Several of NASCAR’s top drivers could be out of the Chase

As NASCAR arrives in California wine country to take on the twisty Infineon Raceway road course in Sonoma, what’s notable is how many of its top drivers already are in danger of missing the sport’s title playoff.

Drivers such as Juan Pablo Montoya (15th in points), Kasey Kahne (19th), Joey Logano (23rd) and Jeff Burton (25th) are among those needing to pick up the pace with 11 races left before the Sprint Cup Series opens its 10-race Chase playoff Sept. 18.

The top 10 drivers in points after 26 races advance to the Chase. Two “wild-card” drivers outside the top 10 with the most wins, and who also rank among the top 20 in points at the time, also qualify for the Chase.

Thus, four-time champion Jeff Gordon is in a strong position to make the Chase again because, even though he’s currently 12th in points, he already has two wins this season, at Phoenix and Pocono.

Gordon, 39, also is among the favorites in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 because he has a record five Cup victories at the 10-turn, 1.99-mile Infineon track carved into the Sonoma hillsides. No other Cup driver has more than two.

Montoya, an experienced road racer who competed in Formula One and the IndyCar circuit before joining NASCAR in 2007, captured his first Cup victory that year at Infineon.

Kahne also has won at Infineon, in 2009, when he drove for Richard Petty’s team. But this year Kahne, 31, is driving for Red Bull Racing before he moves again and joins Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports in 2012.

Red Bull, the energy drink maker, said this week it was looking to sell all or part of its NASCAR team after this season, and it remains to be seen whether that move will affect how Kahne and his teammate, Brian Vickers, perform the rest of this year. Vickers is 24th in points.

“If everybody [on the team] is unsure about what they have, I don’t think they’re going to perform like if they knew where they were going to be next year and knew that they were stable,” Kahne said Thursday. “So as of right now I’m a bit worried. I don’t see how you can’t be.”

Johnson, who has won the last five consecutive Cup championships, won at Infineon last year after leader Marcus Ambrose stalled his car late in the race while trying to save fuel. It was the first road-course win in Johnson’s illustrious career.

Johnson this year is fifth in points with one win, at Talladega in April.

Qualifying to set the 43-car field’s starting order is Friday. The race starts at noon PDT on Sunday.

james.peltz@latimes.com