a wreck in the latter stages of the opening practice forced the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 team to pull out a backup car. Dillon's 16th-place finish was aided by a few late cautions to get him back on the lead lap, but he is still five points behind the cutoff line. On top of that, his overall numbers at Dover (see below) have the Chase rookie in a very tough spot to advance.

Four in, four out: Here's a look at the Chase bubble, with four drivers being eliminated after the third race of this round, at Dover International Speedway.
CHASE BUBBLE WATCH
STANDING DRIVER POINT DIFFERENTIAL FROM CUTOFF
9. Chase Elliott +16
10. Carl Edwards +16
11. Kurt Busch +15
12. Kyle Larson +5
------------ CUT-OFF LINE ------------
13. Jamie McMurray -5
14. Austin Dillon -5
15. Tony Stewart -11
16. Chris Buescher -30

Up next: Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway, Sunday Oct. 2, 2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Who it favors
Most wins: 10 (Jimmie Johnson, most all-time)
Best driver rating: 118.1 (Jimmie Johnson-29 races), 108.5 (Matt Kenseth-35 races)
Best average finish: 3.0 (Chase Elliott-one race), 6.2 (Kyle Larson-five races), 9.6 (Jimmie Johnson-29 races)

Who it hurts
Fewest top 10s: 0 (Austin Dillon-six races, Chris Buescher-one race)
Worst driver rating: 48.8 (Chris Buescher-one race), 66.2 (Austin Dillon-six races), 70.6 (Tony Stewart-34 races)
Worst average finish: 26.7 (Austin Dillon-six races), 18.6 (Denny Hamlin-21 races), 18.2 (Kurt Busch-32 races)

After win eludes Kyle Busch at Loudon, he's taking nothing for granted

After the second race in the opening round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Kyle Busch is third in the points standings and in position to advance to the Round of 12 to continue his title defense.

Kyle Busch seemed like he was right where he wanted to be as the laps wound down in last Sunday's Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

He had worked his way up to third and was on fresher tires than the two cars in front of him --€“ Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth. He was turning the faster laps and appeared to be running them down.

Then a couple things happened to prevent Busch from winning the race.
He ran out of time and the harder and longer he ran on his tires, the less fresh they became and the more his lap times started equaling out to the times being posted by the leaders. Busch ended up finishing third behind Harvick and Kenseth, who came home 1-2.

Busch also lamented the lack of lapped traffic the top three cars encountered over the closing laps. That could have slowed down the leaders and enabled him to catch them for a late run at the lead.

"It's always tough here to pass and it's always tough with the more laps you get on your tires compared to everybody else," Busch said after the race at New Hampshire. "They start to equal out and then you get into that aero disadvantage a little bit and probably with not ever getting into traffic, there was never going to be a chance for us to kind of mix it up with lapped cars."

Busch admitted that his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Toyota was not quite as fast as the other two cars with all things being equal. He just hoped his fresher tires and some lapped traffic would provide enough of a difference to tilt the circumstances in his favor at the end.

It just didn't quite play out that way.

"It was just going to be car-on-car, driver-on-driver and we just didn't get to see it," Busch said. "I felt like we could have stacked up against them having the tire advantage. We wouldn't have won if it was just heads up."

They didn't win, of course, but the third-place finish gives Busch a comfortable 33-point cushion heading into the final first-round Chase race. After this Sunday's race at Dover International Speedway, the current 16-driver Chase field will be trimmed to 12.

Despite the seemingly insurmountable advantage, the defending Sprint Cup champion insisted he isn't taking advancement into the next round of the Chase playoffs for granted.

"We've seen anything happen in this business, so I don't like it very much at all -- but it's certainly better than having a one-point cushion," Busch said. "There are pluses and minuses in this business, but anything can happen.

"We saw it with the 48 (car of Jimmie Johnson) last year --€“ they had issues at Dover. We've had issues before and we've been able to make our way through or we've been knocked out like in years prior. You just have to go and fight it out and try to keep track of that big picture and do what you need to do to move on."

CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP CLINCHING SCENARIOS FOR ROUND OF 12 SPOTS

The Citizen Soldier 400 (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Dover International Speedway marks the first elimination of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup as the field shrinks from 16 drivers to 12. How can drivers advance to the Round of 12? Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick are already locked into the next round with victories at Chicagoland and New Hampshire, respectively. Here's a look at how drivers can clinch spots in the next round.

Possible to Clinch:
—Brad Keselowski (0 Wins, 2087 Points) - Would clinch on points with 12 Points (29th and no laps led, 30th and led at least one lap, 31st and led most laps) and a new winner.  If there is a repeat winner, he would clinch on points with 7 Points (34th and no laps led, 35th and led at least one lap, 36th and led most laps).  With a win, he would clinch a next round spot on wins.

