Rusty Jarrett / Getty Images file

On Sunday, Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 97 Ford for Roush Racing, has an excellent chance to pick up his second win of the year at New Hampshire International Speedway, says Benny Parsons of NBCSports.com.

NASCAR's new 10-race playoff, billed as the "Chase for the Championship," begins this Sunday with the Nextel Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway. Kurt Busch, one of 10 drivers in the Chase, won this season's first Cup race at NHIS in July, and I look for him to visit Victory Lane again this weekend, completing a 2004 sweep at the one-mile oval.

Working in Busch's favor
Busch will be driving a car very similar to the one he raced so well with and almost won with last Saturday night in Richmond.

Busch, who had clinched a spot in the Chase earlier in the race, was leading when he ran out of gas with seven laps remaining.

But even better for Busch is that this weekend he'll be back in the car that he won in at NHIS two months ago, when he started back in 32nd position, but led for 110 of the 300 laps.

In his last five NHIS races, Busch has not finished outside of the top 15, and he has placed in the top 10 in three of those events.

Busch, who begins the Chase 30 points behind leader Jeff Gordon, has done some of his best racing of the season of late.

In the last six races, he has come home 15th or better, and included in that stretch have been four top-10 results

Drivers to watch
Jimmie Johnson was very pleased with a recent test at NHIS, where he finished 11th in July.

Johnson started the Richmond race on top in the standings, but a wreck on the 179th lap sent him behind the wall, and cost him dearly.

He finished 36th and the poor result dropped him to second in points heading into the Chase.

The wreck that ruined the Richmond race for Johnson began with some serious banging  between Jimmy Spencer and Casey Mears, two drivers who weren't in the running for the Chase.

Afterwards, Johnson took exception to Spencer's driving, saying, "I'm more upset about that kind of stupidity continuing on the racetrack than I am about losing the points lead. It's the same people (Spencer) all the time. There's no excuse for it."

But NASCAR did not penalize Spencer, and the veteran will be one of those drivers realizing that with the Chase now on, the only way to get attention is to be running up front.

That's why I think the new format for crowning the Cup champion will produce some of the most exciting racing we've seen in years.

It'll be very interesting to see how this first race in the Chase plays out, as I think each driver in the 43-car field will be driving as hard as he ever has in his life.

Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup champion, replaced Johnson at the top of the standings, and I think Gordon is the driver to beat for the championship.

Gordon comes off a third-place result last week, and he was second to Busch in the July race at NHIS.

He has three career wins at NHIS, the last of which came in 1998.

And since 1998, Ryan Newman has the best average finish at NHIS (4.4) of any of the active Cup drivers.

Newman's in the Chase, starting out 45 points back of Gordon, and he won at this track two years ago.

Mark Martin's charge to the Chase has been very impressive over the last five weeks.

In that span, Martin has not finished below 13th, with four of those five results being top-fives.

I view Martin as a real threat to win his first Cup championship.

Also qualifying for the Chase were Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler and Jeremy Mayfield.

This oval is Rusty Wallace's kind of track, so it's no surprise he's got a win and two poles at NHIS.

I think that although neither made the Chase, Kasey Kahne and Jamie McMurray are running well enough that they could be top contenders in New Hampshire.

Two others I could see making strong bids for Victory Lane this weekend are Michael Waltrip, sixth in the July NHIS race, and Dale Jarrett, who won at the New England flat track in 2001.

My darkhorse picks are Joe Nemechek and Greg Biffle.

Keys to success at New Hampshire
This is a flat track and its long straightaways and tight turns make it similar, but bigger than Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

In the past, the cars would get such a grip at this track, the pavement actually tore up.

So they have resurfaced it more than once and they finally seemed to have found asphalt that has kept in place very well.

They also changed the track a little bit with the aim of making the groove a little wider and that seemed to have helped the racing.

There is a passing lane to the inside.

With drivers going hard on the brakes, there's also the possibility of a melted right front tire putting someone in the pits. 

This is a track that can be hard on engines, and there is a passing lane on the inside, but track position is important because of the difficulty in passing.