At Chase midpoint, five reasons you need to watch

• Brad Keselowski leads Jimmie Johnson by seven points and Denny Hamlin by 15
• Carl Edwards says the pressure facing the Chase contenders is intense
• Crew chiefs, caution flags, non-Chasers and other factors likely to emerge in the final five races

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Carl Edwards compares the pressure of NASCAR's 10-race championship run to a familiar sporting challenge.

"Everyone has gone up to the free-throw line and said, 'I want to see how many I can make out of 10,'" says the driver whose Sprint Cup title duel last year against Tony Stewart went down to the season's final lap.

Each basket brings the shooter closer to perfection but adds pressure. Success comes down to one's focus.

"You've got to keep performing and not let the pressure change the way you perform," Edwards says. "That's how it feels in this Chase."

Halfway through this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup, the contenders trying to come closest to going 10-for-10 have emerged:

Points leader Brad Keselowski, 28, looks to become the youngest champion since Kurt Busch in 2004.

Jimmie Johnson seeks a sixth title that would leave him one behind the record shared by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

Denny Hamlin chases redemption after fumbling the 2010 championship to Johnson in the finale.

Clint Bowyer hopes last weekend's victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway launches him on a run that mirrors Stewart's dramatic comeback last year.

Whoever NASCAR's next champion is, they will have to handle the increasing pressure in the final five races, beginning with Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (2 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Johnson, who has been in every Chase since its debut in 2004, says that "what kind of helped me keep my sanity was taking it one race at a time."

Edwards won't share in the anxiety of the title race, as he did last year when he lost to Stewart on a tiebreaker. Edwards failed to qualify for the 12-driver Chase field.

Edwards calls last year's runner-up run (that included an average finish of 4.9) "an epic performance — the best 10 races we've ever put together.

"If Denny Hamlin can do that for 10 races, he'll be the champion. If Brad can do it for 10, he'll be the champion. If Jimmie can do it for 10, he'll be the champion. It's going to be fun to watch."

So, with that backdrop, USA TODAY Sports presents five things you need to know about the Chase with five to go:

Brad Keselowski, auto-racing's Peyton Manning?

Always inquisitive, Keselowski could be headed toward his first Sprint Cup championship with the help of a childhood lesson sprinkled throughout early-morning television.

"Maybe I watched too many Saturday morning cartoons," the information-aholic from Rochester Hills, Mich., said. "But I subscribe to the belief that knowledge is power."

Fans tuned into the Chase for the Sprint Cup stretch run can hear constant chatter on Keselowski's radio, whether the driver is asking crew chief Paul Wolfe about strategy or spotter Joey Meier about what other cars are doing.

"There's a much bigger picture than what he is looking out of his helmet," Meier said. "There's a lot going on in his brain."

It's worked. Halfway through NASCAR's 10-race title run, Keselowski leads the points by seven over Johnson, 15 over Hamlin and 28 over Clint Bowyer.

Keselowski — who famously tweeted during a red-flag period during this year's Daytona 500 — compares his role as a driver to an NFL quaterback in the mental aptitude required to succeed.

"There are (quarterbacks) that don't do that very well and just have so much raw talent they're able to make up for it," Keselowski said. "I've always relied on being able to read the situation and react accordingly."

Keselowski quest for knowledge doesn't stop when the race does. He's known to text team members at all hours, asking them about what can be done to be better.

"I promise you, he never stops thinking about it," team engineer Brian Wilson said.

Keselowski sat in his motor coach Wednesday at Kansas with Meier reviewing a segment of last weekend's race at Charlotte. Keselowski wanted to point out something another competitor did and asked if Meier could provide him that information during the race if he sees it again.

Such meetings are common.

"There's actually briefings and debriefings we go through," Meier said. "I've never had any driver do that. Ever."

There hasn't been someone quite like Keselowski in Cup. And he could be poised to be NASCAR's most unqiue champion.

Closing time: Jimmie's drive for six

To understand Johnson's NASCAR dominance, consider that in the first five years Hamlin ran full-time in Sprint Cup, no driver except Johnson won the championship.

Though his reign was ended last year by Stewart, Johnson is back where he usually is at the midpoint of the Chase — in position for another title. Especially considering his typical strong finishes to NASCAR's title run.

Johnson's Chase performances often border on spectacular. After finishing 39th in the Chase opener race in 2006, Johnson rallied to win his first title with top-two finishes in five consecutive events.

