NASCAR.com previews the Cup Series Playoff race at Las Vegas and which driver has the best chance to punch a ticket to Phoenix.
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00:00 Go get him.
00:00 Logano now looks inside.
00:02 Castain throws a big block.
00:04 Three more.
00:05 Still there, bumper.
00:06 Joey Logano slides up in front of Ross Chastain.
00:08 Barely clear.
00:10 Clear up, clear up.
00:11 You're better.
00:11 Drive away.
00:12 From the round of eight to the final four, Joey Logano.
00:16 Hell yeah.
00:17 Nice job.
00:18 Good job.
00:18 Let's go get a championship, baby.
00:20 Let's get one.
00:22 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:33 Hey, race fans.
00:34 Welcome to the preview show delivered by DoorDash.
00:36 I'm Kim Coon alongside Alan Kavanaugh.
00:38 And the NASCAR Cup Series is headed west to Las Vegas
00:41 to kick off the round of eight.
00:42 Eight playoff drivers.
00:43 If one of them wins, they have a 25% shot at a title, Kim.
00:48 So much on the line this weekend.
00:49 Well, the good news for those drivers
00:51 is they raced Vegas earlier this year.
00:53 So what do their notebooks tell us
00:54 about what we could see this weekend?
00:55 Those notebooks say a lot.
00:56 It's like having the answers to the test already.
00:59 I talked to some crew chiefs who said,
01:00 if you had a good run out in Vegas in the spring,
01:03 you can build off that.
01:04 You can bring your notebook so they're happy about that.
01:06 If you had a bad run, you're hoping
01:08 a lot has changed in these last few months
01:09 to maybe bring something different fortune.
01:11 But it's the same Goodyear tire, so teams
01:14 rely a lot on those notes.
01:15 That's important for them.
01:16 What I'm really thinking about, though,
01:17 is what the teams learned at the end of that spring race.
01:20 Remember, it was a late caution.
01:22 Martin Truex Jr. decides to stay out on the racetrack.
01:25 William Byron and crew, they come in, get two tires.
01:27 Guess who won the race?
01:28 That 24 car that dominated throughout the day.
01:31 So that's a valuable lesson learned, possibly, for Sunday.
01:34 It's Vegas, so you've got to be willing to gamble.
01:35 But what's the right gamble for William?
01:38 They got the right gamble in the spring.
01:40 And I think they're the team to look at this weekend.
01:41 You look at what Hendrick did in general.
01:43 They finished 1-2-3 at Vegas in the spring.
01:45 But for William, they led 176 laps.
01:48 Not only that, I talked to Rudy Fugel, the crew chief,
01:50 over the weekend.
01:51 And he said, as soon as they punched their ticket
01:53 and won that Texas race into this round,
01:55 they completely refocused, re-budgeted their prep time,
01:58 their sim time, to look at this round,
02:00 to look at Vegas, to be able to do well this weekend.
02:02 So I'm looking at Willie Lee.
02:04 Yeah, that's so valuable, they have that.
02:06 And look, I go back and forth with who is really
02:08 dominating the mile and a half tracks, because William
02:10 Byron dominated Vegas.
02:12 But then if you compare it to Kansas,
02:13 look who won Kansas this year.
02:14 The Toyotas.
02:15 Denny Hamlin, Tyler Rettig.
02:17 If you throw Darlington in the mix,
02:19 that was Hendrick dominated.
02:20 So I go back and forth.
02:21 I wish I could predict the future.
02:22 I can't.
02:22 Oh, don't we all?
02:24 All right, so who are we concerned about?
02:25 Yeah, well, look, let's look at the points.
02:27 Because right when that green flag drops,
02:29 four drivers are technically out of it already, right?
02:31 Chris Buescher, Tyler Rettig, Christopher Bell,
02:34 and Ryan Blaney.
02:35 Of those four, Bell had the best Vegas race back in the spring.
02:39 He finished fifth.
02:40 But again, remember, Tyler Rettig just won Kansas,
02:43 very similar to Las Vegas.
02:44 Not worried about him.
02:45 Ryan Blaney had the win at Charlotte, mile and a half
02:48 track.
02:49 I don't know if I should be worried about him.
02:51 I think Tyler Rettig will be fine.
02:52 So I don't know who--
02:54 when we get down to this final eight,
02:56 there are so many good drivers, it's hard to pick a weakness.
02:59 You mentioned Ryan Blaney winning Charlotte.
03:00 But I just don't know.
03:01 The fourths to me at Intermediate have been great.
03:03 So I'm a little concerned about Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher
03:06 as we kick off this round.
03:08 But really, nobody is safe.
03:09 Because you look at Byron at the top of the board.
03:10 He's only 20 points to the good.
