By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

It doesn’t matter to Austin Dillon that Las Vegas oddsmakers have made him a 50-to-1 shot to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship, by far the longest odds among the 12 remaining drivers.

After finishing eighth last Sunday at Dover and earning the final transfer spot from the Chase’s Round of 16, Dillon believes his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet has the speed to pull off a surprise in the Round of 12.

“Well, we have the least odds in Vegas right now – I just heard that,” Dillon said on Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I like this role, because it puts the pressure on the guys that I guess are projected to make it to the next round, whatever projections mean.

“Because in racing, I’ve learned real quick that it’s not like any other sport… You just never know what can happen in a race, and you never know what the outcomes… there is so much that goes into every little piece and part of these cars.

“I’m confident in the company I drive for with RCR and the people around me, myself also, that we can make strong finishes, and that is what I’m confident about. I love the underdog role, because that makes when we do knock people out, it’s going to be fulfilling.”

For the record, Kevin Harvick is the Vegas favorite to win the Chase at 7-to-2 odds (per vegasinsider.com). Martin Truex Jr. is second at 4-to-1 and Jimmie Johnson third at 6-to-1.

CONCORD, N.C. – Carl Edwards and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates have high expectations in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup – if only they can catch a certain “rabbit.”

The hare in question is Martin Truex Jr., who drives the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota, which maintains a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, and like JGR, gets its engines from Toyota Racing Development (TRD).

Truex won two of the three races in the Chase’s Round of 16 and, appropriately, has earned the designation as favorite for this year’s championship. Even though Truex finished 7.527 seconds ahead of JGR’s Kyle Busch last Sunday at Dover, Edwards says the JGR cars aren’t far behind.

And, ostensibly at least, the unfettered sharing of information between Gibbs drivers Edwards, Busch, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin and the Furniture Row team has continued into the Chase.

“If we didn’t know what engines and chassis and setups those guys had, it’d be really easy to say they’ve got something – they’ve got something special that we don’t have – but knowing what they have and knowing what they’re able to do with it, that’s a motivator,” Edwards said on Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“And I’ve been telling people this week I really believe you’re going to see the other four JGR cars – the four JGR cars – really step it up, because Martin is that… he’s that rabbit out there that we’re all chasing. We know it can be done, and I think, in the end, that’s a gift to have somebody in your camp or close to you that can do that.”

Entering the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase with a series-leading four wins and the 12 bonus points that came with them, Erik Jones seemed like an absolute lock to make the playoffs’ Round of 8 if not the Championship 4.

He sure doesn’t look like a lock right now.

Jones goes into Friday’s Drive for the Cure 300 Chase cutoff race at Charlotte Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET on NBCSN) four points below Brennan Poole on the cutoff line. If he can’t make up those points, he will be eliminated from championship contention.

Jones dug himself into his current predicament by finishing 28th at Kentucky and 16th at Dover. In three career starts at Charlotte, Jones has finished 15th (spring 2015), second (fall 2015) and 31st (spring 2016).

“We have a good team, we just have to do it right,” Jones said. “I know this 20 team builds fast cars and I know this weekend at Charlotte will be no different. We just need to go out and execute and hopefully get into the next round. A lot of work and a lot of pressure, but I think we can do it.”

Jimmie Johnson might hold the Charlotte Motor Speedway record with seven wins, but lately Kevin Harvick has been better there. In his last seven starts at the 1.5-mile track, Harvick has registered two wins, three runner-ups and no showing worse than ninth.

The No. 4 Chevrolet driver will attempt to notch another Queen City victory in Saturday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (7 p.m. ET on NBC) – the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Round of 12 opener. Harvick won the event in 2014, the last time it was run at night. Last year, he finished second to Joey Logano when the race was held in the day on Sunday following a Saturday night rainout.

“I think Charlotte, just because of the fact we’ve had so much success there,” said Harvick when asked what Round of 12 track he was most excited to go to. “We’ve run well there really every time we’ve been there with our Stewart-Haas Racing cars. Going there this weekend is definitely something I’m looking forward to. Any race track where you’ve had some success at, you definitely want to go back.”

A win would earn Harvick more than just a trophy, it would advance him to the Chase’s Round of 8. The 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion has visited Victory Lane at all three tracks in the Round of 12 – Charlotte, Kansas and Talladega – indicating a third straight trip to the Round of 8 might be inevitable.

“It’s nice to know that you can go to any of these race tracks and win because we have,” Harvick said. “They’re all hard to win at and I think as you look at Charlotte, trying to put the car back in Victory Lane is the first goal, and if you can’t, try to get the best finish that you can. That comes with no mistakes and if you do have a mistake, overcome it and capitalize on the moment if you have it to actually get to Victory Lane.

Despite his success at all three tracks, Harvick is focused on this weekend’s race. In 31 career starts at Charlotte, including 15 in the fall, Harvick boasts three wins, seven top-five and 14 top-10 finishes.

“There could be challenges no matter where you go,” he said. “Charlotte is a very finicky race track and with the way that we practice, most of the practice will be during the day with the race at night. So temperature has a huge factor in how the race track changes and how they pace changes, so you have to try to guess a little bit to that. And obviously the weather can be a little bit of an issue as we creep into the weekend. You have to try to plan and balance all of those things to have a good plan, but you have to be ready to abort that plan and come up with a new one on the fly at any given point.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Race: Bank of America 500
Place: Charlotte Motor Speedway
Date and Time: Saturday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. ET
Tune-in: NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 501 miles (334 laps)
What to Watch For: Martin Truex Jr. tries to defend his spring Charlotte victory. He has won three of the last five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races and led the most laps in the two he didn’t win. … Joey Logano attempts to repeat as the Charlotte fall winner. … Jimmie Johnson looks to add to his track-record seven wins. … Kyle Busch goes for his first Charlotte win. He has visited Victory Lane at every active track except for Charlotte and Pocono. … Non-Chaser Kasey Kahne looks to spoil an automatic bid for a Chase-eligible driver. He has won four races at Charlotte and has posted four top 10s in his last five starts.

NASCAR XFINITY Series
Race: Drive For The Cure 300 Presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina
Place: Charlotte Motor Speedway
Date and Time: Friday, Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. ET
Tune-in: NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 300 miles (200 laps)
What to Watch For: Daniel Suarez (6.6) and Elliott Sadler (8.9) – both of whom have advanced to the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase Round of 8 via victories – lead all championship contenders in average finish at 1.5-mile tracks this year. … The Chase bubble is packed with 10 drivers within 17 points of elimination. Here’s where the drivers who haven’t clinched berths in the Round of 8 stand: Justin Allgaier (17 points ahead of Ty Dillon on the cutoff line), Brendan Gaughan (+14), Ryan Reed (+11), Darrell Wallace Jr. (+10), Blake Koch (+4), Brennan Poole (+3), Dillon (-3 points below Brennan Poole on the cutoff line), Erik Jones (-4), Ryan Sieg (-10) and Brandon Jones (-18). … NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers Kyle Larson, Matt DiBenedetto, Josh Wise, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick are all scheduled to compete in Friday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race.