NASCAR at Texas 2018: Start Time, Ticket Info, Lineup, TV Schedule and More
As it heads to Texas Motor Speedway for the AAA Texas 500, the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff continues to get more interesting by the race.
After a season filled with the same names taking checkered flags week after week, playoff racing has opened up the leaderboard. Names like Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Aric Almirola have hit Victory Lane in recent weeks, with Joey Logano the most recent winner.
Jimmie Johnson and others have made quiet exits. While the elimination process likely hasn't been as dramatic as NASCAR would have hoped it would be when outlining the new format, a sweeping sense of parity as the series races toward crowing a champion continues to keep the chase absorbing.
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In Texas, everyone not named Logano has to worry about a looming elimination date.
Viewing Details
Where: Texas Motor Speedway
When: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET
Watch: NBCSN
Live Stream: NBC Sports Live
Tickets: StubHub
AAA Texas 500
1. Ryan Blaney (26.932 seconds)
2. Clint Bowyer (26.969)
3. Kevin Harvick (27.008)
4. Aric Almirola (27.030)
5. Brad Keselowski (27.064)
6. Denny Hamlin (27.101)
7. Kurt Busch (27.105)
8. Joey Logano (27.124)
9. William Byron (27.126)
10. Kyle Busch (27.176)
11. Paul Menard (27.279)
12. Erik Jones (27.293)
Full qualifying results available on NASCAR.com.
2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Standings
| 1. Joey Logano | 4074 |
| 2. Kyle Busch | 4104 |
| 3. Martin Truex Jr. | 4083 |
| 4. Kevin Harvick | 4083 |
| 5. Kurt Busch | 4058 |
| 6. Chase Elliott | 4052 |
| 7. Clint Bowyer | 4041 |
| 8. Aric Almirola | 4033 |
| 9. Ryan Blaney | 2232 |
| 10. Brad Keselowski | 2227 |
| 11. Denny Hamlin | 2213 |
| 12. Kyle Larson | 2179 |
| 13. Jimmie Johnson | 2173 |
| 14. Alex Bowman | 2164 |
| 15. Erik Jones | 2159 |
| 16. Austin Dillon | 2157 |
Drivers to Watch
Kevin Harvick
It isn't necessarily panic time for Kevin Harvick, but it is a little weird to see a seven-race winner from the regular season simply hanging around at this time of year.
Harvick usually seems to be right in the thick of things in October and November, yet here we are at the start of the latter, and he's finished outside the top 10 in two of his past three races. Last time out, Harvick started a ho-hum 13th and finished 10th at Martinsville.
The silver lining? Harvick won this race one year ago and finished as the runner-up at Texas in the spring.
He recently took to the media to explain why pit guns have affected him at tracks like Texas Motor Speedway, according to Drew Davison of the Star-Telegram: "I think we could have won half the races this year if we didn't have to pit. I mean, we got a good group of guys, and I think the change in the pit guns this year has really been hard on our guys. It's much harder than people think."
Harvick's sounding even somewhat confident going into the event isn't good news for the rest of the series.
While he hasn't had a checkered flag since early August, he's also the guy who won three races in a row twice this season. It gives off the air Harvick has merely been biding his time before going on another run, which would start right about now if it is going to happen.
Joey Logano
The bad guy is at it again.
Logano won in controversial fashion at Martinsville, bumping Martin Truex Jr. in the rear and sending him wobbling so he could pass and steal the win.
Some love it; others hate it:
Regardless of whether fans consider it dirty, Logano did what he felt he had to do. That makes sense—he had just one other win on the season outright, all the way back in April at Talladega. Of the eight remaining drivers, he seemed least likely to make the final.
Now he's in the clear.
"The pressure for those two races is off," Logano said, according to A.J. Perez of USA Today. "Maybe, 'the pressure is off' is the wrong thing to say. It's shifted to the one race for the big reward at the end."
Logano simply couldn't rely on points, though he had finished eighth or better in three consecutive races before the controversial finish. Now he will simply look to keep the momentum going, clutching his automatic bid while enduring vitriol from the fans who didn't like the way Martinsville finished.
Martin Truex Jr.
Truex looked like he was about to win the first short-track event of his career at Martinsville before he almost got sent into a wall after contact from Logano.
Not only would it have been Truex's first at a short track, but a win would have also sent him and the team to Homestead with a shot at the title—not bad for an outfit that is shutting down in a matter of races.
The weight of Furniture Row Racing's withdrawal has seemingly been a drain on all, as Truex has finished 14th or worse in three of his past five races, though he turned it around with a pair of consecutive top-five finishes more recently.
While Truex has made it clear he won't go revenge seeking against Logano in the upcoming events, he also admitted to his mistake, as he told ESPN.com's Bob Pockrass: "The only thing I could have done different was knock his [butt] out of the way with two or three laps to go and drove off. I didn't do that. I thought I had kind of set the precedent that we were going to race hard for it and we were going to do it the right way. That was my first mistake."
Maybe Truex is too nice on the track. Maybe he will have some sort of run-in with Logano given the events between the two last time out.
But more than anything, Truex sounds like a guy lasered in on getting to Homestead, not side details. And besides, guaranteeing he makes it to Homestead with a shot of stealing a title from Logano would be the best sort of revenge.
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