Christopher Bell has finished second in the Las Vegas playoff race each of the past two years.
LAS VEGAS — The Round of 8 opens for the Cup Series today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and this race is viewed as the second most-important in the playoffs.
A win for a playoff driver sends them to next month’s championship race and gives them extra time over the competition to prepare for the season finale at Phoenix.
The winner of the opening race of the Round of 8 has won the championship in three of the last four years.
Pre-race coverage begins at 5 p.m. ET on USA Network. Here is what to watch for in today’s race.
Who excels and who falters as pressure rises?
Before the playoffs began, Ryan Blaney explained what the 10-race run to the championship is like.
“Everyone thinks it’s easy to get to Phoenix and you go win Phoenix,” Blaney said of the site of the championship race. “You’ve got to go through nine weeks of hell to get there.”
When asked about the stress of the playoffs back in August, Blaney said: “I feel like what’s really tough about it and can get to you is mistakes are blown up like crazy. You can’t afford mistakes. … (because) if you do make a mistake and step over the line it has drastic ramifications.”
Said William Byron ahead of the playoffs: “I think the underlying theme of the playoffs is just you've got to get to the Round of 8, and then you've got to start peaking as that round goes.October is the most important time of the year.”
Is this Christopher Bell’s year?
Bell has finished second in each of the past two playoff races at Las Vegas but last year’s race left him heartbroken and frustrated. Joey Logano beat Bell on fuel strategy to earn a spot in the championship race. Bell would fail to advance.
“What I take from last year is that you need to win,” Bell said ahead of this year's playoffs. “Last year, the Las Vegas race – that is the one that really stings and feels like got away.”
Saturday, Bell’s tone was not different.
“This is the one that we have circled,” Bell said. “We know that is a great opportunity for us to have a good day score some points.”
Can the Toyotas dominate?
At the most recent race on a 1.5-mile track — two weeks ago at Kansas Speedway — Toyota had the top five cars on the final restart but when Denny Hamlin moved Bubba Wallace up the track in their duel for the lead, it opened the inside lane for Chase Elliott who drove by to win.
“I certainly made it very clear that whatever combination we had with that type of track, enter all your X's and O's of the differences of this track and then refigure it out to come to that same result, because obviously our Kansas car was extremely strong,” Hamlin said.
The Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing took the top three starting spots for today’s race — Hamlin is on the pole, Chase Briscoe is second and Bell is third. However, the next three starting spots go to Hendrick Motorsports’ Byron, Kyle Larson and Elliott.
“I thought (Kansas) was a good weekend for us and our car did a lot of good things from my prospective that I was really pleased about,” Elliott said. “I think a lot of those same things can apply here. So I’m just hopeful that we can replicate some of those sensations that I get in the car going around the racetrack this weekend and that same level of comfort.”
Category: General Sports
