RELATED: XFINITY Series Playoff standings | Full schedule for Texas
FORT WORTH, Texas – Heading into Saturday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 (8:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Texas Motor Speedway, the race for the final provisional transfer spot into the Championship 4 is razor tight.
Brennan Poole (driver of the No. 48 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet) sits fourth in the standings, holder of the last transfer spot for Homestead but has just a three-point edge over Matt Tifft (No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota). Cole Custer (No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford) sits in eighth in the Round of 8, but is just eight points behind Poole with two races left in the Round of 8.
With a battle that close, every little edge is needed to try and fight through to advance for a shot at the NASCAR XFINITY Series Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 18. For the drivers closely bunched together, stage points could be the deciding factor.
“I think everyone has seen how important stage points are in these playoffs,” Custer said during a media availability at Texas Motor Speedway. “You can’t make mistakes. If you want to solidify your spot in the Championship 4 here, you have to try to make sure you don’t take yourself out of it. You can’t win it (the championship) here but you can take yourself out of it for sure.”
Tifft noted that given the tight positions in the standings, it is important to execute over all three stages.
“We just haven’t executed in the beginning and middle part of these races,” Tifft said. “We’ve rallied in all these races but now I think it’s time, to have a solid day from start to finish. …We’ll have to be a little bit aggressive to get ahead of some of these guys.”
For the Texas native Poole — who hails from The Woodlands, a suburb of Houston — this race has special meaning to him especially in light of Hurricane Harvey and his work to help with relief efforts.
“I’m proud to be back in my home state and have an opportunity to win the race tomorrow night,” Poole said. “Certainly, kind of holding that close to my heart with everything the city’s been through. It would be awesome to go back and repay them just like the Astros did a couple nights ago (in the World Series).”