03:12 Martin Truex, 15.
03:13 To me, nobody is safe.
03:14 They have to have a really good race at Vegas,
03:17 whether they win or score a lot of points,
03:19 to set themselves up for success this round
03:20 and find themselves a spot in Phoenix.
03:23 All right, so it's time to get the playoff polls, the good,
03:27 the bad, and the wild card.
03:28 So let's start with the good.
03:29 I'm going easy here.
03:30 William Byron, come on.
03:32 Look at the data.
03:32 Look what he did in Vegas, how he dominated,
03:34 how he got that win, and just all the speed that he's had.
03:37 He will be good in Vegas.
03:38 Again, they're building off that win.
03:40 Hard to argue with that.
03:41 He took my answer.
03:42 William Byron, you look at what they did in the last round.
03:45 A finish of 1, 2, and 2.
03:47 Three straight races of top two finishes.
03:50 Like we mentioned earlier, he punched his ticket
03:52 to this round early.
03:53 They've gotten to be able to use that extra time to focus
03:55 on Vegas and this round.
03:57 Not only that, he's the only driver
03:58 that's got multiple wins on mile and a half this season.
04:01 All right, that's the good.
04:02 How about your bad?
04:02 Oh, my bad.
04:03 Martin Truex Jr. I know.
04:06 You wonder why, though.
04:07 And that's because you look at his last seven races.
04:09 He has not finished better than 15,
04:11 hasn't been scoring a lot of points,
04:13 and this is the worst streak we've seen from this team
04:15 since 2009.
04:17 Wow.
04:17 But he did so good in Vegas.
04:18 I wonder what he's got there.
04:19 I don't know.
04:20 All right, for you?
04:21 I'm going Chris Buescher.
04:22 Chris Buescher's having a great season, a career year,
04:25 but never a top five finish at a mile and a half racetrack.
04:28 That stat kind of blew my mind, especially when we're here
04:31 in the Final Eight trying to get to that Championship
04:34 Four in Phoenix.
04:35 Not what you want to hear, Chris Buescher.
04:36 I'm worried about you.
04:37 That's interesting.
04:38 Your bad is Chris Buescher.
04:39 My wild card is Chris Buescher.
04:40 That's only because he has had a career year.
04:42 He surprises us at so many tracks this year,
04:44 has had his best finishes at a lot of tracks,
04:46 maybe this weekend.
04:48 We'll see that in Vegas.
04:49 And collectively, not just Vegas.
04:50 If you look at this round as a whole,
04:51 yes, maybe you're worried about him at the mile and a half,
04:53 but he's such a good short track racer,
04:55 and I look at that Martinsville race at the end of this round.
04:57 All right, he's got to make it to there, though.
04:58 We'll see.
04:59 My wild card, you mentioned him earlier as your bad, though.
05:01 Martin Truex Jr. Will the Real 19 car and team please stand up?
05:06 You said it.
05:07 It's been since mid-August since he's had a top 15 finish,
05:10 yet here he is in the final eight,
05:12 still competing for the title.
05:14 And we know what he did in the spring at Las Vegas,
05:16 nearly grabbed a win there.
05:18 The Toyotas are good on the mile and a half racetracks.
05:21 Will he snap out of this?
05:23 I don't know.
05:23 That is why Martin Truex Jr. is my wild card for the weekend.
05:26 All right, well, the saying, what happens in Vegas
05:28 stays in Vegas, that is not true,
05:29 because we are digging up some past dirt from Vegas.
05:32 It's our NASCAR 75 flashback.
05:34 Where are we headed?
05:35 Let's go all the way back to 2007, Xfinity Series racing.
05:38 Back then, it was the Bush Series, old school.
05:41 Just before they take the white flag,
05:43 Jeff Burton in that 29 car, more than five car lengths back.
05:46 But he is on the move.
05:48 Time is running out, though, and he's
05:49 going to have one shot at Kyle Busch in the five car.
05:52 And Burton goes to the high side in three and four.
05:55 Maybe a little contact off the corner,
05:58 but Kyle Busch goes around.
05:59 Jeff Burton gets the easy win.
06:01 Such a memorable finish.
06:02 Kyle Busch, of course, still at it today,
06:04 the Las Vegas native racing this weekend.
06:06 Maybe he'll get the checkered flag.
06:07 All right, well, we have set the stage for you.
06:09 It's time to place your bets.
06:10 It's the South Point 400 this Sunday, October 15,
06:14 2:30 PM Eastern on NBC.
06:16 Make sure you're watching.
06:17 Make sure you're back here next week for the preview show,
06:19 Delivered by DoorDash.
06:20 She's Kim, I'm Alan.
06:22 We'll see you then.
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