NASCAR at Las Vegas 2018: Start Time, Ticket Info, Lineup, Odds and TV Schedule
The 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs begin Sunday with the debut of the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
It's the first running of the 400.5-mile trek for the 16 names left standing, headed up by a red-hot Brad Keselowski, who enters as the winner of two in a row.
Keselowski only has two wins on the season and still looks up to other multi-race winners on the leaderboard, with Kevin Harvick sitting on seven, Kyle Busch at six and Martin Truex Jr. with four. But he's surging at the right time, which makes things interesting—as do guys like Jimmie Johnson sitting in unexpected positions on the leaderboard.
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It all adds up to a must-see opener for what should be a thrilling sprint to a championship.
Viewing Details
Where: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
When: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET
Watch: NBCSN
Live Stream: NBC Sports Live
Tickets: StubHub
Row 1: Erik Jones (pole-winner), Joey Logano
Row 2: Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch
Row 3: Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney
Row 4: Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch
Row 5: Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr.
Row 6: Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray
Row 7: Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Row 8: Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola
Row 9: Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon
Row 10: Daniel Suarez, Paul Menard
Row 11: William Byron, Ryan Newman
Row 12: Trevor Bayne, Michael McDowell
Row 13: Regan Smith, Matt DiBenedetto
Row 14: David Ragan, Chris Buescher
Row 15: A.J. Allmendinger, Ty Dillon
Row 16: Bubba Wallace, Corey LaJoie
Row 17: Kyle Weatherman, Ross Chastain
Row 18: Jeffrey Earnhardt, J.J. Yeley
Row 19: Landon Cassill, B.J. McLeod
Row 20: Timmy Hill, Reed Sorensen
2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Standings
| 1. Kevin Harvick | 2050 |
| 2. Kyle Busch | 2050 |
| 3. Martin Truex Jr. | 2035 |
| 4. Brad Keselowski | 2019 |
| 5. Clint Bowyer | 2015 |
| 6. Joey Logano | 2014 |
| 7. Kurt Busch | 2014 |
| 8. Chase Elliott | 2008 |
| 9. Erik Jones | 2005 |
| 10. Austin Dillon | 2005 |
| 11. Ryan Blaney | 2007 |
| 12. Kyle Larson | 2005 |
| 13. Denny Hamlin | 2003 |
| 14. Aric Almirola | 2001 |
| 15. Jimmie Johnson | 2000 |
| 16. Alex Bowman | 2000 |
Drivers to Watch
Martin Truex Jr.
Truex would be one of the most interesting stories of the playoffs even if he wasn't coming off a championship.
After all, his Furniture Row Racing is shutting down, leaving his future in a state of flux.
Just don't ask him to worry about the situation.
"We all know that [championship] is something that may only happen once in a lifetime, and here we are standing on the front porch having another opportunity to go get it," Truex said, according to ESPN.com's Bob Pockrass. "That's the mentality."
But Truex has seemed like a man distracted lately, at least based on his prior four outings. He's finished 30th or worst twice and doesn't have a top 10 across that span—a far cry from his four wins and typical role as a contender late in races.
Still, Truex's season-long performance and the epic run last year keep him as a name to watch, and whether he can pull himself out of a funk with so much chatter surrounding the future is the top storyline going into Las Vegas.
Jimmie Johnson
Were it not for Truex's drama, Johnson would be the most interesting detail going into the weekend.
Johnson hasn't looked like a seven-time champion this year, failing to record a win and just barely making it into the postseason. At one point, he had a stretch of nine races where he only recorded a single top-10 finish. Over his last two, Johnson has finished 39th and 16th.
For Johnson, it's now about getting hot at the right time, as he told Martin Rogers of USA Today:
"In sports playoffs, anything can happen, so there is newfound optimism with that. It is a somewhat clean sheet of paper to start off with. This format really parallels other sports where you see a team start winning, get hot, and get that momentum rolling. In the playoff era, we have won all of our championships, so that situation is very good for us."
A big run by Johnson certainly isn't impossible when considering his track record. Keep in mind, too, he's got four wins at Sunday's venue, better than any other current driver.
Johnson has been here before plenty of times, so a big run starting with a strong showing in Las Vegas before the cutdown after three races wouldn't come as too much of a surprise.
But it sure would throw a wrench in a season that has been dominated by two names.
Brad Keselowski
It seems weird to think a back-to-back race winner like Keselowski isn't the biggest favorite of the weekend.
Which is what happens when Harvick and Busch combine for 13 checkered flags.
Still, Keselowski couldn't have picked a better time to get hot after a ho-hum season in which he finished 30th or worse six times, starting with 32nd at the Daytona 500 and as recently as 38th at Pocono at the end of July.
But it has been a steady upswing since, with the season-long ups and downs seeming to culminate in a winning strategy at all levels, from the pit to driver.
"Of course we want to climb to first, which sounds easy, but there's a lot of great competition that won't make it easy, nor should they," Keselowski said, according to NASCAR.com's Zack Albert. "So, with that in mind, the opportunity is in front of us and we'll see what we can deliver."
The series needed a new contender to emerge and break up the monotony of the regular season. Keselowski obliged and now has a chance to carry the momentum over into the playoffs.
Keselowski hasn't led an overwhelming amount of laps over his two wins (33 combined), which is another hint he has a bit of clutch momentum going into a stretch of the year where it is one of the defining factors of a championship run.
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