Penske's Keselowski will try to hold Chase spot in Michigan, his home state

Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford

Brad Keselowski enters this weekend’s race at his home track inside the top-10 cutoff point for the Chase for the Sprint Cup thanks to a solid, second-place finish at Watkins Glen International last Sunday.

Brad Keselowski, Penske Racing Ford

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

HOW HIGH IS YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL GOING TO YOUR HOME TRACK AT MICHIGAN? “I’m optimistic that we can put together a good, solid afternoon on Sunday. Michigan, no doubt, has been one of my weaker tracks, especially since the repave. Repaved tracks, for whatever reason, have not been our strong suit.

Unfortunately, there have been a lot of repaves lately! We did get a top-five finish there last year so I know we can do it. But we’re confident that we can at least get a solid finish like we did in the spring there. So I really see no reason why we can’t maintain our position in the points, if not improve it before the Chase starts.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU TO GET A WIN BEFORE THE CHASE STARTS? “I would rather have a win or two and be a wild card than finish seventh or eighth and squeak my way in without any wins because the momentum of a win and the confidence it instills in yourself and the fear that it puts in your competition is more than worth it.

I feel really good about the tracks coming up prior to the Chase. Two of them we will have tested on recently and Atlanta has always been good to the Miller Lite team. I think we can definitely be in contention for a couple of wins before the checkered flag at Richmond.”

Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford

With just four races remaining before the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase for the Championship, Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil team are trying to claw their way back into the top-10 position needed to qualify for NASCAR’s “playoffs.”

Joey Logano, Penske Racing Ford

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

Logano has been a picture of streaks this season.

Following a streak of top-10 finishes earlier in the year, Logano has rolled off three more top 10s in his last three races. His 11 top 10s this season are tied for the fifth most of all drivers in 2013.

DO YOU FEEL ANY EXTRA PRESSURE WITH JUST FOUR RACES LEFT BEFORE THE CHASE? “You always feel a little pressure. The time to try and make something happen is getting smaller and smaller. But we are not going to go out there and do something totally different than we have been doing up to this point.

We’ve been strong all year long. We’re running up front. We just need to put a good finish on some of these strong runs. I think we have a couple of good opportunities to win a race or two in the next four races. There are a couple of tracks that I feel I’m really good at, including Michigan. So we will just go out there and do our thing.”

YOU HAVE 11 TOP-10 FINISHES IN 2013. DO YOU CONSIDER THE SEASON A SUCCESS SO FAR? “We are still really focused on making the Chase at this point. We aren’t looking at anything as if we aren’t going to make it. But we have been running really well. We’ve been in the top 10 a lot this year.

I just want to get a few more top fives and then focus on the wins. But we’ve had a lot of missed opportunities this year. If you look at some of the guys ahead of us in points, I think we’ve run better as a whole all year long than a lot of them. We’ve just had some bad luck and some mistakes. But there is still time and that’s what we are focused on.”

Penske Racing