The Cup Series will travel across the country to race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. The playoff field has been trimmed from 12 drivers to eight. The pressure will be extremely high for the drivers competing for spot in the championship four. Winning the first race in the Round of 8 is a huge advantage for the playoffs teams. It gives that team three weeks to prepare their car and focus on the championship race in Phoenix. It will be fun to see how it all plays out in Sin City. The South Point 400 can be seen Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
ROUND OF 8
POST STANDINGS
There are drivers who are no longer racing for a championship who have a lot to race for (Kyle Busch trying to extend his streak of consecutive seasons with a win to 21), but the playoff drivers typically get more room on the track in these final races. It is a good idea to give the playoff drivers some extra consideration for your lineups in Las Vegas, even if they have not had great stats on the 1.5-mile tracks this year.
The Cup Series raced in Sin City in March. That was a long time ago and a lot of teams have found some speed since the Pennzoil 400 was run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. We cannot ignore that race though. I will use the stats from the first race at Las Vegas and combine them with the other four races at Las Vegas in the Gen-7 car and the four races on the 1.5-mile tracks this year (Texas, Charlotte and the two races at Kansas Speedway). I am giving the playoff race at Kansas some extra weight in the rankings, since it is the most recent race on a 1.5-mile track.
Here are the Driver Rankings for the South Point 400 …
| DRIVER |
| 1. KYLE LARSON |
| 2. WILLIAM BYRON |
| 3. CHRISTOPHER BELL |
| 4. TYLER REDDICK |
| 5. DENNY HAMLIN |
| 6. RYAN BLANEY |
| 7. CHASE ELLIOTT |
| 8. JOEY LOGANO |
| 9. TY GIBBS |
| 10. MARTIN TRUEX JR. |
| 11. ROSS CHASTAIN |
| 12. KYLE BUSCH |
| 13. ALEX BOWMAN |
| 14. BRAD KESELOWSKI |
| 15. CARSON HOCEVAR |
| 16. NOAH GRAGSON |
| 17. DANIEL SUAREZ |
| 18. BUBBA WALLACE |
| 19. CHRIS BUESCHER |
| 20. CHASE BRISCOE |
| 21. AUSTIN CINDRIC |
| 22. AUSTIN DILLON |
| 23. ERIK JONES |
| 24. JOSH BERRY |
| 25. MICHAEL MCDOWELL |
| 26. RICKY STENHOUSE JR. |
| 27. RYAN PREECE |
| 28. TODD GILLILAND |
| 29. ZANE SMITH |
| 30. COREY LAJOIE |
| 31. SHANE VAN GISBERGEN |
| 32. JUSTIN HALEY |
| 33. DANIEL HEMRIC |
| 34. JOHN H. NEMECHEK |
| 35. JIMMIE JOHNSON |
| 36. HARRISON BURTON |
| 37. CODY WARE |
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