With just six races left in the regular season, pressure is building for drivers to secure a berth in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

That anxiety will be amplified this weekend when the series rolls into Pocono Raceway, one of the more unique tracks on the circuit.

Defending race winner Chase Elliott is one driver looking for a solid showing on Sunday in the HighPoint.com 400 (2:30 p.m. on USA).

The Hendrick Motorsports’ driver and NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver returns to “The Tricky Triangle” to defend his win from last year and get his first victory of the 2023 season, one that would be crucial to make it into the 10-race postseason, which begins Sept. 3 at Darlington Raceway.

Elliott is currently outside the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff cutline, 60 points back from Michael McDowell in the 16th and final transfer position on points.

With a win this weekend, Elliott, the 2020 series champion, can being his streak of making the postseason to an eighth consecutive season.

Elliott missed six races as a result of a snowboarding accident in early March.

He has recorded top-five finishes in five of his last eight starts. Elliott, who finished 12th Monday at New Hampshire, has seven top-10 finishes, including five in the top five, in 13 starts overall. He is 23rd in the Cup Series points standings.

Elliott has enjoyed success at Pocono with eight top-10 finishes, including half of those among the top five, in 13 career starts. Last year’s win was his first at Pocono.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin (first) and Kyle Busch (second) were the two first drivers to cross the finish line a year ago, followed by Elliott in third. But both JGR cars failed post-race inspection and their finishes were disqualified handing the victory to Elliott.

Elliott also is scheduled for double duty as he will compete in Saturday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 Xfinity Series race (5:30 p.m. on USA) in the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet.

It will be his first Xfinity Series start in nearly two years. His last appearance came in August of 2021 for JR Motorsports in the Indianapolis Grand Prix, where he finished fourth on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

In 82 Xfinity Series career starts, Elliott has recorded five victories, 34 top-five finishes, 66 top 10s and two poles. He also won the series title in 2014 with JR Motorsports.

DOUBLE DUTY

... In addition to Elliott, NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch will be performing double duty this weekend in pursuit of a special milestone for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

Not only will he be driving the No. 8 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing in Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400, Busch will also be piloting KBM’s No. 51 Zariz Transportation Chevrolet Silverado in Saturday’s CRC Brakleen 150 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race (12 p.m., FS1).

Busch will be looking to secure a milestone for his organization that debuted in 2010, which sits one shy of the achievement of recording 100 NCTS career victories.

There’s a high probability that it could come at “The Tricky Triangle” as KBM has dominated the 2.5-mile tri-oval. Kyle Busch Motorsports enters this weekend with a three-race winning streak at the track and having won seven of the last eight.

Busch, the series all-time leader in victories with 63, owns two of those Pocono triumphs (2015, ’18) in that run of success.

LAST RIDE

... Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick will make his 44th and final start at Pocono in Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400, as the 2014 series champion and 60-race winner will be retiring at season’s end after 23 years in the Cup Series.

Harvick (No. 4 Busch Light Ford) ranks first among active drivers at “The Tricky Triangle” for career starts (43), top-five finishes (15), top-10 finishes (22) and laps completed (7,152). The total miles he has completed at Pocono Raceway ranks fourth among all tracks he has competed on in his Cup career.

On the raceway’s all-time list, he ranks third for top-10 finishes and is tied for fourth for top-five performances. Mark Martin is the track recordholder for top 10s (34) and co-shares the top-five mark with Jeff Gordon (20).

Harvick has 11 top-10 performances in his last 13 Pocono appearances, including eight among the top five. That stretch is highlighted by his lone win in 2020.

He heads to Pocono Raceway ninth in the Cup Series point standings, 99 back of leader Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing, and coming off a fourth-place finish in Monday’s rain-delayed race at New Hampshire. The performance was his fifth top-five finish on the season and eighth among the top 10. His season-best effort came at Darlington in May, where he finished runner-up.

POCONO HISTORY

... Pocono Raceway held the first race on the 2.5-mile track in 1971 and the first NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway was on Aug. 4, 1974. The first Cup Series Pocono event was won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty driving the family-owned Dodge (115.593 mph).

There have been 89 NASCAR Cup Series races at Pocono Raceway, one race from 1974 through 1981, and two races per year from 1982-2021. The 2012 season marked the first year the NASCAR Cup Series races at Pocono were scheduled for 400 miles. Before 2012, all of the NASCAR Cup Series races at Pocono were scheduled for 500 miles in length. The 2020-2021 seasons were the first time the NASCAR Cup Series held doubleheader weekends at Pocono Raceway with the races running at 325 miles and 350 miles in length.

This season will be the 90th-time the NASCAR Cup Series has visited Pocono Raceway. The prior 89 Cup races have produced 46 different pole winners and 40 different race winners.

NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott (1984, 1985 sweep, 1995 and 2002) and Ken Schrader (1989, 1992, 1993 sweep and 1995) lead the NASCAR Cup Series in poles at Pocono Raceway with five each. This weekend, 10 of the 46 Pocono Raceway Cup Series pole winners (21.7%) are active this weekend, led by Kyle Busch with four Pocono poles (spring 2010, fall 2015, 2017 sweep).

Cup series practice will take place Saturday at 2:35 p.m., followed by qualifying at 3:20.