NASCAR Xfinity Series: 2018 playoff format

The 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs are right around the corner. What do the 12 drivers in the playoff field need to do to advance deeper into the playoffs?

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ross Chastain held off 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season champion Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports to win the 26th and final race of the regular season, the DC Solar 300, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Allgaier sealed the regular season championship with his second place finish in this race.

Chastain and 11 other drivers are set to compete in this season’s Xfinity Series playoffs. Of these 12 drivers, four, including Chastain, qualified for the playoffs by winning at least one race throughout the regular season.

The other eight drivers who qualified for this season’s playoffs made it into the field as a result of their regular season point totals.

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But getting into the playoffs is only the first of many battles that lie ahead for the 12 playoff drivers. Three rounds of playoffs, which include a total of seven races, are still on the schedule before the 2018 Xfinity Series champion will be crowned. Those seven races are spread out over the course of nearly two months.

What do the 12 playoff drivers need to do to position themselves to advance from the first round of the playoffs, the round of 12, to the second round, the round of 8? What do the eight drivers who advance to the round of 8 need to do to advance from the round of 8 to the third and final round, the Championship 4?

Here are the three rounds of the playoffs, the races in each round of the playoffs and what drivers need to do in order to advance from one round to the next throughout the playoffs.

Round of 12

After these three races in the round of 12 are contested, four of the 12 drivers in the playoff field will be eliminated. The remaining eight drivers will advance to the round of 8.

The eight drivers who advance to the round of 8 will have their point totals reset to 3,000. After this happens, the playoff point totals that they will have earned throughout the course of the regular season and throughout the round of 12 will be added to their respective point totals.

A win in the round of 12 automatically qualifies a driver for the round of 8.

Round of 8

After the three races in the round of 8 are contested, four of the remaining eight drivers in the playoff field will be eliminated. The remaining four drivers will advance to the Championship 4.

The four drivers who advance to the Championship 4 will have their point totals reset to 4,000. However, the playoff point totals that they will have earned throughout the course of the regular season, the round of 12 and the round of 8 will NOT be added to their respective point totals.

A win in the round of 8 automatically qualifies a driver for the Championship 4.

Championship 4

The highest finishing driver of the four drivers who compete in the Championship 4 will be crowned the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion. The four drivers who compete in the Championship 4 will not be eligible to earn stage points in it in order to ensure that this is the case.

Be sure to tune in to each and every one of the seven races in the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs, beginning with the Go Bowling 250 at Richmond Raceway on NBC Sports Network next Friday, September 21 at 7:30 p.m. ET.