NASCAR Cup Series: 2018 playoff field set

With the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series regular season now officially in the books, here is the field for the 10-race playoffs, which are scheduled to begin this Sunday.

Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski closed out the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series regular season with a victory not only in the season finale, the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard, also known as the Brickyard 400, at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana but with a victory in the penultimate race of the regular season, the Bojangles’ Southern 500, at the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina as well.

With these two races bringing the 26-race regular season to an end, the only races remaining until the 2018 Cup Series champion is crowned are the 10 playoff races.

The 2018 Cup Series playoffs consist of four rounds, which contain a total of 10 races. The playoffs are scheduled to begin this Sunday, September 16 with the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

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Heading into the 267-lap race around the 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Las Vegas Motor Speedway oval in Las Vegas, Nevada, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch are tied for the lead in the championship standings. Harvick won seven races in the regular season while Busch won six.

All 16 drivers who qualified for the playoffs had their point totals reset to 2,000. After this took place, the playoff point totals that they earned throughout the regular season were added to their respective point totals. Of the 16 drivers who qualified for the playoffs, 10 did so as a result of the fact that they won at least one race in the regular season while the other six did so as a result of their regular season point totals.

One of the 10 drivers who qualified for the playoffs by winning in the regular season, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon, would not have qualified for the playoffs based on his point total.

In the regular season, race victories were worth five playoff points while stage victories were worth one playoff point. This is the case in the playoffs as well.

The drivers who finished in the top 10 in the regular season point standings were awarded 15, 10, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two and one additional playoff point(s) for finishing in first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th place, respectively, in the standings.

Here is how the 16 drivers in the playoffs stack up against one another as far as the standings go heading into the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this Sunday afternoon.

Rank	Driver	Car, Team, Manufacturer	Points	Behind
1	Kyle Busch	#18, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota	2050	–
1	Kevin Harvick	#4, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford	2050	–
3	Martin Truex Jr.	#78, Furniture Row Racing, Toyota	2035	-15
4	Brad Keselowski	#2, Team Penske, Ford	2019	-31
5	Clint Bowyer	#14, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford	2015	-35
6	Kurt Busch	#41, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford	2014	-36
6	Joey Logano	#22, Team Penske, Ford	2014	-36
8	Chase Elliott	#9, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet	2008	-42
9	Ryan Blaney	#12, Team Penske, Ford	2007	-43
10	Kyle Larson	#42, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet	2005	-45
10	Erik Jones	#20, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota	2005	-45
10	Austin Dillon	#3, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet	2005	-45
13	Denny Hamlin	#11, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota	2003	-47
14	Aric Almirola	#10, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford	2001	-49
15	Jimmie Johnson	#48, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet	2000	-50
15	Alex Bowman	#88, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet	2000	-50

Next. Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time. dark

Be sure to tune in to the live broadcasts of each of the 10 races in the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs starting with the live broadcast of the South Point 400 this Sunday, September 16. It is set to begin on NBC Sports Network at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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