He is the most recent driver to win four Cup races in a row, having done that to take control of the 2007 Chase. He won three Chase races in 2008 and four in 2009, then rallied past Denny Hamlin in the final race for the 2010 crown.

All told, in the Chase's second half from 2006 to 2010, Johnson had an impeccable 17 top-fives in 25 starts, including nine wins. Part of the credit to Johnson's closing success goes to masterful crew chief Chad Knaus. The pairing has been in tact since Johnson's rookie year in 2002.

"I think what works really well with us is our personalities are pretty different," Johnson said. "I have full confidence in what he does, and I know that there isn't a detail missed. And I can be more relaxed and be more myself and climb in the car and do my thing."

Spoiler alert! Who could ruin somebody else's title bid?

Imagine the Chicago Cubs (40 games under .500 this year) playing in the World Series but without a chance at baseball's championship.

The dichotomy during the Chase between 12 drivers racing for a Sprint Cup title and 31 who are not — even as all of them race for a win — is unique in pro sports. The "non-Chasers" sometimes can have a significant impact on those competing for the ultimate prize.

Had Kasey Kahne not overtaken Edwards for a win in last year's ninth Chase race at Phoenix International Raceway, it would have been Edwards — not Tony Stewart — hoisting the championship trophy a week later.

Kahne, who a year ago was a non-Chase driver with Red Bull Racing, said his win proved drivers outside the top 12 "still have a lot of drive and still want to run up front" with a shot at wins.

This year, Kahne is on the inside looking out. The first-year Hendrick Motorsports driver ranks fifth in points with five races to go.

The reason for including non-title contenders is obvious. "We have to have them in there to put on the appropriate show for a Chase," Bowyer said. "In a playoff situation, you can't just have 12 drivers just racing; it would be terrible."

This year's top spoilers have been Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, who have each finished in the top 10 in four of the first five Chase races, taking points from title contenders as Kahne did last year.

"I feel like I was a big part of Tony Stewart winning that championship," Kahne said.

Big Mo: Can anyone replicate Stewart's surge?

At this point last season, Stewart was fifth in the standings, 24 points behind leader Edwards. Stewart posted three wins, a third and a seventh to capture his third title.

Momentum proved critical to Stewart's championship a year ago, and it probably will come into play for the 2012 champion.

Keselowski has won two of the first five Chase races and appeared ready to accelerate until a fuel-mileage miscue last week. So who will catch that wave and ride it to the title?

With such a reliance on mechanics, momentum would not seem to be as important as in other sports. Such thinking, many say, overlooks the value of people beyond the driver and crew chief. Pit crews, mechanics and those who work at the shop can play a key role in boosting a driver to the next level.

"Momentum is very large in this sport," said crew chief Mike Ford, who made the Chase six consecutive years with Hamlin until he was replaced after last season. "At that point in the season, everybody is completely exhausted."

That makes a good run even more valuable.

"The analogy would be if you're having a good week at work, you get up in the morning and you're ready to go and you can work through your daily issues," said Ford, now crew chief for Marcos Ambrose.

"But if you're whipped and tired and not having a good week at work, come the end of the week your alarm clock goes off and you really say, 'I wish I would take a day off.' The odds are you are not going to work through issues that day. Every little thing is going to get under your skin. That's what this sport is like."

Crew chiefs have to act fast, smart with fewer cautions

With this year's Chase on pace to have the fewest cautions since the format's debut in 2004, crew chiefs are playing an increasingly vital role in who wins races and who could win the championship.

Crew chief calls have always been important — a decision not to pit helped Stewart win the season finale last year and beat Edwards for the championship — but they have become more significant this season.

"What's allowing different people to do different things is the lack of cautions," said ESPN analyst Ray Evernham, who won three championships as Jeff Gordon's innovative crew chief in the 1990s.

Fewer cautions means fewer opportunities for teams to make car adjustments and fewer time the field is bunched together.

The first five races of the Chase have featured 23 cautions for 107 laps (7.2% of all laps run so far). Before this season, the average number of cautions in the first five Chase races was 43. That trend could continue in the Chase's second half, considering Texas Motor Speedway is on the schedule after hosting its quickest Cup race ever (with two cautions in 334 laps) in April.

Evernham planned to focus on which crew chief can help his driver take control of the final five races. Wolfe's strategy savvy has vaulted Keselowski to the points lead; Knaus has guided Johnson to five series titles; and Darian Grubb, while in his first year with Hamlin, helped Stewart win last year's championship with his daring pit calls.

"I think those three teams are really pretty equal," Evernham said, "but somebody wants to set the pace."