Our experts weigh in on four of the biggest questions in NASCAR this week:

Turn 1: Do you think Brad Keselowski or Kevin Harvick can bounce back from their Martinsville disasters and qualify for the final four at Homestead?

Ricky Craven, ESPN NASCAR analyst: Yes, but both will need to win to advance. It appears that an eighth- to ninth-place average will be needed to transfer to the final round, and neither could attain this with that poor first-race finish at Martinsville. Keselowski has already demonstrated the ability to win with his back against the wall, taking the checkers at Talladega. One could argue that a win at Texas or Phoenix should be less difficult because you depend on no one but your team and a fast car as opposed to a drafting partner at Talladega. Each driver has above-average talent and speed and an above-average team.

Ed Hinton, ESPN.com: Both of them can, and I would expect at least one of them to. Harvick has won two straight at Phoenix, and the one last March was a runaway. Keselowski's team seems more bounce-back-oriented, and the Penske cars are good on intermediate tracks such as Texas. Kes also ran well at Phoenix in March. If you insist I pick one, it's Harvick, due to his overwhelming recent strength at Phoenix.

Brant James, ESPN.com: Absolutely. Both perhaps, but the scope of that feat is almost too much to be believed because it would probably entail both winning. Keselowski doing that twice, in effect, to survive in consecutive rounds is unfathomable. So if it happens, it'll be Harvick. He's won five times at Phoenix, including three of the past four, and was oppressive in leading 224 laps last spring en route to victory.

Ryan McGee, ESPN The Magazine: Sure. After the race, Harvick himself was quick to say that the beauty of this format is that you are still in it until the round is over. But they will have to win. There's no Talladega out there to wipe out half the competition.

John Oreovicz, ESPN.com: Based on their performances all year, they both can, but the odds are really long that both will. It's tempting to look at Harvick's dominance of the past two races at Phoenix and conclude that he will win again, but every time I follow that logic, the driver in question goes out and lays an egg. Keselowski has shown that he can make adversity work to his advantage, and BK has also shown strong form recently at both Phoenix and Texas. One of them will qualify for Homestead, but I can't decide which one.

Marty Smith, ESPN Insider: They both can. I'm picking Keselowski to win Texas and Harvick to sweep Phoenix. I think they'll both advance.

Turn 2: Who is the biggest winner in the Danica Patrick-Kurt Busch crew chief swap?

Craven: Stewart-Haas as an organization is the big winner. It was an appropriate move at an appropriate time. Both drivers need a catalyst for better results to close the year, and swapping crew chiefs (coaches) often is that catalyst. A new crew chief often creates stimulus for a driver, delivering a fresh approach and an encouraging voice to help a driver rediscover confidence. It can also have an adverse effect if the driver doesn't embrace the change or accept new directive. Either way, the company benefits headed into the offseason.

Kevin Harvick's battered race car at Martinsville Speedway Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Hinton: Danica, if her comfort and communication levels develop the way she and SHR VP Greg Zipadelli think they will. She seems to want engineering speak on the radio, as in Indy cars, from Daniel Knost. Kurt reportedly snapped at Knost several times on the radio, but what's new for Kurt? Maybe old-school Tony Gibson can make a difference, but who really knows?

James: Kurt Busch. It seemed that Patrick and Tony Gibson were on to something in her second full Sprint Cup season. Progress was being made, statistics were improving, and he was the perfect hybrid of the old hand she so enjoys and the engineering mind she covets. Daniel Knost brings the science and the diploma to prove it, but it will be interesting to see if he can master all the intangibles his new and very complicated job wields.

McGee: Busch. Tony Gibson is a great crew chief. He's a veteran who isn't easily rattled and he's great at dealing with prickly personalities, going all the way back to his earliest days in Cup racing with Alan Kulwicki. The reasons I just listed are the same reasons Patrick could end up being the big loser in all this. No, she didn't make the big strides she probably should have in the past year, but her chemistry with Gibson had become pretty solid ... at least I thought so.

Oreovicz: For the short term, I think Busch gets the bigger bump. You can't blame Daniel Knost for the start-up No. 41 team's inconsistent form this year, but the difference in Tony Gibson's personality and basic approach compared to Knost should work to Kurt's benefit. As Greg Zipadelli told us at Martinsville, with Busch in the prime of his career, getting things right quickly is more of a priority for the 41 than it is for the No. 10 team, given Stewart-Haas Racing's stated long-term commitment to Danica's NASCAR career. Was her desire to work with a data- and engineering-driven crew chief, similar to what she was used to in IndyCar, a factor in the team's decision to make the change? Almost certainly. But it will put even more pressure on her to produce better results.

Smith: Tony Gibson. Often, when a crew chief change is imminent, the crew chief is cast aside. The drivers are tied up into sponsorship arrangements and therefore, due to point of sale, aren't as easily expendable. Gibson is a prototype Stewart-Haas guy: blue-collar, outdoorsman, old-school racer. Stewart loves him. Kurt Busch will, too. Gibson is the kind of guy Kurt Busch instantly respects. He worked for Dale Earnhardt, man.