—Kyle Busch (0 Wins, 2085 Points) - Would clinch on points with 14 Points (27th and no laps led, 28th and led at least one lap, 29th and led most laps) and a new winner.  If there is a repeat winner, he would clinch on points with 9 Points (32nd and no laps led, 33rd and led at least one lap, 34th and led most laps).  With a win, he would clinch a next round spot on wins.

—Matt Kenseth (0 Wins, 2078 Points) - Would clinch on points with 20 Points (21st and no laps led, 22nd and led at least one lap, 23rd and led most laps) and a new winner.  If there is a repeat winner, he would clinch on points with 15 Points (26th and no laps led, 27th and led at least one lap, 28th and led most laps).  With a win, he would clinch a next round spot on wins.

—Joey Logano (0 Wins, 2073 Points) - Would clinch on points with 26 Points (15th and no laps led, 16th and led at least one lap, 17th and led most laps) and a new winner.  If there is a repeat winner, he would clinch on points with 21 Points (20th and no laps led, 21st and led at least one lap, 22nd and led most laps).  With a win, he would clinch a next round spot on wins.

—Denny Hamlin (0 Wins, 2071 Points) - Would clinch on points with 28 Points (13th and no laps led, 14th and led at least one lap, 15th and led most laps) and a new winner.  If there is a repeat winner, he would clinch on points with 23 Points (18th and no laps led, 19th and led at least one lap, 20th and led most laps).  With a win, he would clinch a next round spot on wins.

—Jimmie Johnson (0 Wins, 2070 Points) - Would clinch on points with 29 Points (12th and no laps led, 13th and led at least one lap, 14th and led most laps) and a new winner.  If there is a repeat winner, he would clinch on points with 24 Points (17th and no laps led, 18th and led at least one lap, 19th and led most laps).  With a win, he would clinch a next round spot on wins.

—Chase Elliott (0 Wins, 2068 Points) - Would clinch on points with 31 Points (10th and no laps led, 11th and led at least one lap, 12th and led most laps) and a new winner.  If there is a repeat winner, he would clinch on points with 26 Points (15th and no laps led, 16th and led at least one lap, 17th and led most laps).  With a win, he would clinch a next round spot on wins.

—Carl Edwards (0 Wins, 2068 Points) - Would clinch on points with 31 Points (10th and no laps led, 11th and led at least one lap, 12th and led most laps) and a new winner.  If there is a repeat winner, he would clinch on points with 26 Points (15th and no laps led, 16th and led at least one lap, 17th and led most laps).  With a win, he would clinch a next round spot on wins.

—Kurt Busch (0 Wins, 2067 Points) - Would clinch on points with 32 Points (9th and no laps led, 10th and led at least one lap, 11th and led most laps) and a new winner.  If there is a repeat winner, he would clinch on points with 27 Points (14th and no laps led, 15th and led at least one lap, 16th and led most laps).  With a win, he would clinch a next round spot on wins.

—Kyle Larson (0 Wins, 2057 Points) - If there is a repeat winner, he would clinch on points with 37 Points (4th and no laps led, 5th and led at least one lap, 6th and led most laps).  With a win, he would clinch a next round spot on wins.  Could clinch on points with a new winner and help.

For the following, the only guaranteed clinch would be with a win. Each could clinch without a win, but would need varying levels of help, however:

—Jamie McMurray (0 Wins, 2052 Points)

—Austin Dillon (0 Wins, 2052 Points)

—Tony Stewart (0 Wins, 2046 Points)

—Chris Buescher (0 Wins, 2027 Points)

EDWARDS RALLIES TO SIXTH-PLACE FINISH AT LOUDON AFTER PENALTY

LOUDON, N.H. – Coors Light Pole Award winner Carl Edwards hovered in and around the top five for nearly all of Sunday's Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway but nearly had his afternoon derailed due to a costly penalty with less than 40 laps remaining.

During the fourth caution of the day, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver came to pit road and incurred a commitment line violation, sinking his running position all the way back to 19th on the ensuing restart on Lap 268.

For a minute there, it certainly appeared Edwards would be fighting for Chase for the Sprint Cup survival next week at Dover International Speedway in the final race of the Round of 16. But Edwards rallied hard over the final 30-plus laps to salvage a sixth-place finish and now holds a 16-point cushion over the cutoff line.

He'll need to avoid similar gaffes moving forward -- though he doesn't necessarily agree he even made a gaffe -- and realizes he may have gotten away with one here.

"I gotta see the replay, but I was pretty sure I made it onto pit road. I felt pretty comfortable," Edwards said on pit road after the race. "I don't know about that (penalty), but we still recovered well. I think we could've been top three or four because we got off sequence, but as it turned out to finish sixth with that penalty is pretty much a gift. My guys didn't quit, I'm proud of them.

