WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- The Chase for the Sprint Cup championship is still five races away, but series leader Kyle Busch can take his first step toward winning it with a victory Sunday at Watkins Glen International.

A sweep of this season's road-course events would clinch the top seed in NASCAR's 10-race playoff for Busch, who currently holds a 40-point edge over Carl Edwards in the bonus points that decide Chase seeding. Since drivers receive 10 Chase bonus points for each victory and only four regular-season events remain after Watkins Glen, an eighth win on the season would give Busch an insurmountable 50-point edge over Edwards, who has won four times but had his bonus points at Las Vegas Motor Speedway deducted for infractions found on his car.

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The way this deal works, if you go to New Hampshire and blow the engine on the first lap, you can still win the championship. It doesn't matter.

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CARL EDWARDS

What does that mean? Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson entered last year's Chase with a 20-bonus-point edge over teammate Jeff Gordon, and fell as low as fourth in the standings before rallying to win the title. But he believes those bonus points gave him something of a cushion early in the Chase, and given his eventual 23-point margin of victory over Gordon, they proved crucial late.

"You know, it's important, especially for the first two or three races when everybody is so worried about the points and where you're at. It really buys you some sleep and peace of mind at the start of the Chase," said Johnson, who has two wins on the season, and whose lap of 121.815 mph was fastest in final practice Saturday at Watkins Glen.

"From my own experience, now, it can be different for others, but as the season wears on and those final 10 wear on, you're really just looking at the total and where it's at. For whatever reason, you forget about the seeding process, especially when you leave tracks like Talladega and Martinsville. You have so many other things on your mind that the seeding process is kind of at the bottom of the totem pole. Even though it is an important factor, but you just start worrying about what's ahead and those challenges that you have at the track. But he's definitely going to have a margin going into it. And the way those guys have been and how good they've been, we're all going to have to show up on our game to beat them."

Although Edwards is third in points behind Dale Earnhardt Jr., his four victories on the season would vault him into second if the Chase were to begin today. Busch clinching the Chase's top seed would have no effect on his strategy, which is simply to go for as many wins as possible between now and the playoff opener Sept. 14 in New Hampshire. And he doesn't believe a deficit would hamper him once the Chase begins. (Continued)