The thought that the three Monster Energy Series drivers who won 17 of 26 regular-season races would drift easily into the Championship 4 field was a sensible conclusion before the NASCAR Playoffs began. With three of four berths seemingly predestined, the remaining contenders would battle among themselves for the fourth slot.
Sunday’s finish at Martinsville Speedway snapped that fourth opening right up, with Joey Logano pouncing in the Round of 8 opener and clinching his place in the Homestead-Miami finale Nov. 18. That leaves three spots remaining, with Kevin Harvick (seven wins this season), Kyle Busch (seven wins) and Martin Truex Jr. (four wins) hoping to fill them with a victory or on the basis of points.
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That quest continues with a snugger margin of error this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). A win by either Busch, Harvick or Truex would allow the ballyhooed “Big 3” to hold serve in the postseason, but a Victory Lane visit from another playoff contender below the cutline would upset that order.
Kurt Busch, Chase Elliott, Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola are the remaining postseason hopefuls aiming to spoil that season-long trifecta. A win by any of those four at Texas would eliminate one of the Big 3 from the Homestead title picture.
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A positive note for the top-ranked trio: Busch, Truex and Harvick rank 1-3-4 among postseason competitors in career driver ratings for Texas Motor Speedway; Elliott ranks second but has just five starts at the track. Busch has won there three times since 2013. Truex had strung together six straight top-10 finishes before crashing out in the spring. Harvick has a streak of eight consecutive top 10s with six top-five finishes in that stretch at the Fort Worth venue, including a triumph in this race last season.
“I think next week is our best bet as we go into the next two races I look at Texas as our best race track,” Harvick said post-Martinsville. “We ran really well there in the spring and won the race there last year and our mile-and-a-half stuff has been really good.”
This particular intermediate-sized track has developed character and a new look in recent years. Sunday’s 334-lap event will be the fourth Monster Energy Series race contested on the Texas track’s fresh pavement and reconfigured Turns 1 and 2. Track officials reduced the banking from 24 to 20 degrees in that section, while widening the racing surface from 60 to 80 feet.
In hopes of artificially aging the asphalt, track officials have been dragging tires for two weeks to apply rubber and Goodyear Racing is bringing a tire designed to promote wear. While some of the ‘new’ about the Texas layout may have worn off, it’s expected to produce a unique test for the playoff field.
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“The race track since the repave is not so much fun but it is a challenge,” Bowyer says. “Within those challenges you have to be open-minded and excited about that challenge and ready to attack it. You definitely have to attack it. It is a track that the grip level is through the roof until it’s not. It is very tricky to get ahold of.”