NASCAR: Be prepared for the best Cup Series playoffs of all-time in 2018

This weekend, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs get started at Las Vegas. Here is why this year’s playoffs will be better than they have ever been.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series kicks off the playoffs with a stop at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. No matter which side of the fence you sit on when it comes to liking the playoff structure, this year is bound to turn some heads. There is literally something for every NASCAR fan in this year’s playoff.

The Las Vegas race in March was absolutely dominated by Kevin Harvick, who led 214 of the 267 laps that were run that day. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a track that plays well into the hands of the “big three”. The 1.5-mile oval is the first of three races in the first round. The other two races are set to be contested at Richmond Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway’s inaugural edition of the “Roval.”

It has been a full month since one of the “big three” drivers of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. last saw victory lane. Could the top contenders be cooling off at the wrong time? One thing we do know is that Brad Keselowski seems to be finding the fast ways around the track. He has won both of the last two races heading into this weekend.

Why these playoffs will stand out above the rest

If you had asked me to pick the driver with the best chances of winning the championship a month ago, I would have said one of the “big three” without hesitation. Although each of the “big three” has a legitimate shot at winning, I am a little more hesitant to pick one of these drivers. Besides their spell of not winning in more than four weeks, I think the rest of the 13 drivers will be gunning for them.

The round of 16 includes a road course

The inaugural race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval will be the final race of the round of 16. If you’re one of the drivers on the bubble going into Charlotte, you’re going to need to be good on the twists and turns to be able to win.

The round of 12 also has a wild card race

As if having a road course in round one wasn’t enough of a wild card for playoff teams, why not add a superspeedway into the mix? A rough day at Dover International Speedway followed by a rough day at Talladega Superspeedway will virtually make the race Kansas Speedway a must-win for any driver to make the round of 8.

Talladega is one of those tracks at which you can run great all day and have your playoff hopes flipped upside down because of something that happens that is out of your control. Some would call this the nature of the beast, I guess.

Not a single driver has an advantage

Despite the fact that Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick have won six of the eight races at the playoff tracks where the Cup Series has already raced this season, I still don’t think any one driver out of the 16 playoff drivers can be counted out. With the wild cards tossed in at Charlotte and Talladega, the 2018 playoffs will be more intense and will provide viewers with some of the best racing we have seen in a long time.

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The NASCAR Cup Series is heading into race one of the 2018 playoffs this weekend. Do you think they will be the best playoffs we have seen since the playoff format started? Which driver do you think will withstand the pressure and become the champion on Sunday, November 18th at Homestead-Miami Speedway?

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