Kenseth "won't pay much attention" to where playoff rivals are running

After finishing second to Martin Truex Jr. at Watkins Glen International: "Honestly, I don't even think about the playoffs."

After finishing fourth at Bristol Motor Speedway: "I wasn't really thinking about the playoffs."

Heading into the final race of the regular season at Richmond Raceway: "You know, honestly, I won't really pay much attention to it."

Kenseth's consistency carries over to the race track as well with six top tens in the last seven races. Despite the string of strong runs though, Kenseth's place in the championship playoffs remains uncertain because he has yet to reach Victory Lane in 2017.

Precarious position

He comes into Richmond this weekend 15th in the playoff standings and 92 points ahead of the cut-off line.

However, all that could change in an instant should one of those below him in the standings capture the checkered flag Saturday night. With just one point over Jamie McMurray, who currently holds the final playoff spot, a win by those on the outside could easily knock Kenseth out.

Those in a must-win situation are no slouches either. Leading the list is Joey Logano, who won this very race earlier this year before his win was "encumbered" and he lost all the playoff benefits from it. There's also rookie Erik Jones — teammate to Martin Truex Jr. — so you know he has the equipment to get the job done. The list of capable names goes on with Clint Bowyer, Daniel Suarez, Trevor Bayne and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

But despite all this, the veteran driver of the No. 20 remains calm and confident, saying he won't be paying much attention to where his playoff rivals are running in Saturday's regular season finale. "I mean, maybe Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) will if something weird happens with strategy or you get a long green flag run at the end, when to pit, that type of thing.

"I feel like this is one of our better tracks. We qualified well in the spring, led a lot early, then got off on our setup a little bit at the end of the race. Really I'm still thinking about trying to get that win. Yeah, I mean, we want to get in, but if you win, you're in for sure, so I don't think you're going to pay much attention. Maybe at the end of the race you pay a little bit of attention who is leading, where those two guys are, but I think we just run our own race."

Kenseth's approach to this race is simple — run well and get the win if you can.

“Well, just trying to get a good run. Still obviously looking for that win this year. Haven't been able to get it. Our performance has been pretty good the past couple of months. We've had better finishes. Just so far behind from the beginning of the year, so we're kind of getting caught up in points. I think it's fairly close back there. Hopefully, we can get a good run, get in the playoffs, kind of get hot when we need to.”