"Now we head to Dover with a little bit of a point cushion, and Dover is one of my favorite race tracks, one of my best tracks and this team should have won this race in the spring so hopefully we can go there and lock ourselves into the next round. … Anything can happen, but there's no better race for us to be a cutoff race."

Following the race, Edwards' crew chief Dave Rogers had a discussion with NASCAR officials to get clarity on the penalty.

"Yeah, NASCAR showed me the notes, and the notes that they had were all four tires below the orange box and our right-rear (tire) touched it," Rogers told NASCAR.com. "So it's one of those deals where we knew it was close, and we didn't intentionally drive over the box, first of all. It was a last-minute call to pit. We thought the rule was all four on or below and it wasn't. The rule's all four under, so hence the penalty."

Edwards' teammate Denny Hamlin also was victim to a pit road penalty on the same stop, as an errant tire got away from his No. 11 Toyota crew. Hamlin, however, was not as fortunate as Edwards and finished 15th. The 2016 Daytona 500 winner declined post-race interviews and sits seventh on the Chase Grid, still higher than Edwards despite the worse finish.

"Unfortunately, we had a pit road penalty; two stops in the end that got us really far behind and just got kind of shuffled out of the mix on a couple restarts and finished about five to 10 spots worse than we should have, but still alive," said Hamlin's crew chief Mike Wheeler. "Hit the restart button and try again. Dover is a decent track for Denny. He hasn't had a win there yet, but has had some good runs and hopefully we can have another good run there."

CHASE BUBBLE WATCH: HARVICK, STEWART HEAD IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS

Two races into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and several drivers are in jeopardy of not advancing past the Round of 16, which ends next Sunday at Dover International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Let's find out which drivers are resting comfortably following Sunday's Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Who's hot: Kevin Harvick. Harvick came into Loudon one point shy of advancement after a dismal showing (20th) in the Chase opener in Chicago. The 2014 champion and the man nicknamed "The Closer" came on strong on the final restart to take the lead on Lap 295 and nab a win and a locked-in spot in the Round of 12. The victory, in which he only led eight laps, has to erase a little bit of the bitter taste from last fall's race at New Hampshire, where Harvick led 216 laps but ran out of fuel with two to go.

Matt Kenseth. Kenseth came into this race with two straight wins at the "Magic Mile" and looked to be closing in on his third-straight win before Harvick surged on a late restart. The 2003 champion led 105 laps en route to a runner-up finish and moved up to fourth in the standings, 25 points to the good of transferring into the next round. Adding to his good karma: Kenseth is the most recent winner at Dover, the series' next stop before four drivers are eliminated from the Chase.

Who's not: Tony Stewart: The three-time champion was stuck a lap down for much of the second half of the race and finished 23rd, the second-lowest finish among the Chase field. The result had to be disappointing for "Smoke" after a runner-up showing at New Hampshire in July. Following a summer surge thanks to his Sonoma win, Stewart has not notched a top-10 finish in six races and is on the wrong side of the Chase cut line heading to Dover.

Austin Dillon. The weekend started rough when a wreck in the latter stages of the opening practice forced the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 team to pull out a backup car. Dillon's 16th-place finish was aided by a few late cautions to get him back on the lead lap, but he is still five points behind the cutoff line. On top of that, his overall numbers at Dover (see below) have the Chase rookie in a very tough spot to advance.

Four in, four out: Here's a look at the Chase bubble, with four drivers being eliminated after the third race of this round, at Dover International Speedway.
CHASE BUBBLE WATCH
STANDINGDRIVERPOINT DIFFERENTIAL FROM CUTOFF
9.Chase Elliott+16
10.Carl Edwards+16
11.Kurt Busch+15
12.Kyle Larson+5
------------CUT-OFF LINE------------
13.Jamie McMurray-5
14.Austin Dillon-5
15.Tony Stewart-11
16.Chris Buescher-30

Up next: Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway, Sunday Oct. 2, 2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Who it favors
Most wins: 10 (Jimmie Johnson, most all-time)
Best driver rating: 118.1 (Jimmie Johnson-29 races), 108.5 (Matt Kenseth-35 races)
Best average finish: 3.0 (Chase Elliott-one race), 6.2 (Kyle Larson-five races), 9.6 (Jimmie Johnson-29 races)

Who it hurts
Fewest top 10s: 0 (Austin Dillon-six races, Chris Buescher-one race)
Worst driver rating: 48.8 (Chris Buescher-one race), 66.2 (Austin Dillon-six races), 70.6 (Tony Stewart-34 races)
Worst average finish: 26.7 (Austin Dillon-six races), 18.6 (Denny Hamlin-21 races), 18.2 (Kurt Busch-32 races)