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NASCAR America explores who needs to step up at Texas

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Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola, Daniel Suarez, Austin Dillon and Joey Logano need to step up for their respective teams and make a push for victory lane in Texas.

Six races into the 2018 NASCAR season, it is already time to start wondering when certain drivers will step up their performance.

Each organization has at least one driver who needs to improve their results. For some, like Team Penske, the overall strength means that a driver like Joey Logano has to win a race.

For other teams, like Hendrick Motorsports, it is a matter of maximizing potential.

“I think Chase Elliott has been the leader of the pack at Hendrick Motorsports,” Jeff Burton said in Tuesday’s edition of NASCAR America. “I think Chase gives them their best chance to win and they need something good to happen. They have not had a typical Hendrick Motorsports type of year, it’s been well documented. But I just look at what Chase Elliott has done at Texas Motor Speedway - eighth, ninth, fourth, fifth. He won his first Xfinity race at Texas Motor Speedway. So this is a place where I believe he can get a win.”

Kyle Petty’s choice for a driver who should — and perhaps will — step up at Texas is the newest member of Stewart-Haas Racing

“(Aric Almirola) has started the year really, really strong and we heard from Clint Bowyer last week after Clint won at Martinsville: ‘We’ve got to get Aric into Victory Lane,’ ” Petty said “So I think there’s a push to get Aric there. He’s been consistent — top five, top 10, right along in there. Led Daytona going into turn three. But this is a place where I think it suits Aric’s driving style. And he can break out of that pack and have another victory for Stewart-Haas Racing.”

For more about who needs to step up their performance, watch the video above.