INDIANAPOLIS – The full focus on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race weekend so far is on the playoffs. We have two wildcard positions available with four drivers vying for them. While that is THE story for the Brickyard 400, there’s another under the radar story going on too.

See, everyone is focusing there, but what if I told you the fight to be in the top 10 of the points standings at the checkered flag of Sunday’s Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET/NBC/IMS Radio Network/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is critically important too?

See, the drivers in the top 10 of the final regular season standings get playoff points. 10th gets one point, ninth receives two, seventh three, etc. We’ve seen in the recent past how just a small margin of a point or two will be the difference of transferring from one round to another.

These playoff points available for being in the top 10 of the final regular season standings can be the difference of making it to Homestead or not.

“Yeah we talked about that this week,” Erik Jones said. “Just trying to get those extra points. We want them right. Those playoff points are huge and can carry you through the rounds and get you in a better spot. It’s possible. It’s going to take a mistake from someone to really make up that many points in 1 race but it’s possible.”

See, Jones currently sits in a tie with Alex Bowman for 11th in the points standings right now. They trail Ryan Blaney by 16 points for that 10th spot. Kyle Larson is just four points clear of Blaney so you essentially have a four driver battle for two spots there too.

“I don’t know how we’ll do it,” Larson said on Saturday in terms of his strategy for Sunday’s race. “Yeah we’re close. Right now just moved into ninth last week so it would be good to stay there then we’ll get two extra playoff points which will help.

“For me, I think we got to look at how those other guys are calling those races and what we can do to gain points on them just to stay in ninth position. You never know, those 1 or 2 extra points can come down to us making it into the next round. At the same time, you also don’t want to give up a shot at the win either. We’ll see how it goes.”

It’s going to be close that’s for sure. These four really can’t put themselves out of position in both stages for points. They have to take them when they’re given. But, they also want to win and close the regular season with momentum. Currently, both Larson and Jones have it.

Larson, has five straight top eight finishes. Jones, won last week and has five top three finishes in his last seven starts on the season.

“I think we do the same thing that we’ve done all year,” Jones said on his strategy. “If we feel like we have a car that can win, we’re going to position ourselves for that win. If we feel like it’s a rough day and we’re struggling, we’re going to take the stage points for sure. It just matters how the day goes. If we’re running up front and I’m in the top 3, then Chris will make the calls accordingly to that.”

Larson, agrees.

“I think once you get into the playoffs, if you can continue that momentum it’s good,” said Larson on his momentum. “Like you said, we’ve had momentum. I don’t want to go out there and have a slow car. If you have a slow car and finish average that can hurt your momentum and confidence more so than crashing and finishing last. As long as we can have a fast car then we can continue the momentum that we’re on.”

For Jones, he said making it to the third round is his overall goal and thinks that he can get there. But, if he can’t these few playoff points that he may not grab could be the reason.

“Making it to the Round of 8 is my goal,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said. “If we can make it there, then I’d say that we’d had a successful year. The first round has a couple of good tracks. The ROVAL is kind of tough but I guess it’s the same for everybody. We’re on a roll and want to keep it rolling through Indy and into Vegas. We want to go deep.”

Jones, said that the playoffs last year was a lot different than he expected. It gave him a good learning experience for this year’s go around.

“A lot different. A lot more intense. This playoffs, I don’t think any of the 16 guys are like we’re definitely going to make Homestead. I don’t care if you’re Kyle Busch or Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, I think it’s just tough especially when you get down to rounds and things happen. It’s still racing and you can’t control everything. You just have to make it through each round. You have so many different tracks. It’s so diverse. It’s just a challenge.

“That was the biggest thing for me. You just have to be so perfect for 10 weeks. We had 1 mistake in the first round in Vegas and it killed us. We were done. We never made it back up. It’s like you can’t have those incidents and really have to be on your game.”