Turn 3: Can Matt Kenseth or Ryan Newman really win the title without winning a race all year?

Craven: Absolutely! If one thing has become apparent to me in the first seven races of the new Chase, it's the importance of a team gaining strength as the Chase goes along. Each round should require a better average finish to advance without winning. While neither Kenseth nor Newman looked worthy two months ago, both are peaking at the perfect time. I would enjoy the idea of one winless driver being among the four in Miami, purely from an entertainment standpoint. As I've said many times, the existence of the underdog is a key component to sports being entertaining. Ryan Newman certainly represents that!

Hinton: Yes they can, and I'm pulling for that in a lot of ways. How delicious would the irony be if, after all these "win you're in" changes and eliminations, NASCAR wound up with its first winless Cup champion ever? And how doubly delicious if it's Kenseth, who supposedly spurred the switch to the Chase with his one-win, full-season championship in 2003? I think it would be interesting to see whether there'd be scrambling in the executive offices of NASCAR during the offseason, or whether they'd leave it alone, figuring lightning couldn't strike their manipulated show twice.

James: Yes they can, Kenseth particularly so, unless Harvick sets about ruining his season after their Martinsville incident. The 2003 champion, Kenseth led the series with seven victories last year and finished second, but could claim the title winless in a new playoff system the ensuing year. You know you're pulling for that.

McGee: Heck yeah. Marty and I talked about Newman in particular during last week's podcast. His team is peaking at the right time and just started a three-race round that is bookended with two of his best racetracks, Martinsville and Phoenix. His frantic eighth-to-third final dash at Martinsville has gotten him off to a great start.

Oreovicz: Absolutely, and the cynic in me kind of hopes one of them does. I just can't decide which scenario would be more deeply ironic. A winless title for Kenseth, whose single-victory Cup series championship in 2003 is widely credited as the event that created the Chase mindset, would be spectacular. But maybe not as spectacular as a cruise-and-collect title for Newman, the man who managed to finish five places behind Kenseth in the 2003 standings despite winning eight races that year. Either would be a classic "be careful what you wish for" slap in NASCAR's face.

Smith: Absolutely. Stay up front far enough to advance -- again, I think two positions in the final four will be determined by race winners -- and then finish first among those four. That would be quite a kick in the pants for NASCAR, though, if they're winning-matters-most format produced a consistency-based winner.

Turn 4: Will Dale Earnhardt Jr. maintain this form into 2015 without Steve Letarte in charge of the No. 88 team?

Craven: Five years ago Dale Jr. was an old 35 -- today he is a young 40. With that said, there is nothing more valuable to a driver than self-confidence, and Dale Jr. has it. It's impossible to predict what life will be like for Dale post-Steve Letarte, but Dale has been galvanized by all that he has gone through. He is every bit the driver of his early career, but much stronger mentally. From my seat, Dale has five quality years ahead, and that's predicated on his frame of mind, level of commitment and hunger. It's all there! It was refreshing to witness a driver in the second half of his career react to winning as though it had never happened before. I have high expectations of the 88 team next year!

Hinton: Not sure. You'd hope so, in that it appears Letarte has rebuilt Earnhardt's psyche and confidence on the racetrack to the point that it's all permanent. Then again, Letarte has been very good, race to race, on the radio, and you do wonder if that on-any-Sunday handling can be fully replaced.

James: Not immediately. The comfort and trust Earnhardt and Letarte seem to share will not easily or quickly be replicated, even by someone as familiar as Greg Ives.

McGee: Yes. I know that when the 88 was eliminated, some of the Junior Nation faithful were calling for an early swap to get a jump on 2015, but the transition work has already been happening behind the scenes. Hendrick GM Doug Duchardt talked about this last week, how Greg Ives has already been shadowing Letarte when he can. And Ives' relationship with Earnhardt is well-established, since the driver was already Ives' boss.

Oreovicz: A lot of people certainly hope so. At Martinsville, I saw and heard in person for the first time just how excited NASCAR Nation gets when the No. 88 wins. Dale Jr. is hands-down the sport's most popular driver, and NASCAR's fortunes as a whole are loosely linked to how well he is running. Earnhardt admitted after winning Sunday that the process of shaping him into the complete driver he has been for most of the 2014 season took several years. Letarte won't be on the stand next year, but I get the feeling that Earnhardt is not going to forget overnight what he learned from a very effective mentor.

Smith: I believe he will. And I believe it's because of what Steve Letarte taught him. Letarte taught Earnhardt how to communicate and how to be accountable to his team, the organization and, above all, himself. Letarte taught Earnhardt that he has championship potential if he invests properly. He will take that knowledge and the residual confidence it has instilled within him and meld it together with Greg Ives' obvious talent. I think they'll be excellent.