A full one-fourth of this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup field will battle for the championship for the first time.
Of the 16 drivers in contention, four have never chased a Cup title. Two of those, in fact, are chasing their first Cup race victory.
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Imagine the pressure each must feel. Of those four, one was locked into the field before last weekend's race at Richmond International Raceway. In that final regular-season race, Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott locked in on points. Chris Buescher locked into the top 30 in the standings in order to make the group after winning earlier this season. Kyle Larson, by virtue of his win at Michigan, was already in the group.
So now what? Each of these drivers has experience chasing titles as they came up through the ranks, but nothing compares to what they will face in this 10-race showdown.
NBC analyst Dale Jarrett says there is "a tremendous amount of pressure" on new Chase drivers, but those men should focus this weekend on "learning to control those emotions and everything."
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"They're all busy (Thursday) doing interviews, everything that goes along with it, so you get really ramped up up to that point," he said. "It may not be to that point every week, but you have to learn to keep things kind of in check and in perspective as you try to make it through this first round."
Elimination can come quickly. After three races, the first cuts are made; four drivers will be eliminated.
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Some drivers are shifting their mindset from making the Chase to contending in it. Now comes the transition to avoiding elimination once more.
"We have been so focused on getting into the Chase that now that we are here we haven't thought too much past that," rookie driver Buescher said Thursday.
They will walk a fine line. They will be trying to figure out how to manage the Chase while also adjusting to the pressure and the high profile. Obviously the goal is to keep advancing through the rounds and to be in contention at the end.
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After all, these are competitive drivers. They are among the best in the sport or they wouldn't be in their current positions.
"We have to have the mindset that we can go to Homestead and give ourselves the best chance we can to give ourselves a shot," Elliott said. "I think if you don't have that mindset, if you don't have it in your head that you're going to make it to Homestead, then you should have let the guy behind you in points in.
"So I think that's how you have to view it regardless of what anybody else thinks. That's just the way your team and your group internally has to think about it and go forward and try to execute on that."
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Execution will be key. Drivers will be trying to make the most of every opportunity, without pushing the envelope too far.
It will be a balancing act that some of these drivers have become accustomed to in recent weeks as they worked to make it into this field.
"That's our goal, is just to max out our position, where we should finish, try to gain a little bit more of that," Dillon said. "Aggressiveness, you have to be aggressive. I don't think you can't be and get away either way. But I think we're all kind of aggressive throughout a race anyways.
"I'm going to take what is given and hopefully take a little bit more when the time allows it."
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Larson also expects to show a little caution along the way.
He watched others in the Chase the past few seasons. He ran well in this segment of the season, especially in 2014 when he finished in the top 10 in six of the 10 Chase races, though he wasn't in title contention.
Still, Larson says he has seen a measure of caution from drivers in this opening round and plans to mimic that approach.
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"Yeah, the first round especially, you know, I feel like everybody races a little bit more cautiously," he said. "There's a lot more give-and-take. But once you get past that first round, I think everybody picks up their aggression, all that.
"I just remember from my first year just being like, 'Wow, that guy just let me go and I wasn't really close to him.' Yeah, I think just everybody races a little bit more cautious that first round."
In many ways, it seems like this will go quite quickly. Some only have three weeks to chase the dream as they race against the sport's elite.
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But the drivers in the Chase field, especially those facing it for the first time, are trying to slow that down a little, trying to pace their run.
With so much on the line, they don't want to get ahead of themselves and make the wrong move, one that will end the title bid all too soon.
"You kind of just have to take it a week at a time and see what time brings you," Elliott said. "I think for us, we just need to, like I said, not get ahead of ourselves. This is a long stretch of races. It's obviously a very important stretch of races. We just need to try to be ourselves, go and have that goal each week to try to go and win each weekend.
"I think if you come to the racetrack with that mindset and come and try to execute each weekend the best you can, minimize those mistakes, that's all we can do. We're going to try to do that to the best of our ability and hope for the best."