Chase battle continues at Kansas

Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup. Date: Sunday, mile oval. Start time: 2:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 267. Miles: 400.5. 2010 Winner: Greg Biffle. Television: ESPN. Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Satellite.

After a dramatic shift in points at Dover, the Sprint Cup Series moves through the heartland of America to Kansas Speedway for the fourth race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Kansas is the second of five 1.5-mile tracks on this year's playoff schedule.

Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards currently share the points lead, while the next seven drivers in the rankings are all within 19 points of the leaders.

Kurt Busch picked up a lot of momentum in the Chase by winning at Dover for the first time last Sunday. But Kansas might be more of a challenge for Busch, based on his past performances here.

"Tracks that we have notoriously struggled on, we've been doing really well," Busch said. "Tracks that we are expecting to do well on, we struggle. Kansas? I don't know. I usually struggle there, so that's the way we are going to look at it."

Busch and Tony Stewart are both nine points behind Harvick and Edwards.

When the series ran at Kansas four months ago, Busch scored his first top-10 finish here since '04, the same year he won the championship. In the June race, he started on the pole and led the most laps with 152 but was forced to pit for fuel while running in the top spot with nine laps remaining.

While Busch wound up finishing ninth, his Penske Racing teammate, Brad Keselowski, prevailed in a fuel battle. Keselowski took the lead when Busch pitted and then coasted his No.2 Dodge as much as he could during final nine laps for his first of three wins so far this season.

Keselowski is hoping to rebound in the Chase at Kansas following his 20th- place run at Dover, which dropped him to sixth in points (-14).

"I'm certainly looking forward to that one," he said about Sunday's race at Kansas. "I'm looking forward to all of them [remaining Chase races]. We've just got to keep digging."

Jeff Gordon has been impressive at Kansas since the series started competing here a decade ago. Gordon won the first two races at this track (2001 and '02) and has finished no worse than fifth in the last five Kansas races. He placed fourth here earlier this year.

"I feel like Kansas is where we really turned the corner with our 1.5-mile program this year," Gordon said. "We ran really strong, and I felt like we had a shot at winning that race."

Gordon sat 16th in points when he came to Kansas in June, but seven races later, he was up nine spots in the rankings and had gained 56 points on the leader.

With seven races to go, the four-time series champion is 19 points out of the lead.

Gordon, Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle are those drivers with multiple victories at Kansas. Stewart won here in 2006 and 09. Biffle took the checkered flag at this track in 2007 and '10.

Forty-six teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Hollywood Casino 400.

Austin Dillon, the current Camping World Truck Series points leader, will make his Sprint Cup debut at Kansas. Dillon will drive the No.98 entry for Curb- Agajanian Racing.