Bubba Wallace will lead the field to green for Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA, PRN) at the Texas Motor Speedway. Here’s what’s at stake.

• Round of 12 Opener – With Talladega next week and the Charlotte ROVAL to follow, this truly is the best chance to control your own destiny in this second round. William Byron (+25), Martin Truex Jr. (+25), Denny Hamlin (+21), Kyle Larson (+12), Chris Buescher (+10), Kyle Busch (+8), Christohper Bell (+5), Tyler Reddick (+3) are on the good side of the cut line. Ross Chastain (-3), Brad Keselowski (-3), Ryan Blaney (-6) and Bubba Wallace (-14) are each below the cut line heading into Sunday.
• Top Starters – 3 of the top 5 starters for Sunday’s race are each below the cutline entering the day. Can they stay there? Buescher is 0-for-13 in terms of top 10 finishes at Texas in the Cup Series and a combined 0-for-18 in top 5’s when you factor in his 5 Xfinity Series starts too. Wallace has 1 top 10 in 8 tries. That came in his 1st start.
• RFK Racing – They have 2 of the top 3 starters on Sunday and could start this round strong with a top 5 finish out of both on Sunday in Texas. With Talladega looming next and that being their strongest chance, they could make a statement on Sunday.
• Reddick’s Win Streak – The last 2 races held in the LoneStar state, Tyler Reddick won. He won this race a year ago and at COTA in March. His 4 Cup finishes here are 2nd, 15th, 9th, 1st. In the Xfinity Series, 3 of his final 4 starts saw him finish 2nd, 2nd, 29th, 1st.
• Can HMS improve – I had them circled as favorites this weekend. However, they only qualified 11th (Kyle Larson), 14th (Alex Bowman), 18th (William Byron) and 29th (Chase Elliott).
• Favorites Outside The Top 10 – 21 of the last 24 Cup races at Texas were won from a top 10 starter. 5 of the 12 playoff drivers will start outside that threshold including the last 2 winners in Larson (2021) and Reddick (2022). Byron is also a favorite on Sunday. He starts 18th. Can they all come from behind?