Sizzling Vegas set for 1st playoff race

LAS VEGAS — Seven months into the NASCAR Cup Series season, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick are dead even atop the standings. Defending champion Martin Truex Jr. is right behind them, and the other 13 drivers in the playoff field are desperate just to keep up.

Even after the occasional predictability of a regular season dominated by the Big Three, the stage is set for an intriguing 10-race playoff. It all begins Sunday in the 98-degree heat of Las Vegas, where every event just seems bigger.

“You can feel the energy from the teams and the drivers before this playoff, even more so than you have in years past,” said Kurt Busch, a Vegas native. “There’s so much energy and so much attention with it being in Vegas for the first time. It just makes everything more exciting.”

For the first time, NASCAR is kicking off its playoffs at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The playoffs add another element to the seasonlong rivalry among Harvick, Truex and Kyle Busch. Those drivers’ joint dominance — they’ve combined for 17 victories and 51 top-five finishes while leading more than 42 percent of the laps over the season — has been the overriding theme of the season.

With 10 races still to go, the front-runners are eyeing each other warily. Nothing will be decided in Vegas, but a major mistake — particularly by Truex, whose playoff-points cushion isn’t as big as his fellow leaders — could change the championship chase.

“My favorite part about where we’re at is that I feel we’ve been in championship form all year,” said Harvick, who won in Las Vegas in March. “I don’t feel like there is a switch we have to go flip. It should be business as usual as you start this weekend, and the goal is to win — win the race in Las Vegas and go from there.”

Erik Jones was the surprising winner of the pole Friday. Jones, 22, and the other playoff drivers outside the Big Three realize their target should be the fourth spot heading into the season-ending race at Homestead.

“I would say there’s a few dark horses,” Jones said after edging Joey Logano for his second career pole. “I don’t think I am the only one. … We’re all fighting for it.”