NASCAR Xfinity Series: 2018 playoff schedule
By Asher Fair
The 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season is in the books, and the playoffs are set to get started on Friday. Here is the full playoff schedule.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ross Chastain dominated the 26th and final race of the 2018 NASCAR Xfintiy Series regular season, the DC Solar 300, to become the 12th and final driver to clinch a berth in this season’s playoffs.
In this race, JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier sealed the regular season championship with a second place finish, as he finished just 1.629 seconds behind Chastain.
Chastain entered this race in the 12th and final position above the playoff cut line, but he entered it well ahead of JR Motorsports’ Michael Annett. But instead of qualifying for the playoffs based on his point total, he became just the fourth driver to qualify for them based on his win total.
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Aside of Chastain, three other drivers won at least one race in the regular season. Those drivers are Allgaier, who won five races, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, who won four, and JR Motorsports’ Tyler Reddick, who won one.
With the regular season in the books, Chastain, Allgaier, Bell, Reddick and the other eight drivers in the playoff field had their point totals reset to 2,000. Their respective point totals were then increased by the number of playoff points that they have earned throughout the course of the regular season.
These 12 drivers can continue to add to their playoff point totals by winning playoff races and by winning stages in playoff races. However, playoff points will not matter in the Championship 4 as a result of the fact that the four drivers who advance to the Championship 4 will not be able to apply them to their overall point totals. Those four drivers will all start the Championship 4 with the same point totals of 4,000.
Only the three-round, seven-race playoffs remain before the 2018 Xfinity Series champion will be crowned. Let’s have a look at when each of these seven pivotal playoff races are scheduled to be contested.
The playoffs are scheduled to begin next Friday, September 21, and they are scheduled to go through Saturday, November 17. Here is a round-by-round schedule.
Round of 12
| Race # | Race | Track | Date | Time (ET) | Channel |
| 27 | Go Bowling 250 | Richmond Raceway | Friday, September 21 | 7:30 p.m. | NBC Sports Network |
| 28 | Drive for the Cure 200 | Charlotte Motor Speedway | Saturday, September 29 | 3:00 p.m. | NBC Sports Network |
| 29 | Bar Harbor 200 | Dover International Speedway | Saturday, October 6 | 3:00 p.m. | NBC Sports Network |
Round of 8
| Race # | Race | Track | Date | Time (ET) | Channel |
| 30 | Kansas Lottery 300 | Kansas Speedway | Saturday, October 20 | 2:30 p.m. | NBC Sports Network |
| 31 | O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 | Texas Motor Speedway | Saturday, November 3 | 3:30 p.m. | NBC |
| 32 | Ticket Galaxy 200 | ISM Raceway | Saturday, November 10 | 3:30 p.m. | NBC |
Championship 4
| Race # | Race | Track | Date | Time (ET) | Channel |
| 33 | Ford EcoBoost 300 | Homestead-Miami Speedway | Saturday, November 17 | 3:30 p.m. | NBC Sports Network |
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Be sure not to miss any of the seven races in the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs. All seven of them will be extremely important in the long run when it comes to determining who the 2018 champion will be because of how the playoffs are set up.