Kyle Busch's win at Martinsville clinched his spot in the championship race at Homestead, but he doesn't want to take his foot off of the gas in the next two races.
Busch doesn't need a win or even a good finish at either Texas or Phoenix, but he wants to put pressure on the other seven drivers vying for a spot at Homestead.
"We'll focus on the next two weeks and being able to go race for wins still in order to kind of keep everybody on their toes and everybody worried about whether they'll get through on points or not," Busch said via Racer.com. "We'll see what happens."
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Busch's crew chief, Adam Stevens, said he doesn't want to simply take two weeks off and not race hard before the championship race.
"You don't want to go and perform poorly and have bad days on pit road and think you're going to flip a light switch when you get to Homestead just because you got to look at a notebook longer than somebody else," Stevens said.
Busch and his team have a championship pedigree after winning the 2015 title, and he finished third last year. He's familiar with the demands of racing for the title at Homestead, which could give him an advantage depending on who else is in the final four.
Martin Truex Jr. figures to be one of the four given his success this season and his lead in the points. Even if Truex doesn't win one of the next two races, he should have enough points to make it through. But the other two spots are up for grabs, and Busch and Stevens have to like their chances heading into the final three races.