FORT WORTH, Texas -- Kevin Harvick doesn't just want to run well this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway because running well could go a long way toward advancing in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

With tires that will be the same compounds as the ones Cup drivers will have in two weeks at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the season finale, Harvick views this race as a good predictor of who could run strong at Homestead, a race many believe a driver needs to win in order to win the title. While Homestead is similar to Texas as a 1.5-mile track, Homestead has a variable banking that lends itself to drivers choosing different grooves to pass. At Texas a driver spends more time avoiding bumps.

"We've worked hard on this race just for the fact that we ran so poorly here in the spring and qualified poorly," said Harvick, who started 22nd and finished 10th in April at Texas. "We felt like this is an important race because it's on the same tire as Homestead. It's a very similar surface as Homestead.

"There's a lot to be learned from Chicago [to start the Chase] to here to Homestead."

So watch whoever runs well Sunday in the AAA 500 and remember that for 14 days later when four drivers among the 40 starters will have a shot for the title.

Harvick leads the list of what to watch for at Texas, and it doesn't have anything to do with tires:

Harvick in the Clutch

Harvick needs another clutch performance after a 20th-place finish at Martinsville has him sixth in the series standings, 16 points behind the current cutoff with races at Texas and Phoenix left in the semifinal round.

The four winless remaining Chase drivers lowest in points after Phoenix will be eliminated from convention, leaving four drivers to vie for the title.

It wasn't much of a surprise when Harvick was solid in qualifying as he will start third Sunday. For whatever reason, the team led by crew chief Rodney Childers appears motivated after sour outings and has delivered clutch victories in must-win moments.

"We don't really care what we did last week, we're coming in to this week and every other week we expect to come to the race track and have a chance to win," Harvick said.

"It's not about points. It's not about what happened last week. It's about how do we win this week? That's really the mentality of the team that Rodney had instilled in it from the very first day. It is good motivation."

While Harvick has won six of the last eight races at Phoenix -- the site of the finale in the round -- he does not have a winning Cup resume at Texas. He had back-to-back second-place finishes before a third a year ago and then a 10th in April. He was 28th in final practice Saturday.

His last win came three races ago at Kansas, a place where he had three runnerup finishes after a victory there in 2013.

"Kansas -- we finished second like five times and that one finally paid us back," Harvick said. "That stuff has a funny way of working itself full circle. We had a car capable of winning the last fall race here and I had to hold it in gear for 100 laps or 100 miles, whatever it was.

"It is just one of those places that we run well, we just hadn't made it all happen."

Busch back in the pack

Kyle Busch didn't have the best of days Friday as he smacked the wall on the first lap of practice. Then in qualifying, a water leak ended his effort after just one round.

The two events were related.

"It is a byproduct of pounding the fence before we even completed a lap in practice," Busch crew chief Adam Stevens said. "In our hurry to change the motor and all the drivetrain afterwards, apparently we didn't get the lower radiator hose completely clamped on the water neck out of the block and proceeded to dump all the water out of it on pit road after our first run.

"We're going to start 24th and get after them from there."

Busch didn't have to change engines, but teams often do when bringing out a backup car so they can have a non-race-ready engine in the backup car that can run a few laps in a practice session. If they didn't, then teams would have race-ready engines sitting in the backup cars in the haulers and more than likely not being put to use on a weekend.

If there is any consolation for Busch, it appears his backup car has good speed. He ran third in the final practice.

"All these cars are built probably within five downforce numbers of one another," Busch said. "They're very similar and I wouldn't be worried for us that we're at a disadvantage."

Johnson has no pressure

Jimmie Johnson will start 19th and whether he runs any better than that or not he probably won't worry too much after Sunday's race.

His organization already has focused on Homestead after his win at Martinsville. The team didn't change which car it would bring to Texas but it was busy during the week preparing cars to take to the wind tunnel to get ready for Homestead.

"We have the car we raced at Darlington and then a new car that we built that are both going back to the wind tunnel and let the wind tunnel [decide] which one goes [ to Homestead as a primary]," Johnson said. "It's given us a little time to complete a second car and then make a decision between those two."

After the team debrief Tuesday on Martinsville and a little talk about Texas, the Hendrick organization started looking ahead to Homestead. So if Johnson doesn't turn into much of a factor, there could be a reason.

"We did our Tuesday debrief and we couldn't get through the Martinsville debrief and the Texas prep quick enough because we were all there to talk about Homestead," Johnson said. "We stayed long and talked about Homestead and that led to more conversations [that] night.

"Instead of obsessing over Texas and Phoenix -- we're definitely giving it time and attention -- but the obsession is about Homestead."

Rain? Drying could take hours

Remember how the 2015 race at Phoenix that determined the finalists was cut short by 93 laps because of rain?

Well there's a chance the round could be impacted by rain once again. The forecast for Sunday shows the chance of rain increasing throughout the afternoon.

It's a good thing the race will start shortly after 1 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) and Texas has lights. The bad news: It took NASCAR more than three hours to dry the track Friday morning for truck practice. If the track does get some rain, NASCAR will have to ask fans to wait a few hours for the race to resume.

It more than likely will make every effort to do just that - especially with Chase spots on the line.