gettyimages-1247864530.jpg
Getty Images

For the eight drivers remaining in the NASCAR playoffs, it was hard enough to survive the opening two rounds to have a chance at advancing to the Championship Race. And it's going to get even harder from here, with three challenging racetracks set to determine the four who will compete for racing immortality. 

The South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway serves as the opening race of the Round of 8, and also the first opportunity for each remaining playoff driver to automatically advance to the Championship 4 with a victory.

Only two past Cup champions, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr., now remain in the playoffs. Those two now find themselves surrounded by first-time championship hopefuls including not only William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney, but also two drivers -- Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick -- who have advanced to the Round of 8 and are set to contend for a Cup title for the first time in their careers.

How to watch the NASCAR playoffs at Las Vegas

Date: Sunday, Oct. 15
Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- Las Vegas, Nev.
Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
TV: NBC
Stream: fubo (try for free)

What to watch

When it comes to preparing to try and win the Cup Series championship, there is a major tactical advantage in becoming the first driver to lock into the Championship 4. Winning the Round of 8 opener means that instead of agonizing over whatever could happen at Homestead or Martinsville, a driver and team can begin a full-court press on preparing for the Championship Race in Phoenix. And history illustrates precisely why that matters.

In the 10 seasons since the elimination-style playoffs were introduced in 2014, the winner of the first race of the Round of 8 has gone on to win the Cup championship four times. Jimmie Johnson was the first to do so after winning at Martinsville in 2016, Kyle Larson did it in 2021 by winning at Kansas, and Joey Logano has done it twice by winning Martinsville in 2018 and Las Vegas last year. It bears noting that with Logano's win last year and Larson's win in 2021, the winner of the opening race of the Round of 8 has gone on to win the Cup championship two years in a row.

For what it's worth, half of the drivers in the Round of 8 have previously won at Las Vegas. William Byron picked up his first win at this track back in the springtime, joining Larson (spring 2021), Denny Hamlin (fall 2021) and Martin Truex Jr. (spring 2017, fall 2019).

News of the week

  • After impressing in limited action this season, Carson Hocevar will be behind the wheel of a Cup car full-time beginning in 2024. This week, Spire Motorsports announced that Hocevar will move up from the Craftsman Truck Series to become the new driver of the team's No. 77 Chevrolet next season.
  • Legacy Motor Club has hired NASCAR Hall of Famer and 2003 Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth as a competition advisor, where he will provide guidance and strategy while also assisting the team with its transition from Chevrolet to Toyota next season. Kenseth will also serve as a mentor to drivers Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek.
  • For the second time in the playoffs, Richard Childress Racing has swapped pit crews between the No. 3 team and the No. 8 team, returning the No. 8 pit crew to Austin Dillon and vice versa. The move follows Kyle Busch's elimination from the playoffs at the Charlotte Roval.

Driver to watch

Entering the Round of 8 a full 20 points above the cut line with finishes of first, third and second in the past three races, no driver is in a better position to make the Championship 4 than William Byron. His coming-of-age season has made him arguably the favorite for this year's Cup championship, and it began in earnest with a dominant performance here back in the spring, where he led 176 of 271 laps on his way to his first of a Cup Series-leading six wins on the year.

A repeat performance will formally pencil Byron in for Phoenix, but a season sweep isn't something that's been seen in Sin City. Since going from one to two races annually in 2018, no driver has won both the spring and fall races at Las Vegas in a given season. And in its recent history, Las Vegas hasn't been a place where one driver has been able to dominate for long.

Three drivers in Las Vegas' history have won consecutive races here: Jeff Burton won two in a row from 1999 to 2000, Matt Kenseth did the same from 2003 to 2004, and Jimmie Johnson won three Vegas races in a row from 2005 to 2007. However, the last win of Johnson's streak came after Las Vegas had its banking increased from 12 degrees to a progressive 20 degrees -- and no one has won here back-to-back since.

Pick to win

Bubba Wallace (+2000): The big "what-if" of Bubba Wallace's season will end up being if he could have just held on for six more laps to win at Texas, as the Round of 8 features three tracks where Wallace has been very successful. That run at Texas, though, illustrated the maturation of Wallace and his No. 23 team, which makes them a force to be reckoned with on yet another 1.5-mile track.

Wallace led 29 of the first 94 laps at Las Vegas one year ago, but got run into the wall, retaliated, and earned himself a one-week vacation after racing near the front of the field with Kyle Larson. He responded well in the springtime -- well before his team rounded into the form they've reached -- with a fourth-place finish. Of the final four races, this is as good an opportunity as Wallace has to punctuate what's been his best season as a Cup driver with his third career win.