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“This is my time to step up and be the leader at DEI,” he said. “I’m ready. I’m excited about the opportunity and ready to make the most of the Chase.”
Matt Kenseth, the last driver to win a championship under the pre-Chase system, starts eighth and is followed by Kyle Busch, a dark horse in the field. He’s got to be considered a contender because of his stout Hendrick equipment, but an impending move to Joe Gibbs Racing may handicap him.
But Busch is in it to win it, and hopes to use lessons learned from a rough start to last year’s Chase to start strong this time around.
“You’ve experienced it and you’ve been there before and it’s just frustrating because you start off so bad and you just keep going worse,” he said. “This year you can just do what you know how to do, do what we’ve done the past 10 races ... that we’ve been running strong.”
Jeff Burton is a title contender for the second straight year, and the 14-year veteran is looking for his first Cup title. He was so steady at the start last year, but faltered midway through and never recovered.
His teammates, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer, round out the top 12. Harvick hasn’t won a points race since the season-opening Daytona 500 and Bowyer is still searching for his first Nextel Cup victory.
The Richard Childress Racing crew slumped into the Chase, as Harvick and Bowyer were both in danger of losing their spot to Earnhardt in the final race.
But now that they are in, they plan to race for the title.
“Everybody’s back on the same turf now, so it will be fun,” Harvick said.
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