JOLIET, Ill. — With rain in Friday’s forecast at Chicagoland Speedway, the only time on track became a strategy session for the championship contenders.

If qualifying was rained out, the field for Sunday’s opening round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship would be set by practice speeds and teams had to decide if they wanted to focus on simply posting a fast lap to grab a strong starting position.

It worked out perfectly for Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards, who all shot to the top of the speed chart in practice and were rewarded with the top three starting spots in Sunday’s race when rain indeed washed out qualifying.

“We definitely saw the radar and the forecast,” said Newman, who will start second on Sunday. “Made one (practice) run and switched it over, spent the rest of the time doing mock qualifying runs, knowing we had a chance of that being our actual qualifying position.”

Edwards said crew chief Jimmy Fennig made one final adjustment late in practice that found him additional speed and moved him to third on the sheet.

“We started the day thinking this might happen and Jimmy did a great job with a strategy,” Edwards said. “I think that’s what all of us are going to have to do throughout the Chase – we’re just going to have to get every little bit you can every race weekend.”

The 10-race Chase opens at Chicago under a radically different format introduced this year by NASCAR. Using an elimination method for the expanded 16-driver field, four drivers will be knocked out of contention every three races.

The first round of cuts comes Sept. 28 at Dover, and all 16 drivers came into Chicago just trying to make it through the first round. A victory earns an automatic advancement into the next round.

• Denny Hamlin got his crew chief back for the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, and he is hopeful Darian Grubb spent his six weeks away building fast race cars.

Grubb was suspended by NASCAR after Hamlin’s third-place finish at Indianapolis when NASCAR found issues with several covers in the rear firewall of his driver compartment during post-race inspection. Loose or missing covers could vent the driver cockpit to create more downforce.

Joe Gibbs Racing initially said it would appeal the penalty, which included a $125,000 fine for Grubb, but decided to have him serve the six-race suspension and return in time for the opening round of the Chase on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.

Grubb on Friday said the failed inspection was over “a 27-cent part and it came loose. It wasn’t torqued correctly.”

“It’s not a gray area, it’s not anything intentional, no real performance gain there,” Grubb said. “Everybody in the garage has those same covers and they came loose a week that they shouldn’t have come loose.”

• Defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson is confident he won’t have any issues with hydration or cramping as he heads into the opening race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

The six-time champion cramped after last week’s race at Richmond and received 5 liters of intravenous fluids in the infield medical center to treat dehydration.

His Hendrick Motorsports team found that the cooling system connected to his helmet had malfunctioned and warm air was being blown onto Johnson during the race.

The cooling system has been replaced with a former system Johnson used in time for Sunday’s race at Chicagoland Speedway.

NASCAR TRUCK SERIES: The race at Chicagoland Speedway has been postponed by rain.

Friday’s showers also washed out qualifying for both the Trucks Series and Sprint Cup races.

The Trucks Series race was pushed back to Saturday at approximately 7 p.m. EDT after the Nationwide race. Johnny Sauter will be on the pole for the Trucks stop, followed by Brennan Newberry and Jeb Burton.

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