0
0
October 17, 2024
By Holly Cain NASCAR Wire Service
Cup Playoffs’ Round of 8 gets underway this weekend at Las Vegas
The penultimate round of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begins this week with the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a shake-up atop the standings and an important three-race slate in front of the Playoff competitors.
The last four NASCAR Cup Series champions are among the eight-driver group vying for a position in the Championship Four that will compete for the title Nov. 10 at Phoenix Raceway.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, the 2021 series champion, won his series’ best sixth race of the year at the Charlotte ROVAL road course Sunday and now leads the standings by a healthy 33 points over defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney, who enters this round in fifth place, just below the cutoff line.
“For myself and I think our team it’s no statements that we’re trying to send to the field, I think the field knows that we’re strong. I think the field knows that we could win at any track,” Larson said after his win Sunday.
“It is nice to win and really more than anything just gain five more points that rolls into the next round. We’ve won stages. We’ve won a couple of races since the Playoffs have started, and that really helps. I’m just excited to kind of get ourselves to the next three great tracks for us and hopefully we can make that final four.”
Just behind Larson in the standings – 13 points back – is Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell. Regular Season Champion, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick is third, 10 points back and Larson’s Hendrick teammate William Byron holds that all-important fourth position, a mere four points ahead of Blaney.
JGR’s Denny Hamlin is sixth, eight points behind Byron with Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, the 2020 series champ, nine points off the line. And the final Playoff driver, Joey Logano is 11 points off the title pace after a dramatic day at Charlotte.
The two-time series champion Logano initially missed out on the final transfer position by a mere four-points – only to receive news a couple hours after Sunday’s checkered flag that his No. 22 Team Penske Ford team was “in” after the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team and driver Alex Bowman – who had initially clinched the eighth Playoff position – were disqualified for failing post-race inspection.
Logano insisted this week he will race no differently going forward now as a championship contender versus how he would have raced if he was eliminated, as he initially thought.
“The same way we would have if we’d made it any other way,” Logano said of the mindset. “You go out there and you attack. The positives, I feel like we’ve been steadily getting better and improving throughout the season to where we are now.
“The stats may not look like it – it may look like we’re underdogs from the outset looking in, but internally we feel very confident in our race team that we can make a run at this thing and get ourselves into the Championship Four,” Logano continued. “We’ve seen it in the past where you get in there and anything can happen at Phoenix.
“The goal right now is to look at the next three races and how do we maximize that. We can point our way in. We’re only 11 out, so it’s not a lot of points by no means. It can happen very quickly, so one race at a time. Right now, the focus is Vegas and we’ll try to maximize the day there.”
When it comes to Vegas, Larson has been a high-roller, winning the last two NASCAR Cup Series races there – three in all. In just the last two races, his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has led 314 of 534 combined laps – 58 percent of the total laps.
Playoff drivers have won eight of the last 11 Las Vegas races – including Larson (three wins), Logano (three wins), Hamlin and Byron. Larson (2018) and Logano (2017) also have NASCAR Xfinity Series wins at the track.
Six of the eight current Playoff drivers finished in the top-10 in March at the track. Reddick was runner-up to Larson. Blaney was third, followed by Hamlin (eighth), Logano (ninth) and Byron (10th).
Logano’s 9.9 average finish in 22 Vegas starts is his best mark at tracks he’s raced at least 10 times. Larson’s 9.3 average finish in 16 races there is tops among the Playoff eight.
Logano and Larson are two of four Playoff contenders to have past victories at all four of the upcoming tracks to close the season – also including Byron and Hamlin.
Among those added to the race entry list this week are Legacy Motor Club’s owner-driver, seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson and Kaulig Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen.
Practice is Saturday at 4:35 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying at 5:20 p.m. ET, – both sessions are available on USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and the NBC Sports App. Bell, who finished runner-up to Larson in last year’s Playoff race, is the defending race polesitter. Logano started on pole in the March race this year.
Las Vegas is the first chance for Xfinity Playoff contenders to lock into the Championship Four
A week after the NASCAR Xfinity Series first thrilling Playoff elimination race, the series moves to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 1.5-miler for Saturday’s Ambetter Health 302 (7 p.m. ET on the CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
JR Motorsports Justin Allgaier, who claimed the final Playoff transfer position a week ago at the Charlotte ROVAL, now leads the newly reseeded eight-driver standings by 18 points over the Championship 4 Round’s cut line with races at Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami and Martinsville, Va. to ultimately decide which four drivers will compete for the season trophy in the Nov. 9 Phoenix finale.
Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith are nine and eight points – respectively – above the cutoff line entering this round.
Challenging those four are last weekend’s ultimate clutch race winner, JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer (-8), RCR rookie Jesse Love (-12), Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger (-18) and a third JR Motorsports driver, Sammy Smith (-19), who won the Talladega, Ala. Playoff race two weeks ago.
“The win last week was a true testament to how hard this team works,” said Mayer, who had to win at the Charlotte ROVAL to advance in the Playoffs. “We knew we had one job and we did just that to keep ourselves in contention for the championship. Vegas has been hit or miss for me in the past, but it is a fun track to run at and I think we have great momentum to keep up the speed and effort to have a solid finish in the end.”
While this is a re-set for the Playoff drivers such as Mayer, there remains major motivation for the entire race field to change a strong trend at the track. However, the Vegas high-banks have historically been kind to the championship contenders since it became a part of the Playoffs seven years ago.
Five of the six previous Fall Vegas races have been won by Playoff drivers. Last Fall is the lone exception with SHR’s Riley Herbst claiming an emotional first career victory at his home track. He was one of four drivers just eliminated from 2024 Playoff contention at the ROVAL.
Among the Playoff drivers, Hill has celebrated the most in Las Vegas’s flashy Victory Lane with a NASCAR Xfinity Series win there last February and a pair of NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series wins in the spring of 2019 and 2020.
Allmendinger won the 2021 Spring NASCAR Xfinity Series race and Chandler Smith won the 2022 Spring Truck race at Vegas.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series fulltime drivers Daniel Dye, Taylor Gray and Corey Heim join former NASCAR Cup Series regular Aric Almirola on the entry list this weekend.
Practice for the Ambetter Health 302 is Friday afternoon at 6:35 p.m. ET followed by qualifying at 7:05 p.m. ET – both sessions will be on USA Network and the NBC Sports App.
