Who's going to be the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series Champion? Will it be a former champion like Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. or Kevin Harvick? How about the beginning of a new era with Chase Elliott? Or maybe the upset with an old dog like Clint Bowyer or Kurt Busch?
Four drivers were chopped from championship contention last week at Kansas and only eight remain as the third round of NASCAR's Playoffs begin this weekend at Martinsville Speedway's flat half-mile layout. It's the first of three races in this round and four drivers can advance to the Nov. 18 Championship Race ay Homestead by winning one of the next three races or accumulating the most points.
The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook updated their odds to win the NASCAR Championship and posted Las Vegan Kyle Busch and Bakersfield's Kevin Harvick as 9/4 co-favorites (Bet $100 to win $225). Both are most likely to advance to the Championship Race just because they've been given a huge head start by carrying over playoff points acquired during the regular season. Busch has seven wins and leads with 4,055 points and Harvick has seven wins and 4,054 points, but no wins in the playoffs. Harvick's last win came at Michigan, 10 races ago, on Aug. 12.
Based on Harvick's past history between the next three races, he's almost assured of being of the four championship drivers. He's only had one career Cup win at Martinsville (2011), but he won the fall Texas race last season and has three wins on 1.5-mile tracks this season and at Phoenix, he has nine career wins and owns most of the track records. Kyle Busch also feels good about his chances.
“I like it," Busch said of the third round. "I think it’s going to be good. I really look forward to this round. I feel like it’s our best round. We run well at all three of those places and we won at Texas in the spring, we won Martinsville last fall and Phoenix has been getting better for us, too. We just need to continue to execute and do a good job and make sure that we mind our Ps and Qs. There are certainly some areas that we need to clean up right now and continue to get better because, when you get to Homestead – you’ve got to get there first, but when you get there – you better be picture perfect, so hopefully we can get it all sorted out.”
Busch should advance as well. He won at Texas April 8 and also has three wins on 1.5s and swept both Richmond races, a set-up which transfers over well to Phoenix. He's got a 17-point lead over third-place Martin Truex Jr. who has been posted at 9/2 odds to win the title. Defending Cup Champion Truex has four wins on the season, but none since July 14 at Kentucky, which is shortly before his team announced they would be closing the doors of their shop permanently at seasons end.
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